The Yuan dynasty
Supported by competent Kitan, Jurchen, and Uyghurian advisors the Mongols established a civilian rule over China, and the country profited from the "Pax Mongolica" that unified a large part of the Eurasian continent. European merchants like the Polo family came to China to profit from the treasures of the east. From the capital Dadu
The picture of the Mongol regime as brutal and exploitative cannot be substantiated. The Mongol elite successfully cooperated with various ethnic groups to administer a large and economically advanced empire as China. Chinese officials were loyal to the Yuan dynasty, and one of the Yuan emperors reintroduced the examination system and made full use of the traditional Chinese state apparatus. The Yuan dynasty had several important books on statecraft published, which shows that they knew how to run a bureaucratic empire.
The end of the Yuan dynasty is not in first instance to be led back to the many popular rebellions, but to natural disasters (probably as a result of a world-wide "minor ice age" in the fourteenth century), and to the Mongol elite's indecisiveness about their own way of life between the traditional yurt and the Chinese-style palace. After the Mongols's withdrawal to the steppe, the most successful bandit rebel, Zhu Yuanzhang
This chapter of the ChinaKnowledge.de encyclopaedia gives an overview of the political history of the Yuan period, the geography of the empire and its surroundings, provides a list of its rulers, describes the administration and political structure of the empire, and gives insight into the religion and beliefs of the time, as well as the fine arts, the economy, literature and philosophy, and the history of technology and inventions.