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irithnova · 9 months

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Consolidating my thoughts on the Golden Horde

Warning: This is an extremely long post (7000 words)

I've been wanting to tackle this part of the Golden Horde for a while now but the definitions of certain things bogged me down and I just didn't have the time until now (Christmas break yay) to really delve into it.

Words that are referring to the same wing of the Horde:

Right Wing/Western Wing/Golden Horde/Batuid wing/Batuids/White Horde (born to Mongolia in 1220. The OG)

Left Wing/Eastern Wing/Ordaid Wing/Ordaids/Blue Horde (born in the 1280's. A "branch" off of the OG Golden Horde)

I refer to the fusion between them later on as only "Golden Horde"

In this post I am going to be talking about the two wings of the Golden Horde. The Golden Horde was never originally called the Golden Horde, it was rather referred to as the "Ulus of Jochi" meaning Kingdom/domain of Jochi. This was because Jochi was Genghis Khan's eldest son, and before Genghis Khan died, he split his empire between his sons, electing Ogedei, the 3rd oldest, to rule as the great Khan over all of them. It is claimed that Genghis was pressured to organise his empire between his sons before the invasion of Khwarezmian empire in 1219 by Empress Yisui. The Secret History of the Mongols state that he elected Ogedei to be his heir and historians such as Christopher P Attwood agree that Ogedei was chosen as the heir in 1219, "According to the Secret History of the Mongols, Chinggis Khan passed over both Jochi and Cha'adai (Chagatai) and chose Ogedei as his successor in 1219" (Encyclopedia of the Mongol Empire, Christopher P Attwood). This is probably due to the fact that Genghis knew his time on earth was limited now that he was older, and this is around the time the whole "Genghis Khan trying to find the elixir of life" spiel took place. This is why I made Golden Horde/Chagatai Khanate and even Ilkhanate be born around this time. I have more detail here in my previous post about them.

Note: I'll also be referring to OG Golden Horde as "Ulus of Jochi" throughout this post, just so there's no confusion as to who I am talking about.

For a lot of my posts I've referred to the Golden Horde as the Golden Horde for simplicity's sake (also because it's the most well known name for him) however as stated previously, it was not originally called the Golden Horde by the rulers of the Horde. It was a later name given to the Horde. There were two wings of the overall (Golden) Horde. The Western wing (right wing) and Eastern Wing (left wing). These wings were also given colours, the White Horde and Blue Horde. However what Horde was what colour is widely debated amongst historians because historical records on which was which often contradict each other. Some historians like Marie Favereau and Christopher Attwood have argued for the idea that the Western Wing was the White Horde and the Eastern Wing was the Blue Horde. However, for my post, I really would like to emphasise not emphasising the "Blue/White" delineations as the be all end all of what Horde was which as we pretty much know that there was an Eastern and Western Wing, who ruled these wings, and how things played out.

I know on popular sites like Wikipedia, it's shown in the reverse order, and the blue horde is the West wing instead of the East wing, and the white horde is the East wing instead of the West Wing. I'm just going to go with what Marie Favereau and Christopher Attwood are saying as they've been two of my main sources for this post.

So back to the purpose of the post which is explaining how the two wings of the Horde played out with the character of the Golden Horde. As I said before, I made Ulus of Jochi be born in 1220, one year after Genghis made a decision on how his empire would be divided between his sons. Ulus of Jochi was the representation of future Jochid lands. However, Jochi died unexpectedly around 6 months before Genghis Khan did, which meant that he never had the chance to rule these lands himself. This opportunity was given to his sons, Batu and Orda. Batu initially administered the Western Wing (or White Horde or Right Wing) of the Horde and Orda administered the Eastern Wing (or Blue Horde or Left Wing).

Golden Horde as we know him was initially supposed to be the representative of the future Jochid lands (hence why he is also called Ulus of Jochi). In fact, as Christopher Attwood states "The Golden Horde, originally the Ulus... of Jochi, emerged as a separate entity earlier than any other of the successor states of the Mongol Empire." However these lands were split between Batu and Orda as Jochi died before Genghis Khan did. There was also the more obscure Shaybanid/Grey Horde, ruled by the descendants of Shiban, who was Jochi's fifth son. The Grey Horde acknowledged the superiority of Batu and Orda's hordes until the mid 14th century.

Between the two superior hordes - Batu and Orda's, Batu of the Western Wing was considered the overall leader of the whole Horde, and even after Batu's death, the Ordaid lineage continued to recognise the supremacy of the Batuid lineage. This is despite the fact that Batu was younger than Orda. Mongol succession culture was ultimogeniture, meaning that the youngest sons were the ones who had succession privilege rather than the oldest sons. This was not an unusual choice.

Orda was selected to administer the Eastern part of the Ulus of Jochi which would then become the "Blue Horde", however despite this he acknowledged that his younger brother, Batu, was the ruler of the whole of the Ulus of Jochi. Both hordes were harmonious with one another (as in, the Eastern Wing was subordinate to the Western Wing and they did not step on each other's toes), with the Eastern Ordaid Wing acknowledging the supremacy of the Western Batuid Wing. Some may try to argue that both Wings had completely different interests almost from the get go, and imply that they pursued their own interests at the cost of the other. This is not the case. As Mary F. says in her book "The Horde", "For many years, these primary hordes were at peace with each other and ran the Ulus of Jochi in concert".

There is one instance however where it seemed like both Hordes had differing interests, and this was with the ascension of Guyuk Khan as the Great Khan. Batu, leader of the Western Wing, wanted nothing to do with it, and did not show up to the coronation, instead choosing to continue to focus on expanding the Ulus of Jochi. Orda on the other hand, not only attended it, but actively helped in making sure it ran smoothly by aiding Guyuk in tracking down and executing his attempted usurpers. Keep this event in mind as I'll talk about this further down and how it relates to Ulus of Jochi balancing himself between the Hordes of Batu and Orda.

Because I see "Golden Horde" as embodying/being the Ulus of Jochi (as the reason of his existence was that he was the personification of future Jochid lands), I don't make a distinction between Orda and Batu's hordes by creating two separate Horde personifications until the the years after the 1260's with the death of Berke Khan and the breaking away from the greater Mongol Empire. Why I chose this date will be explained thoroughly throughout this post.

So how do I think Ulus of Jochi/Golden horde coped with initially being administered between Orda and Batu? I don't think it was a difficult feat, however I think for the most part, Ulus of Jochi was more involved in Batuid Western Wing/Right Wing affairs due to the foreign policy being expansionist, and relied on the Ordaid Eastern Wing/Left Wing for diplomacy (normalfacing) and trade. This is because, where the Eastern Wing was situated, if it adopted an expansionist foreign policy like the Western Wing, the only neighbours it would be able to expand into would be other Mongol Khanates (this is unlike the Chagatai Khanate who never really cared about that) and that would cause unnecessary trouble (the Eastern Wing was mostly peaceful, in comparison to the Western Wing).

In addition, as talked about previously, it was Batu who was considered the overall leader of the Ulus of Jochi, and the Ordaid lineage acknowledged the supremacy of the Batuid lineage for many years (due to the fact that Batu was 1) Considered the overall leader 2) It was the Batuids who focussed mainly on expanding the Horde). Once it was revealed to Genghis that Jochi died, "Chinggis designated a new heir to the Ulus of his eldest; Jochi's son Batu would take over" (Marie F. The Horde), it was Genghis himself who gave his blessing for Batu to take over, and Orda had no problem with this.

I headcanon that until the death of Berke Khan (of the Golden Horde) and the breaking away from the greater Mongol Empire in the latter half of the 13th century, who we know as Golden Horde (original son born to Mongolia) was the personification of the overall Ulus of Jochi. Once Berke died, the Ulus of Jochi gave rise to 3 main hordes and this was the beginning of the Hordes having more independence from one another, hence why I chose the date of Berke Khan's death as one of the foundations that gave rise to the Ulus of Jochi dividing into separate personifications. "After Berke's death, three hordes rose to dominate the Ulus of Jochi" (Marie F. The Horde). Who we know as Golden Horde was aligned with the Western lands of the Horde alongside the Batuids who were considered the supreme rulers of the horde.

The new personification for the Eastern Horde/Left wing materialised itself in the years after Berke Khan died and during the period in which the Horde became more independent from the greater empire. The personification of this Horde respected the supremacy of the Batuid Horde/Left Wing (Golden Horde) and all the hordes worked together and "were at peace with each other and ran the ulus of Jochi in concert" (Marie F. The Horde).

Until then however, I see who we know as the Golden Horde as the personification of the whole of the Ulus of Jochi, including the Hordes that were within the Ulus. Golden Horde was still the Ulus of Jochi even when the blue Horde/Left Wing had its own personification materialise. This is somewhat similar to what happened with his father:

Mongolia was the original personification of the whole of the Mongol Empire, he has children that are born as (initially) representations of the divided sections of the overall empire but were still one with/loyal to the Great Khan and Mongolia and Mongolia continues /as the official representative of the Mongol Empire and is aligned with the lineage of the Great Khan. These Children then eventually go their own ways/infighting occurs.

Golden Horde was born as the future/original representation of the Ulus of Jochi. Jochi unexpectedly dies and his Ulus is ruled by two of his sons and split into two wings, with Batu and the Batuid lineage being the supreme rulers of the Ulus of Jochi, appointed by Genghis himself. The Ulus of Jochi's three Hordes become more distinct in the years after Berke's death and new personifications arise. Golden Horde is aligned with the Jochid/Batuid Ulus in the West, the other two Hordes (Ordaid and Nogay Horde) acknowledge his supremacy and he is still considered the overall personification of the Ulus of Jochi by the other two Hordes. These Hordes then go on to start fighting with each other at some point.

Here is a really badly pictured map here which sets out what the Horde looked like from the 1270s.

Note how the Western/Batuid Wing/White horde is called "Horde of the Jochid Khan '' thereby signifying its supremacy over the other Hordes (yes that is my nail sorry).

Elaborating on why I chose the years after Berke's death to give rise to the Ordaid and Nogay Horde personifications is not only because the hordes became more distinct at this point but this was also the period when the Ulus of Jochi broke away from the greater Mongol Empire (1260s) and ruled itself with pretty much it's own autonomy.

Once that happened, it allowed for greater autonomy within the Horde, thus, allowing for these new personifications to emerge alongside the OG Ulus of Jochi. I see Berke's rule as the foundation for the other personifications within the Horde to manifest themselves because Berke's rule was the foundation of the Ulus of Jochi becoming independent of the greater Mongol Empire/Great Khan. Berke was the first ruler of the Horde that was elected without the approval of the Great Khan - he was "installed exclusively by Jochid begs" (Marie F. The Horde). Further, when Berke died in 1267, a quriltai (political meeting) was conducted to elect a new Khan. As Berke did not have an heir, this was used as a chance to finally solidify the line of Batu as the supreme/legitimate rulers of the Ulus of Jochi.

I'll be a bit less vague here and give the approximate date of when I believe the Left Wing had its own personification materialise. I think that the aforementioned reasons were the foundations of the Left Wing having its own personification, and that the Left Wing's personification appeared in the late 1270's/1280 when Qonichi Khan came to rule it. This was because under Qonichi, the Left Wing/Ordaid Wing truly began to become more distinct from the Right/Batuid Wing (Golden Horde). This did not mean that they fought between each other - as mentioned before, the different divisions of the Ulus of Jochi generally worked together pretty well for many years.

However it was this time period in which the Left Wing started to distinguish itself even more from the Right Wing "During these years [Qonichi's reign], Orda's ulus became independent from Batu's ulus" (The Golden Horde in World History Sh. Marjani Institute of History of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences). Representatives of Orda's family discontinued the previously agreed vassal relationship with Sarai (Capital of the Golden Horde) and Karakorum (Capital of the Mongol Empire before it was moved to Beijing). According to Rash al-Din, they considered their ruler to be the deputy of Batu, however members of Orda's family did not often go to the Khan's of Batu's family, as they were far apart and ruled independently in their own territories, "...to consider their sovereign and ruler the person who is the deputy of Batu, and their names are written at the top of the labels" but, "from the very beginning there was no case that some member of Orda's family, who took his place, went to the Khans of Batu's family, as they are distant from each other and independent sovereigns of their uluses."

The personality of this Left Wing personification? I somewhat fashion it after Qonichi Khan himself. Qonichi's reign was largely peaceful. Marco Polo himself noted "The Tsar (Qonichi) has a lot of people, but he fights no one and peacefully rules his Kingdom." So in general he was a pretty chill and outgoing guy with a love for food. It's quite funny contrasting his personality with the Right Wing who's always been a bit of an aloof edgelord.

Berke's rapid expansion of Jochid independence was not all good for the Golden Horde though when it came to relations with his family, though, I don't think he cared much about if his family were happy with him or not. First let's start with the worsening relationship with the Ilkhanate. The relationship was already pretty bad from the get go (Mongolia giving more attention to Ilkhanate as a child) however once the Ilkhanate was officially installed, Hulegu (first Khan of the Ilkhanate) was essentially hogging all the power south of the Caucasus and not only that, was hogging his wealth. He was not sending the previously agreed portioned amount of booty to Berke Khan. Not only that but he executed Jochid princes who partook in the destruction of the Caliphate, most notably Quli, under suspicion of sorcery. Ilkhanate was pretty much being a spoiled, petulant brat and was absolutely not sharing with his older brother who he detested so much.

Berke had had enough of this and expressed his rage at Hulegu for sacking Baghdad (Berke was Muslim). Whether Golden Horde really cared about that didn't matter, he hated Ilkhanate and Berke's rage was his ticket to attacking him. He allied with the Sultan Baybars of Mamluk Egypt, allying with a non Mongol group to attack his own brother in 1262.

Further, Golden Horde becoming more ballsy with Berke around meant that the Jochid retainers alongside the Muslim elite in Bukhara tried to declare Berke sovereign there. This led to Alghu Khan of the Chagatai Khanate to destroy the Jochid's Bukhara appanage and then invade their territory in Khorazam and Otrar.

With Berke being the first Jochid Khan elected exclusively by Jochid begs therefore creating a new succession culture independent of the Great Khan, breaking away from the Great Khan/greater Mongol Empire, and the line of Batu being solidified as the supreme rulers of the Ulus (therefore Golden Horde would have aligned with the Batuids similar to how Mongolia aligned himself with the Great Khans), this eventually gave rise to the 3 hordes of the Jochi Ulus having their own distinct personifications during this era, with Golden Horde being the overall personification of the Jochi Ulus as 1) That's why he was born 2) Aligned with the Batuid lineage, Batu being chosen to rule the Ulus by Genghis Khan himself.

I've mentioned previously a time where it could be argued that the two hordes had different interests, therefore the Hordes should have distinct personifications earlier - the ascension of Guyuk as the Great Khan. Batu wanted nothing to do with it, however Orda actively participated in it to the point where he helped Guyuk dispose of those who wanted to usurp him. This however did not halt the cohesion/harmony between the two hordes. Orda still continued to acknowledge the supremacy of his brother's rule and the supremacy of Batuid rule was acknowledged even after the deaths of both brothers. I mentioned before how Ulus of Jochi/Golden Horde relied on the Ordaid Wing for normalfacing/diplomacy.

I believe he continued to do this even when the Ordaid Wing got its own personification, but instead he was being relayed the tea by the Ordaid personification through letters and sometimes meetings (remember the quote from Rash al-Din, they were quite distant from one another) rather than being told by the Khans or the elite of the Ordaid Wing . I see this as sort of a funny situation. Golden Horde essentially wanted to put his middle finger up at his father by staying with Batu and not attending the coronation of Guyuk, but at the same time used Orda's attendance and aid during the coronation to maintain a somewhat stable relationship but to also let him in on the goings on with the rest of his family without unnecessarily directly involving himself (because he hates them-).

So yeah. Even before the Ordaid Wing personification emerged in the 1280's, Golden Horde was using the Ordaid wing for diplomacy, trade, and to spy on his own family lol. The Ordaids were used to represent the Jochids during quriltais, and aligned their politics to those of the Batuids and came together to make political and military decisions. The Ordaids kept okay relations with the Great Khan/Yuan whilst the Batuids remained frosty (the spying). Rashid Al Din noted how the Ordaids "ruled their Ulus with autonomy" however still acknowledged that they "recognise Batu's successors and write their names at the top of their decrees".

I love drawing parallels between Mongolia and the Golden Horde with this. Like Mongolia, Golden Horde created his own unique succession culture, and his Ulus was also divided and gave rise to new personifications within the Ulus. However Golden Horde was at this point in belief that he had usurped his father/had become better than him. Not only has he managed to carve out success for himself and create his own unique succession culture, but he had other personifications within him who were extremely obedient to him and acknowledged his supremacy over them with no problem. Unlike Mongolia, who's own children got tired of him pretty quickly, Golden Horde's branches were almost devoutly loyal to him, and were loyal to him for far longer than Mongolia's children ever were. I don't think I'd say they were exactly his children but I'll say they were his branches for now.

Whilst Mongolia had a separate relationship with his children because he was too busy doing his own things and only realised too late that maybe he should have been more present and it was to his detriment, Golden Horde also had a somewhat "separate" relationship from his branches but did this purposefully and for his own benefit. The Batuid Wing was both separate and intertwined with the Ordaid Wing. The Batuids (who Golden Horde aligned himself with) kept out of internal politics of the Ordaids, and never appointed a Khan for the Ordaids. However, as mentioned before, both wings came together to make joint political and military decisions.

Whereas his father failed to maintain a harmonious - let alone good relationship with most of his sons (I mean can we really say he had a "good" relationship with Ilkhanate..."), Golden Horde found a perfect balance. He was not even half his father's age and he's already overtaken him in these aspects, which did not help with his superiority complex.

Mongolia did not appreciate Golden Horde's frosty attitude with him and found negotiating with the Ordaid Wing personification awkward. The Ordaid Wing personification emerged after the fallout of the Golden Horde and the rest of the empire and so he was unfamiliar with him personally and was unsure how to deal with him, unlike Golden Horde who he knew better because he was "born" to him. Even if the Ordaid Wing was a member of Mongolia's family, Mongolia did not like the loss of control (?) with the fact that he did not raise him personally (if you can call what Mongolia did raising) and so felt like the relationship between them was artificial. His (usually) diplomatic nature and friendly tone just reeked fake to him (even if the Ordaid Wing was being genuine at times) and if not fake then it creeped him out but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.

What Mongolia did not further appreciate was the Golden Horde seemingly wanting to be frosty with him but at the same time, as he would put it, meddle with his affairs. Ogedei Khan during his reign allowed the Jochids certain rights in the Middle East such as "the right to nominate the governors from their own retainers, the right to receive first tribute from the client Kings, and the right to a fifth share of all war booty" (Christopher P. Attwood Encyclopedia of the Mongol Empire). However once Guyuk Khan came into power, this changed.

Not only did the Jochids lose their rights in the Middle East, earlier on, Guyuk publicly ridiculed Batu by laughing about his apparent lack of skill on the battlefield/reputation as a coward. Batu later got revenge when he skilfully planned the ascension of Mongke Khan to the throne as Great Khan - a Toluid, rather than continuing on with the House of Ogedei. This was due to the fact that "Batu invoked his authority of Senior Prince of Chinggis Khan's descendant. He had decided to replace the house of Ogedei... the House of Tolui would rule the Empire" (Diane Wolff, Batu Khan of the Golden Horde).

The Ordaid Wing was very much in tune with what the Batuid Wing (Golden Horde) wanted. The amount of time that they remained in a mostly harmonious relationship with each other is quite impressive considering what usually happens when different divisions are created within empires. Golden Horde (Batuid Wing) inspired leadership and trust with the Ordaid/Left Wing and both were perfectly separate and intertwined at the same time.

The Ordaid Left Wing personification was a (usually) calm and sometimes overly friendly individual who was fiercely loyal to the Batuid Ring Wing (Golden Horde/Ulus of Jochi) and acknowledged/accepted his supremacy over him/the whole Horde and the fact that he was the rightful spearhead of the Horde with no hesitation, however both Horde's were in many respects independent from one another too. This reflects the relationship between the brothers Batu and Orda.

I talked about how the Left/Eastern Wing became more independent from the Right/Western Wing during the reign of Qonichi and the various justifications I have for making him materialise around this period. But what happened after Qonichi died? What happened to the Horde in the 14th century onwards?

Once Qonichi died in 1302, all hell broke loose in the Eastern Wing. Civil wars broke out and it was split into different parts. Some of the contenders for the title of the Khan of the Left Wing was Bayan (Qonichi's eldest son and heir), Makuday (Qonichi's fourth and youngest son), Kubluk (Timur-Baka's son from a different branch of Ordaids, and Kushtay, who was the son of Kubluk. Rash al-Din's words indicated that Bayan was the true heir of the Left Wing, and he said that Bayan "was responsible for the bigger part of Orda's ulus).

However this meant another contender, Kubluk, was also ruling a part of the Left Wing/Orda's ulus, albeit a smaller section. However this smaller section included the military, which itself broke away from Bayan. In addition, Kubluk was receiving support from Kaidu and Duwa, so despite the amount of fighting that Bayan participated in against them, he eventually stood defeated and had to flee to the Left Wing/Western Wing of the Horde to Toqta -- where the Batuids ruled.

The reason why Qaidu sponsored the rebels that went against Bayan is because Qonichi himself went against Qaidu to establish friendly relations with the Yuan and Ilkhanate, so Qaidu wanted to get back at him for doing so by supporting the rebels that wanted to go against his son and rightful heir. Before 1284 when Qonichi came to rule, "Orda's successors followed the policy set by the rulers of the Golden Horde as a whole, supporting first Ariq-Boke and then Qaidu against Khublai Khan."

Bayan did attempt to seek help from Temur Khan of the Yuan (Mongolia) to defeat Kaidu and the Chagatai Khanate. However nothing came of it due to the distance between them (and in hetalia terms I'd mean that figuratively too. Remember, I said that Mongolia did not warm up to the Eastern Wing personification and was wary of dealing with him because he was not born to him like Golden Horde was, despite the fact that politics wise their relationship was fairly friendly).

It was during this period that the Right Wing of the Horde almost re-established its supremacy over the Left Wing, and the Left Wing was reminded of its dependance on the Right Wing. The Right Wing eventually helped Bayan in consolidating his rule over the Ordaid Wing, Toqta of the Batuid wing sent an army to aid Bayan in his struggle for power, "Toqta (of the Right Wing) came to his aid with a myriad bloodthirsty army and prevailed. Mumkiya fled, and his father's place was confirmed for Bayan." (Abu'l Qasim al-Kashani).

So what were the dynamics between Golden Horde and the Eastern Wing during all of this? Golden Horde certainly was not impressed by the rapid fallout of the Eastern Horde once Qonichi died, and he was definitely not happy with the fact that the recognition of his supremacy over the Eastern Horde seemed to be waning due to these internal conflicts, and that the Eastern Horde was being ruled by now someone who he considered not the rightful heir. Further, he was enraged that the Eastern Horde's inability to control itself lead to Kaidu(de facto leader of the Chagatai Khanate)/Duwa(Khan of the Chagatai Khanate)/Chagatai Khanate into meddling with internal Jochid affairs, as Kaidu was sending aid to Kubluk in order to use his help in order to fight against the Ilkhanate. As I've talked about before, Golden Horde has had a deep hatred of Chagatai Khanate since they were young. Toqta of the Golden Horde was enraged at the situation himself, and warned Kaidu to not give help to Kubluk/the rebels. In short, Golden Horde was angry.

Qonichi, as mentioned previously, went against the previously established agreement that included the Western Horde to ally with Kaidu against Khublai/the Yuan/Mongolia. In fact, ultimately both Tode Mongke (of the Golden Horde) and Qonichi made peace with the Yuan in the 1280s and returned Numugan, Khublai's heir, from captivity. When Qonichi died and Kaidu sponsored his heirs (Bayan) rebels, Chagatai Khanate thought that it was justified as Qonichi went against their previous alliance that was established in 1269 by Mengu-Temur (of the Golden Horde) in order to be friendly with the Ilkhanate and Yuan.

Once the Golden Horde aided Bayan in securing his rightful reign as the Khan of the Eastern Horde in the early 14th century, the Eastern Horde forever acknowledged his dependence on the Golden Horde.

"The most likely explanation for the less of their (Left Wing) autonomy is that the descendants of Bayan, faced with continuing internal and external threats to their power, were forced to turn to Oz Beg (Right Wing) for help and protection and the payment, which was demanded by their patron for support, was the unprecedented subordination Left hand princes to the Right hand princes."

After this debacle, Golden Horde and the Eastern Horde became ever closer. Eastern Horde was already fiercely loyal to Golden Horde but this took it to a new level. Natanzi recorded that Bayan's heir, Sasi-Buka "followed the path of obedience and submission... and in all that time he never took a step off the path of service to Tugrul Khan (of the Nogay Horde) and Oz Beg Khan (Golden Horde) and never contradicted or refused Quriltai".

Now let's talk about the era of political turbulence during the 1360's. The seed of this discord was planted with the assassintation of Tini Beg of the Golden Horde. Tini Beg came into power once Ozbeg Khan died in 1341, however this did not last long. Before he ascended to becoming Khan though, his younger brother, Jani Beg, served as regent. Prior to ascending to Khan of the Western Horde, he was the governor of the Eastern Horde. His mother, Taydula, ordered for him to be killed once she heard news of him returning to court in 1342 out of fear of Jani Beg's life. Jani Beg subsequently ascended as Khan of the Golden Horde.

It was with Jani Beg's own assassination in 1357 though, which eventually opened up the Horde to a period of political turbulence (called "the great troubles") His son Berdi Beg succeeded him. Berdi Beg took it upon himself to kill many of his closest kinsmen, and by doing so he (most likely) ended the Batuid lineage upon his own death,he himself being killed by his own brother, Qulpa, in 1359.

Seeing all of this commotion in the West, princes of the Eastern Horde took this as an opportunity to seize power, "first in Saray (Capital of the Golden Horde) and then in Bulghar" (encyclopedia of the Mongol Empire, Christopher P. Attwood). Mamai, of the Western Wing, became a defacto ruler/kingmaker. He could never be Khan himself because he was not of Chinggisid descent. A lot happened during the great troubles, and the black death did not help because it hit both Hordes pretty hard. Further, the disintegration of the Ilkhanate and Yuan dynasty was to their detriment. Which is funny when you consider that "the demise of the Ilkhanids was supposed to be the Horde's crowning victory - the realisation of its moral right to vengeance and an opportunity to solidify the supremacy of the Northern Road." However with the Ilkhanids gone, this meant that the Jochids now had to deal with "smaller, unreliable neighbours" who weren't the "strong challenger[s] who played by the rules" from before (The Horde, Marie Favereau).

It was ultimately Toqtamysh, who was originally from the Eastern Horde, who consolidated the Horde into one polarity . Toqtamysh, however, was not of Batuid or Ordaid descent. He was not the first to become Khan who was not from either of these lineages though. The first was Qara-Nogay (also of the Eastern Horde), whose lineage was traced back to Toqa-Temur, Jochi's youngest son. This happened during the time after Berdi Beg of the Western Horde died and the Western Horde cycled through a huge number of "rulers". The Eastern Horde quickly chose Qara-Nogay after their Ordaid Khan died. Urus Khan, his cousin, took his place, and was particularly bloodthirsty. He murdered a chieftan by the name of Toy Khoja, who was also a contender for the position of Khan.

Then comes Toqtamysh, who was Toy Khoja's son. He wanted revenge and so he sought it out with the help of Tamerlane/Timur of the Timurid Empire. In around 1378, he declared ultimate victory over Urus, and declared himself the Khan of the Jochi Ulus. Urus was later killed when he sought refuge in Caffa in 1380/81, when he was killed by the Genoese so they could prove their loyalty to Toqtamysh. The "last powerful" defenders of the "right hand leadership" were destroyed, Toqtamysh of the Left Hand Wing, a Jochid but not of Batuid or Ordaid descent, brought the Horde into one entity (Encyclopedia of the Mongol Empire, Christopher P Attwood)

During the great troubles, Golden Horde was severely weakened, both politically and physically. It was not a good time period for him. He relied on Mamai to be his Kingmaker, however as mentioned before, the Golden Horde cycled through rulers quickly. He felt somewhat humiliated that the Eastern Wing seemed to be far more stable than he was during this time seeing as he was the dominant party in their relationship. Whereas before, Golden Horde helped the Eastern Wing during a tumultuous period of his own during the rebellions against Bayan Khan, which ultimately led to the Eastern Wing depending on the Western Wing thereon after, the Eastern Wing was now the stable one who was "helping" Golden Horde become more stable, albeit at the cost of the destruction of the last defenders of the right hand leadership.

This meant that now there is only one personification for the Horde. Not only were both Hordes now under single supreme leadership under Toqtamysh, but the Horde underwent a change in leadership altogether. As Marie Favereau puts it, "The consolidation of power under Toqtamish was a creative response to the collapse of the Ordaids and Batuids." Once the Ordaids and Batuids died out, there were only two Jochi lineages left that were worthy of taking the throne, the Toqa-Temurs (Who Toqtamysh descended from) and Shaybanids. I do have a seperate OC for the Shaybanids/Grey Horde but I need to probably write another post for her lol. The Toqa-Temur line emerged as the favoured contender, as Toqa Temur was Jochi's youngest son. In Mongol culture, the youngest son was the "otchigen", meaning "keeper of the hearth", so those who were of the Toqa Temur lineage were seen as the protectors of the Jochi ulus.

So what do I think happened to the two personifications of the Horde once Toqtamysh consolidated it? The great troubles is seen as a East vs West wing thing, and while that's not entirely false, Toqtamysh did gain the loyalty from some Western begs during his rise to power, as they were not all loyal to Mamai. This might sound crazy or convoluted but I think some sort of fusion happened between the two of them? As pointed out before, Toqtamysh was a creative response to the collapse of the Ordaids and Batuids so I guess I wanted to be uh. Creative with this too. It wasn't just the Golden Horde/Western Wing who's ruling family died out, but also the Eastern Wing. Though the new ruling family (Toqa-Temurs) continued to be Jochid and had comfortable reasons to be the ruling family, this was still a major change as both the Eastern and Western wings identities were also built upon the Batuid/Ordaid lineage and the dynamic between them were shaped by the relationship between these two lineages, with the Batuids (Golden Horde) reigning supreme.

I don't want to get too philosophical about mind/body/consciousness arguments because this is hetalia and it's good to keep some things ~mysterious~ but yeah it's my headcanon that these changes and the consolidating of the the hordes into one polarity under Toqtamysh meant that a singular Golden Horde personification now emerged who came from the fusion of the two previous hordes, not born as a child (and I do not see this new Golden Horde as being some sort of child between the Eastern and Western Wing) but emerged as an adult. The previous two hordes did not die upon this fusion but lived on through this fusion (who I will refer to as Golden Horde for the rest of this post).

I think this fusion named itself "Altan", which means "Golden." There are many theories on why the Golden Horde was named the Golden Horde, like the fact that the Khans had golden tents or that it arose from bad translations. But I think it would be fun if it also stemmed from the fact that the Horde chose a personal name for itself that meant golden.

In fact I believe that the original Golden horde, who accompanied the Batuid lineage in the West, changed his personal name at some point to be "Altan" to distance himself from his old name that was associated with his past/family. This is because the first known use of "Golden Horde" was in the Russian chronicle "History of Kazan" written in 1565. Then in the 19th century, the term "Golden Horde" was "assigned to designate the Jochi Ulus as a whole or (depending on the context) its Western part with its capital in Sarai" (The term Golden Horde is a mistake of the interpreter of the 16th century, Neil Maxinya).

This is more of a fun headcanon, but seeing that Russian chroniclers began to use the term "Golden Horde" to mean the Horde as a whole or just the Batuid Wing, I think that the OG Golden Horde renamed himself "Altan", and then the fusion of the Eastern and Western Wing also named itself "Altan". This was all recorded by Russian chroniclers so uh perhaps Russia remembered the personal name the OG Golden Horde and the Golden Horde (fusion) gave to themselves, hence this is the reason why "Golden Horde" refers to either the Jochi Ulus as a whole and often just the Batuid Wing (that conquered Eastern Europe) but never the Ordaid Wing.

Ultimately though, the Horde would fall again. Golden Horde with his newfound vitality (I mean he went and sacked Moscow in 1382 lol) got a bit too cocky and attacked the person who helped him come into existence (Timurid Empire, Timur). In 1385 the Golden Horde sought out an alliance with the Mamluks to go against his former ally, the Timurids. Toqtamysh wanted to revive the old alliance between the Horde and the Mamluks, as they came together before to go against the Ilkhanids. This is because "Tamerlane, Toqtamish's erstwhile partner, was on the Horde's caucasian doorstep, having launched military operations into Azerbaijan" (The Horde, Marie Favereau). A decade-ish conflict between the Golden Horde and the Timurids erupted with different players at hand, including Edigu of the Manghit clan.

Contrary to popular belief it was not Tamerlane himself who destroyed the Golden Horde and the reason why Toqtamysh lost was primarily because he could not maintain the loyalty of the nomadic elite. Toqtamysh did not take the Golden Horde with him when he lost - it lived on for a while, however the political landscape became quite different. It was Edigu of the Nogays/Maghit who emerged victorious and he ruled, despite being a non-Chinggisid. It was his legacy along with the previous Hordes legacy that those in the future traced themselves back to, which in turn made them carry on Jochid tradition even after his death. He had a very influential political career, though he "only maintained something of the Horde's unity until 1411, but by 1425 independent regimes were ensconced throughout the Golden Horde territory" (Encyclopedia of the Mongol Empire, Christopher P Attwood) .

It also formed part of the key link between the Golden Horde and the states that came from it, such as the Kazakh Khanate Uzbek Khanate, Karakalpaks, etc. which have backgrounds descending from Golden Horde (The Eastern Wing) and Manghit confederations, and this is confirmed in common clan names and folklore.

The Great Horde rump state was created after the death of Edigu which was based around the old Golden Horde capital of Sarai, and various different Khanates broke off from this state. This tiny state could have been the very last stand of the Golden Horde.

Eventually the Golden Horde became no more and lived to around 1502/3 at the very latest, as the Crimean Khanate finally destroyed what was left of the "Great Horde" state at this time.

Closing thoughts

Anyways I spent way too much time on this and wrote way too much. There are some things that can be chalked up to the “mysterious nature of nation personifications” hence why I didn't want to mindfuck myself or anyone who reads this into trying to explain the intricacies of the “fusion” that made the new singular Golden Horde personification and I think nations can go through similar situations that the Western and Eastern wing did with no fusion involved and a different outcome for the personifications involved. Again it's all mysterious I guess and I want to keep some of the mysticism behind the nature of nation personification beings. Sorry for any spelling errors.

Anyways happy horde-posting 🐴

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