Since the late period of the 12th century, an ethnic minority group called Mongolian had grown up in the northern areas of China. In 1204, one of the leaders of the Mongolian tribes, Tiemuzhen, unified all the internal tribes. Two years later, Tiemuzhen was honored as Genghis Khan (meaning - the ruler of the world) and soon established the Mongolian Empire. Successively, it captured Xixia and the Jin Dynasty (1115 - 1234), after which the combative Mongolian army sent its military forces into Central Asia and Europe.

In 1260, the grandson of Tiemuzhen, Kublai Khan, ascended the throne. In 1271, he formally established the Yuan Dynasty by changing the state title into Yuan, with Yuandadu (currently Beijing) as the capital. (The new dynasty was not territorially the former Mongolian Empire as three parts had broken away before the new dynasty was founded.)

In 1276, not long after the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan led his army, capturing the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279) and thus he unified the entire China. At that time, the territory of the Yuan Dynasty stretched to Mongolia and Siberia in the north, the South Sea in the south, Yunnan Province and Tibet in the southwest, eastern part of Xinjiang Province in the northwest and the Stanovoi Range in the northeast. The total area of the country was over 4.6 million square miles.

As a mighty state, the Yuan Dynasty enjoyed economic development and prospered in the fields of science and literature. The economy of the Yuan Dynasty was mainly based on agriculture. The agricultural techniques used were superior to those of previous dynasties and food output increased. Additionally, the use of paper currency stimulated the development of commerce. Meanwhile, trade with foreign countries was greatly encouraged following an open policy adopted by the Yuan rulers. In the area of science, astronomy, mathematics and medicine reached a very high level. In literature, the Yuan drama, along with the Tang poem and 'ci' poem of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), was considered another heritage of Chinese literature. During the glorious period of the Yuan Dynasty, diplomatic activities with foreign countries were quite frequent with many foreign envoys, merchants and travelers traversing the sea to come to China. Among them, the famous Italian merchant Marco Polo was a successful cultural transmitter who wrote the historic travel notes, The Travels of Marco Polo, informing the West about China.

In the late Yuan Dynasty, the internal contradictions of the ruling class, serious natural disasters, and unreasonable grading system together aroused the indignation of the people. In 1367, the rebel army led by Zhu Yuanzhang captured the Yuan capital, ending the ever mighty Yuan Dynasty.