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One of the most ambitious emperors in history mounted the biggest navalinvasion force in history and suffered the greatest naval disaster inhistory, changing world history thereafter in the process.

Genghis Khan (1162-1227) has the more famous Mongol name as a greatemperor of China and invader of foreign territories. His empirestretched from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Kubla Khan, hisgrandson, is better known as the kindly host of Marco Polo, the Europeanwho wandered east to find the source of the Silk Road.

Unknown to many, Kuba Khan had greater ambitions even than hisgrandfather. Establishing what is now Beijing as his capital city, heplanned to conquer or at least control the whole world. Japan, a rising

world power in those times, was one of his objectives. But far from theonly one.

In 1280 CE, Kubla Khan ordered the construction and assembly of theworld's largest navy. On target, one year later, his fleet set sail forJapan in May of 1281. His objective was a navy of 12,000 ships. Hereached that number in time, but only through a massive construction

effort.

(To put that into perspective, the second largest invasion navy ever wasinvolved with the D-Day invasion of France by the Allied Forces, with a

fleet of 4,000 ships, many of which were smaller than the Chinese shipsof Kubla Khan's navy nearly 800 years earlier.)

The Khan's shipbuilders were Chinese, at that time designers andbuilders of the most impressive ships the world had seen. The warshipswere about four times as big as European warships of the time. They even

included watertight compartments that would prevent water from floodingthe ship if one compartment was punctured.

In August of 1281, as the emperor's fleet approached Japan, a massive

typhoon (hurricane)--the top level of storm by today's standards of measurement-- struck the Chinese fleet. Before hapless Japan had achance to fight to the death to defend itself, 12,000 Chinese shipssank, taking their crews with them to the bottom.

However, not every Chinese ship sank. The ships that held the leaders of 

the navy (not including the Khan, who was at home spending time with hiswives and concubines) survived. Why did the ships of the leaders survivewhile the rest of their fleet sank? In short, the leaders' ships werebuilt without flaws.

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The Chinese were none too happy to comply with the Khan's wishes tobuild naval ships because they had recently been conquered themselves bythe Mongols. They toiled as slaves to build the fleet. In response, theybuilt flaws into their workmanship. The ships would not hold together ina bad storm, even though they looked good when they set sail.

It turned out that Kubla Khan's demand that 12,000 ships be build withinone year was far too ambitious. That size fleet should have taken fromtwo to five years. So the naval leaders supplemented the numbers withriver boats seized from Chinese fishermen and traders. River boats hadlittle need for keels and were designed more to carry cargo than aswarships. They were not designed to withstand the rigours of storms atsea.

In the typhoon, they tipped over easily while most of the other ships inthe fleet fell apart and sank.

Japan was saved by the kamikaze (big wind). But the story doesn't endthere. Kubla Khan's reputation was soiled and the reputation of theMongols altogether was trashed. Not long after Kubla Khan died, theMongol reign over China fell apart and disappeared into history.

True, the Mongol tribes were among those who invaded eastern Europedecades later, bringing about the fall of the great empire centred in

Rome. But those tribes were not coordinated in their efforts, theinvaders integrated into European civilization and the Renaissanceblossomed not long (by historical time) later.

But the story doesn't end there either.

In the time of Kubla Khan, Chinese traders, explorers and settlers hadspread over most of the globe. One of their villages has been found inNova Scotia, Canada, and others are being investigated on the west coastof the USA and in South America. They may even have sailed across theAtlantic to western Europe along with the Norse traders who had been to

the Americas before the turn of the First Millennium.

With the defeat of Kubla Khan's great fleet, China could no longerafford to send ships around the world to explore and to trade. AllChinese ships, crews and settlers were called home from across theglobe. From that time on, Chinese culture turned inward, with nosignificant expansion for centuries.

That left the world open to Europeans. And to Christianity.

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The Europeans and their religion did what the Chinese under the Mongolemperor had set out to do, dominate the world.

World history literally changed dramatically and permanently as a resultof one storm in August of 1281 CE. No matter where in the world you

live, your life is different from what it might have been had thattyphoon not occurred.

For one thing, you wouldn't have been reading this article in English.

Bill AllinTurning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic SocialProblems, a book for adults to learn what they missed in their childhooddevelopment so that they can compensate for it and build better lives

for themselves now.Learn more at http://billallin.com