Challenge: Tamerlane pulls a Genghis Khan

Here's the question: how do we get Tamerlane to conquer an empire similar in size to that of the Mongol Empire? Is it possible at all? When would the POD need to be?
 
The only way in which Timur Lenk could ever conquer an empire that's substantially bigger than his OTL conquests, is if he actually puts some effort in organizing and centralizing his empire, so he won't have to spend half his time putting down the local rebellions that popped up whenever he and his horde had left.

Timur Lenk almost always left the administration of his conquests in the hands of vassalized local rulers - even if said local rulers were downright untrustworthy. That's also the reason why his empire crumbled soon after his death, leaving only Timurid a rump state in Central Asia.

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But even if Timur would properly organize and centralize his empire, then I still don't think that his empire could ever become any bigger than about a third of the original Mongol empire at it's height.

I don't think that Timur Lenk would have been capable of successfully conquering the remnants of the Golden Horde (especially the White Horde offered stiff resistance to Timur in OTL), and allthough he might be able to conquer Mughalistan (he never really succeeded in doing this in OTL), the Oirats and Eastern Mongols would definitely be too much for him.

And there's no way that Timur could ever have succeeded in conquering Ming China, which was pretty much at its height at this point. Hell, it took the Mongols decades to fully conquer a divided and relatively weak China, so there's no way that Timur could ever have conquered a strong and united China during his lifetime.
 
Well, Timur was born in (according to wiki) 1336. This was when the Yuan Empire was going through a relatively rough time which would last till it essentially collapsed in 1370. Perhaps the Yuan survive several more generations, to the time that while they prevent the Ming Dynasty from being established, they end up being unified, but weak enough that Timur manages to conquer the entire area in one blow? That's a massive stretch, because I don't think the Yuan would have lasted too much longer, not to mention the fact that by the time Timur plans to invade China (in OTL 1402), I'm thinking the Yuan would definitely have collapsed. Even if they didn't, it's still a bit of a stretch, to have Timur conquer an area as vast as China in a short while.
 
SOlipsist likes the idea of Tamerlane pulling Genghis Khan. But wonders whether their beards might get tangled.

(That was Solipsist's idea of a joke.)
 
Well, Timur was born in (according to wiki) 1336. This was when the Yuan Empire was going through a relatively rough time which would last till it essentially collapsed in 1370. Perhaps the Yuan survive several more generations, to the time that while they prevent the Ming Dynasty from being established, they end up being unified, but weak enough that Timur manages to conquer the entire area in one blow? That's a massive stretch, because I don't think the Yuan would have lasted too much longer, not to mention the fact that by the time Timur plans to invade China (in OTL 1402), I'm thinking the Yuan would definitely have collapsed. Even if they didn't, it's still a bit of a stretch, to have Timur conquer an area as vast as China in a short while.

Well, you could keep the northern Yuan going for a longer period, or you could have Timur invade at an earlier date. Maybe the Ming vs. Northern Yuan struggle in the 1380's turns out much, much worse for the Ming, and the Northern Yuan are unified by a charismatic leader that in OTL fell ignominously from his horse several years earlier. You could engineer this as a butterfly effect of Timur having a more consolidatory head on his shoulders in Central Asia. A stronger Northern Yuan and a weaker Ming means that a younger and less prone to disease Tamerlane might ride east to assist in the reconquest of the Ming and re-establishment of the Mongol empire.

A big thing to avoid would be a Tokhtamish-Tamer struggle, which robbed both of energy. Perhaps if you timed it well you could instead get the Northern Yuan to appeal to both of them to aid them in reconquering the Ming, sometime before 1385. Both Tamer and Tokhtamish ride east in search of glory, and sweep to victory over the Ming. Circumstances could then allow for a massive power struggle, a few lucky deaths of North Yuan and Golden Horde leaders, and such. In this way, Timur could dominate an empire approximating that of the earlier Mongols, but it probably wouldn't last very long. A couple of extra conquests (India or Japan) and Bob's your uncle.

Bleedingly unlikely and reliant on luck and circumstance, but history seems to run on things like that.
 
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