Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty

Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, proclaimed the Yuan dynasty in 1271. He finished conquering the Song dynasty in 1279 and ruled from Dadu, near present-day Beijing.

Kublai's authority over the wider Mongol Empire was limited, and Yuan emperors had little real control over its distant holdings.

Context

A 1260 assembly named Kublai Great Khan, but he fought his brother Ariq Boke for control of the empire until 1264. That conflict lasted four years, from 1260 to 1264. The Yuan proclamation of 1271 came after that struggle and presented his rule in the form of a Chinese dynasty.

The Mongols completed their conquest of the Song dynasty in 1279 with a naval victory at Yaishan. Britannica calls the Yuan the first non-Han dynasty to rule all of China. The Mongol conquest of China had begun in the early 13th century, so the unification took decades. About eight years passed between the proclamation in 1271 and the fall of the Song in 1279.

Dadu, also called Khanbaliq or Daidu, stood at modern Beijing. World History Encyclopedia says it became the main capital in 1273, while Xanadu remained the summer capital.

Kublai's invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 failed, partly because of storms, and his campaigns in Southeast Asia had limited success. He died in 1294 at about 79 or 80, and his tomb has never been found. The Yuan dynasty lasted until 1368.