Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuriesWars and battles
Tumu Crisis
Esen Taishi’s Oirat army routed the Ming imperial army at Tumu Fortress and captured the emperor himself, Zhu Qizhen (the Zhengtong Emperor).
- Date
- 1 September 1449exact dateDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Tumu Fortressapproximate locationtoday: Huailai County, Hebei, China · East Asia
- Participants
- Zhu Qizhen (Zhengtong Emperor), Esen Taishi, Ming dynasty, Oirats
- Threads
- Asia and Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries
Despite his ministers’ efforts to dissuade him, the emperor personally led a poorly supplied army on campaign against the Oirats. The rout at Tumu is regarded as one of the worst defeats in Chinese history. Esen, who had not expected such success, never managed to take Beijing. After the disaster the Ming Empire turned to defending its northern frontier and began building new, solid sections of the Great Wall in brick and stone.
Connections
Related events
- Altan Khan’s raid on Beijing1550 · East Asiadefence of the Ming northern frontier
Adjacent events in the thread
- Founding of the Kazakh Khanatebetween 1465 and 1471 · Central and Northern Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 25 years of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Castillon17 July 1453
- Gutenberg Biblebetween 1454 and 1455
- Wars of the Roses22 May 1455 – between 1485 and 1487
Eastern Europe
- Accession of Ivan III27 March 1462
- Marriage of Ivan III and Sophia Palaiologina12 November 1472
Balkans and Anatolia
- Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453
- Siege of Belgrade (1456)4–22 July 1456
- Battle of Otlukbeli11 August 1473
Africa
- Sonni Ali takes Timbuktubetween 1468 and 1469
- Discovery and settlement of Madeirabetween 1418 and 1419 – 1425
Central and Northern Asia
- Founding of the Kazakh Khanatebetween 1465 and 1471
South Asia
- Afanasy Nikitin’s Journey Beyond the Three Seasbetween 1466 and 1468 – between 1472 and 1474
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Đại Việt crushes Champa: the fall of VijayaNovember 1470 – March 1471
Latin America
- Reign of Pachacuti — birth of the Inca Empire1438–1471
- Construction of Machu Picchubetween 1420 and 1450
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Tumu Crisis
- Wikipedia (English): Great Wall of China
- Wikipedia (Russian): Тумуская катастрофа
- The Cambridge History of China. Vol. 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part 1 / Ed. F. W. Mote, D. Twitchett. — Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
- Wikidata: Q1196236