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East Asia · Confederacies, Han and the steppe

Xiongnu

drawn on the map AD 1–153

The Xiongnu were a nomadic steppe confederation dominating Mongolia and Inner Asia from the late 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE. Unified by Modu Chanyu (r. c. 209–174 BCE), who defeated the Yuezhi and Donghu, they forced the Han into the humiliating heqin (marriage-alliance and tribute) system after the Battle of Baideng (200 BCE). Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) reversed this with major campaigns (generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing).

See it on the map → Wikipedia ↗
Shown on the map
AD 1–153
Peak area
3.0M km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

The Xiongnu were a nomadic steppe confederation dominating Mongolia and Inner Asia from the late 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE. Unified by Modu Chanyu (r. c. 209–174 BCE), who defeated the Yuezhi and Donghu, they forced the Han into the humiliating heqin (marriage-alliance and tribute) system after the Battle of Baideng (200 BCE). Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) reversed this with major campaigns (generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing). Internal succession disputes split the Xiongnu; by 48 CE they divided into Southern and Northern branches. Their political model of the chanyu, the great chiefs, and left/right wings shaped later steppe empires.

Common questions

What were the Xiongnu?
The Xiongnu were a nomadic steppe confederation dominating Mongolia and Inner Asia from the late 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE. Unified by Modu Chanyu (r. c. 209–174 BCE), who defeated the Yuezhi and Donghu, they forced the Han into the humiliating heqin (marriage-alliance and tribute) system after the Battle of Baideng (200 BCE). Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) reversed this with major campaigns (generals Wei Qing and Huo Qubing).
When are the Xiongnu shown on the map?
The border data draws the Xiongnu AD 1–153. The source samples borders at fixed dates, so a span can begin late or run on past the end.
How large were the Xiongnu?
At their greatest extent drawn on this map, the Xiongnu covered about 3 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives them across the years they are drawn, not necessarily their greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

Around the same time

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