The Christian Armenians, including both Greater Armenia and Lesser Armenia, entered into agreements with the Mongol Empire (primarily the Ilkhanate) from the 1240s to around 1320. Some historians refer to this relationship as an alliance, while others refer to it as vassalage, where Armenia was a tributary of the Mongols. During the time period of the later Crusades, the Mongols and Armenians engaged in some combined military operations against t...
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The Christian Armenians, including both Greater Armenia and Lesser Armenia, entered into agreements with the Mongol Empire (primarily the Ilkhanate) from the 1240s to around 1320. Some historians refer to this relationship as an alliance, while others refer to it as vassalage, where Armenia was a tributary of the Mongols. During the time period of the later Crusades, the Mongols and Armenians engaged in some combined military operations against their common enemy, the Muslims, and the relations with the Mongols allowed Cilician Armenia, at least, to survive much longer than the other Christian states of the Levant.
The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia, or "Lesser Armenia" was formed in the late 1100s, by refugees and migrants from "Greater Armenia". The area was staunchly Christian, as Armenia itself had been the first nation to ever adopt Christianity as its official religion, in the 4th century. Armenians were therefore very friendly to the European Crusaders who began to arrive in the...
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