Kublai Khan proclaimed at Kaiping

1260

Kublai, fighting his brother Ariq Boke for control of the Mongol succession, had himself acclaimed Great Khan by his supporters at Kaiping in Inner Mongolia. The empire was effectively split. Kublai would win the civil war and shift its center east to a Chinese model. His claim was contested by the western khanates, and the universal empire Genghis had dreamed of was fracturing along cultural and geographic lines.