The
Blue Horde (, ,
Turkish:
Gök Ordu,
Mongolian:
Khokh ord) was one of the uluses within the
Mongol Empire formed around 1227, after the death of
Genghis Khan and subsequent division of his empire. It was the western constituent part of the
Golden Horde (the eastern part was the
White Horde).
Foundation
Batu Khan effectively founded the Blue Horde upon the withdrawal from Europe in 1242 and by 1245,
Sarai, the capital of the Blue Horde had been founded on the lower
Volga. At the same time, the eastern lands of the
Golden Horde were administered by Batu's older brother
Orda, and these came to be known as the
White Horde. Batu asserted his control over the
Russian principalities after sacking the cities of
Vladimir in 1238 and
Kiev in 1240, forcing them to pay annual tribute and accept his nominations as princes.
Golden Age
The Blue Horde stretched from the
Ural River to the mouths of the
Danube and the
Carpathian. It exacted tribute from most of the Russian principalities and carried raids as far west as Poland and as far south as Iran and Bulgaria.
Starting with the conversion of Berke to Islam, the Blue Horde made a traditional alliance with the
Mamluks of
Egypt against their common rival, the
Il-Khans.
From the 1280s until 1299, the Blue Horde was effectively under the control of two khans, the legitimate khans and
Nogai Khan, a warlord and kingmaker, who made an alliance with the
Byzantine Empire and invaded countries bordering the Blue Horde, particularly in the
Balkans. Nogai's pre-eminence was ended by the assertion of the legitimate Khan
Toqta, and the Blue Horde reached the apex of its power and prosperity during the reigns of
Uzbeg Khan (Öz Beg) and his son
Jani Beg in the middle of the 14th century, when it intervened in the affairs of the disintegrating
Ilkhanate.
Fall
The Blue Horde remained strong from its foundation (around 1240) until the 1350s. Problems in the west of the horde led to the eventual losses of Wallachia, Dobruja, Moldavia and the western Ukraine and the vassal principalities west of
Kiev, losing those lands to
Lithuania after being defeated by its army in the
Battle of Blue Waters in 1362, and
Poland. The Death of
Jani Beg led to the Blue Horde entering into a prolonged civil war, with concurrent khans fighting each other and holding no real power. At the same time
Mamai turned kingmaker in the Blue Horde. In this time,
Muscovy seceded from
Mongol overlordship (at least until the early 1400s).
It was not until the coming of
Tokhtamysh that the concurrent khans were removed. He united the Blue Horde with his own
White Horde and created the
Golden Horde in 1380. The Blue Horde merged into both the other hordes, yet never really went away until finally the Golden Horde was defeated.
Notes and references
Additional reading
See also
Category:Mongol EmpireCategory:History of RussiaCategory:History of the Turkic peopleCategory:Eurasian nomadsde:Blaue Hordees:Horda Azulko:청장 한국it:Khanato dell'Orda Blukk:Көк Ордаnl:Blauwe Hordept:Horda Azulru:Синяя Ордаzh:青帐汗国 
