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A king branded Kublai Khan's envoys
The Khan's ultimatum
The Khan needed a victory. His forces had twice failed to gain a foothold in Japan, and his invasions of Burma and Vietnam had fizzled in the tropical heat. King Kertanagara of Java had defied him for nearly a decade, and the 1289 envoys carried a final ultimatum: swear loyalty, pay a hefty tribute, and send royal hostages to China.
The Khan sent 20,000 soldiers and a thousand ships. Storms wrecked some of them, and when the fleet landed in 1293, Kertanagara was already dead, killed by a rebel named Jayakatwang. The king's son-in-law Raden Wijaya had retreated to a new settlement called Majapahit, and he sent the Mongol commander Shi-bi a map of his rivers and seaports with a request for help.
Wijaya's ambush
The Mongols attacked Jayakatwang from the north while Wijaya came from the east, and Jayakatwang was captured. Wijaya then asked to go home to prepare a new letter of submission, and Shi-bi sent two officers and 200 men with him. On the way, Wijaya killed the officers and revolted.
The Mongols were packing their ships when Wijaya's soldiers burst out of the forest firing arrows and blowgun darts. Shi-bi fought his way back to the ships over more than 100 miles, and 3,000 of his men were dead by the time he reached China. Kublai had him given 17 lashes and a third of his property confiscated. The Khan died the next year.
Why did Mongol armies struggle in the tropics?
Mongol power rested on mounted archers raised on the dry grasslands of Central Asia. In the wet heat of Southeast Asia, horses sickened, supply lines stretched thin, and disease thinned the ranks. Vietnam's Tran dynasty turned back Mongol invasions in 1258, 1285, and 1287 to 1288. In the last of these, on the Bach Dang River, the Tran planted iron-tipped stakes in the riverbed and sank the Mongol ships when the tide fell.
What wrecked the Mongol fleets sent to Japan?
Kublai Khan sent fleets against Japan in 1274 and again in 1281. Typhoons struck both times and destroyed many ships while the troops were still near the coast. The 1281 force was far larger, with ships sailing from both Korea and southern China. Later Japanese tradition called the storms kamikaze, meaning divine wind.
Why was Java worth a Mongol fleet?
Java lay on the sea route between China and the Spice Islands of Maluku, where cloves and nutmeg grew. Under Kublai's Yuan dynasty, Quanzhou in Fujian was among the busiest ports in the world. Yuan envoys traveled to many southern kingdoms in the 1280s to demand submission and tribute. The embassy to Java was one of several sent along the same sea lanes.
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