Who Controlled SW China & Kwangchow (Guangzhou) During the Yuan Dynasty? The Mongols

Mongolia — specifically, the Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan (r. 1260–1294) — controlled southwestern China and the port of Kwangchow (modern Guangzhou) during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368).

Historical Context

• 1253: Kublai's brother Möngke Khan orders Dali Kingdom (Yunnan) conquest — opens SW China.
• 1271: Kublai declares Yuan Dynasty; capital at Dadu (Beijing).
• 1276: Song capital Lin'an (Hangzhou) falls; Guangzhou resists until 1279.
• 1279: Battle of Yamen — final Song resistance crushed; Yuan controls all China.

Kwangchow (Guangzhou) Under the Yuan

• Renamed "Khanbaliq" briefly in some records; major Maritime Silk Road hub.
• Hosted Muslim, Persian, Indian, Arab merchant communities — own mosques, cemeteries.
• Ibn Battuta visited ~1345; described bustling port, customs revenue, foreign quarters.
• Yuan established Market Superintendent (Shibo Si) to tax & regulate trade.

Southwest China (Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan)

• Administered as Yunnan Province (carved from Dali Kingdom lands).
• Governed by Mongol princes & Central Asian Muslims (Semu) — e.g., Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din Omar (Yunnan governor 1274–1279).
• Key for horse trade, tea-horse routes to Tibet, mineral resources.

Why It Matters

Yuan control linked overland Silk Road (via Central Asia) with maritime routes (via Guangzhou/Quanzhou) — first unified polity to integrate both. Mongol openness to foreign merchants (Polo, Ibn Battuta, Odoric) made Kwangchow a global entrepôt centuries before European arrival.