From Mongol domination to the birth of the Ming dynasty in China

Kublai Khan ruled China as an independent state of the Mongol Empire. By imposing a rigid racial hierarchy, he placed the Mongols above all others, denying the Chinese any role in civil government and military administration.

Kublai made Dadu (Beijing) the capital of the Yuan Empire, encouraged commercial ties with the outside world, and put paper money into circulation. His successors, however, faced a population increasingly burdened by high inflation and oppressive taxes caused by the dynasty's discriminatory social policies. Meanwhile, the arrival of the Black Death in the 1330s, together with a series of natural disasters, brought the poorest classes close to despair, so much so that from the 1340s onward revolts broke out in all the provinces, from which emerged the movement known as the Red Turban Rebellion, led by Zhu Yuanzhang. In 1368, Zhu captured Dadu and expelled the Mongols. He founded the Ming dynasty, introducing reforms that improved the prospects of the peasant classes.