California History Trip? Your Essential Road Trip Rough Guide

Thinking about a California historical road trip? Want to hit the road and soak up some seriously historic vibes? From the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to the desert? Because our Golden State has wild stories to tell. Missions. Gold rushes. All that.
But sometimes, to really get history’s scale, we gotta zoom way out. Like, across continents and centuries. So, let’s ditch the usual chill spots for a sec. Let’s look at a powerhouse era that totally rewrote the world. A brutal. Fascinating chapter. Not really talked about much locally, but it sure puts the passage of time into perspective.

13th-Century Mongols: World Under Pressure

The 13th century? Not quiet. Not even close. This time was a dizzying rush of power, fear, and huge ambition. Mostly thanks to the Mongol expansion. Imagine a force. It just swept across massive grassy plains. Took castles. Gobbled up countries. Built an empire the likes of which nobody had ever seen. This wasn’t just some small regional fight. This was bigger. World-changing stuff.

Temujin, later Genghis Khan, was a Plains guy. He rode relentlessly, crushing all enemies, lifting up his followers. Fueled by blood. And ambition. His armies carved out a huge land empire, a super rare accomplishment in all human history. Then, he died in 1227. But the Mongol storm? It didn’t slow. His sons and grandsons just picked up the baton. Stepped right in.

Ögedei inherited the throne in 1229. Then Güyük Khan. Later, leadership passed to Tolui’s kids, Genghis’s youngest son, with Möngke taking the big Mongol throne in Karakorum. At this point, the Mongols hadn’t fully locked down Iran and its western areas. Local powerful people – Seljuks in Anatolia, Georgian and Armenian princes, Crusader states, some folks in Mosul – they all said Karakorum was boss, usually through Mongol commanders. But their influence kinda faded fast when the generals split.

Hulagu Khan’s Western Journey: Target Acquired

Möngke Khan saw Mongol power slipping west of Iran. So, a big push was needed. His huge plan? To totally cement Mongol authority, east to west. While his brother Kublai went east for a massive mission into China, Hulagu, another brother, got the call in 1253. He was for the west. Earned the title Ilkhan.

Hulagu’s mission? Nope, not a chill drive. Big job, this. His main targets: wipe out the Nizari Ismailis (the Assassins), force the Abbasid Caliph to bend the knee, take Syria and Egypt, and tighten Mongol power in Anatolia. After nailing these goals and tying these regions hard to the central command, Hulagu was s’posed to head back to his brother. Spoiler: neither he nor Kublai ever did. These two huge campaigns kinda founded the Yuan dynasty in the east and the Ilkhanate out west.

Getting ready for such a massive campaign took ages. And a ton of stuff. An advance force? Crucial. Hulagu picked Ket-Buqa, one of his most trusted and sharpest commanders. Ket-Buqa moved into the Iranian highlands. He set the stage for the main army. Hulagu himself later rolled out, putting together maybe the biggest Mongol army since Genghis Khan died.

This crew? Gigantic. Two out of every ten able-bodied guys from the Mongol tribe confederation. Insane numbers. Thousands of Chinese engineers showed up, too. Amazing at building trebuchets and designing gunpowder weapons. Even Georgian and Armenian kings and princes, plus Muslim emirs, sent backup troops. Some Crusader forts even promised European fighters. With tons of Mongol princes and commanders, this army was a freaking juggernaut.

Baghdad’s Siege: Brutality, Numbers, Wreckage

Hulagu crossed the Jeyhun River in the winter of 1256. Boom. His western campaign officially kicked off. First thing? The Hashashin strongholds in Kuhistan. Ket-Buqa had smacked down many settlements already. But key fortresses like Girdkuh and Alamut stayed standing. Hulagu, with his huge army, just took the famous Alamut Castle. No fight. Executing all defenders. By November 1256, the last Ismaili Imam, Rukn al-Din Khurshah, fell into Mongol hands. Assassins? Basically toast. No serious clout left.

First stage done. Hulagu then focused on the Abbasid Caliphate. Baghdad. Man, it was a city of amazing glory. A center for trade, brains, and science. Still a sparkly gem of the Middle East. Now, the Caliph’s power was mostly just symbolic. Limited to Iraq and Khuzistan. But his religious authority? That still packed a punch. The Abbasids had, for a bit, acknowledged Mongol overlords by sending taxes and gifts. But their independence was the biggest block to Mongol total rule.

Hulagu told Caliph Mustasim Billah to give up. Tear down Baghdad’s walls. And accept Mongol rule. Mustasim’s answer? Defiant. He flat-out lied about his strength, yelled for all Muslim leaders to flock to his banner. Sealed Baghdad’s doom. Seriously. The Caliph had nothing like that power. Other Muslim states were just looking out for themselves. The city’s own Sunni-Shiite beef, supposedly stoked by the vizier Ibn al-Alqami, made its defenses even weaker.

Spring 1257, Hulagu started his move on Baghdad. His massive army, rumored at 120,000 strong. Turks, Arabs, Armenians, Georgians, and Latins all in. They broke into three parts. Bayju Noyan led the right. Came from the north, through Irbil and Mosul. His job? Cut off any help. Hit from the west. Ket-Buqa commanded the left. From Georgia, to the south. And Hulagu himself? He led the middle.

The Caliph sent an army under Aybeg Mujaheddin north to face Bayju. They got absolutely crushed. Path clear. The Mongol columns all met up, hitting Baghdad’s walls almost at the same moment. January 22, 1258: The siege began.

Baghdad. Huge, ancient city. Split by canals and the Tigris River. Probably one of the biggest cities back then. Its outer neighborhoods fell quick to the Mongols. The real battle? Around the walled parts by the Tigris. Mongols used stone-throwing mangonels. And basic gunpowder siege machines. Pounding the city’s defenses. Inside, an estimated 30,000 defenders and all the regular people waited for help. It never came.

On day six of the siege, Mongol soldiers blew through the walls. No point in fighting anymore. Caliph gave up with his sons on February 10. But this didn’t save Baghdad. Bad news. For days, the city got completely stripped. Plundered. Mongols showed zero mercy. Took everything useful. Christians were somewhat protected, thanks to Hulagu’s wife, Doquz Khatun. And another thing: old accounts say millions of Muslim locals were killed. Today’s historians? They put it between 50,000 and 90,000 deaths. Libraries. Thousands of priceless old papers. They got ransacked. Reportedly dumped in the Tigris. Centuries of regional history. Gone. Awful. Hulagu then killed the Caliph. Trampled under cavalry horses, they say.

Hulagu wiped out one of the biggest powers of the era. He didn’t stick around. He split for Hamadan, then Azerbaijan. Left commanders like Buqa behind, who pushed through Kufa and Basra. And another thing: they wiped out the last bits of Abbasid rule in Khuzistan. Hulagu put a governor in Baghdad. Directly folding Iraqi lands into the rapidly growing Ilkhanate. Baghdad getting sacked? A disaster. The Muslim world took centuries to recover. It just shows how brutal empire can be.

Got Questions?

Q: Who was Hulagu Khan?

A: Genghis Khan’s grandson. Key Mongol general. He led the western campaign. And started the Ilkhanate in the Middle East.

Q: What were Hulagu Khan’s main goals in his western campaign?

A: His big goals: Smash the Nizari Ismailis (Assassins). Take total control over the Abbasid Caliph. Conquer Syria. And Egypt. Make Mongol power rock-solid in Anatolia.

Q: What happened to Baghdad during the Mongol invasion?

A: Baghdad got besieged. And fell to Hulagu Khan’s forces in 1258. The city suffered massive looting, widespread smashing, and tons of people died. Big catastrophe for Islamic history. Ended the Abbasid Caliphate, too.