Steppe Group

The Steppe group stretches from the Mongolian plateau to the Crimea and the Volga. Temüjin, proclaimed Genghis Khan in 1206, united the nomadic tribes of Mongolia, and his heirs built the largest contiguous empire in history. Its northwestern part became the Golden Horde.

After the Great Troubles of 1359 to 1381, Timur's invasion of 1396 broke the Horde into smaller khanates. Moscow threw off the Tatar yoke at the Ugra River in 1480, and the Great Horde disintegrated in 1502, leaving Kazan, Astrakhan, Crimea and the Nogai. In the east the Mongols held the plateau as the Northern Yuan after the Ming drove them from China in 1368.