his side following his action and atrocities against the Chagatai Khanate. Ürüng Tash, son of Möngke, defected, taking his father's tamga seal from Ariq Böke and giving it to Kublai as a symbol of his loyalty. Alghu then returned to the Ili River to remove Ariq Böke from Xinjiang. Ariq Böke lacked the resources or the allies to defend himself. He travel to Shangdu alone and surrendered to Kublai in 1264, ending the civil war. Aftermath Kublai imprisoned Ariq Böke, but did not immediately punish him. Kublai's supporters wanted retribution, so Kublai ignored Ariq Böke for a year as punishment. He conducted a purge to eliminate officials in the Mongol government who sympathized with Ariq Böke. Kublai accused Bolghai, an important Mongol official who served under Möngke, of treachery for conspiring with Ariq Böke. Kublai authorized the execution of Bolghai and other Ariq Böke supporters. Kublai summoned a kurultai to decide a punishment for Ariq Böke and solidify his own claim to the throne. Kublai was reluctant to punish his brother without public support of the Mongol nobility. Ariq Böke died mysteriously in 1266 while still imprisoned, leading to speculation that Kublai had secretly poisoned him. Ariq Böke's defeat by Kublai could not stop the fracturing of the empire. When Kublai convened his kurultai to confirm his status as Great Khan, none of the three other khans attended. Berke and Hulagu continued fighting, until Hulagu died in 1265. The Ögedei line sought to exploit the disunity to advance the interests of their own family. They held a grudge against the Tolui family for the kurultai of 1251 and the subsequent purge of the Ögedeids after the assassination plot. Kaidu, from the Ögedei family, believed that a member of the Ögedeids deserved the title of Great Khan and started an insurrection in 1269 against Kublai that lasted for decades. Most of the western khanates did not recognize Kublai as Great Khan. Although some of them still asked Kublai to confirm the enthronement of their new regional khans, the four khanates were functionally independent sovereign states. The Ilkhanate based in Persia and the Yuan dynasty based in China had close diplomatic relations, and shared scientific and cultural knowledge, but military cooperation between all four Mongol khanates would never occur again — the united Mongol Empire had disintegrated. See also Berke–Hulagu war Kaidu–Kublai war Division of the Mongol Empire References Citations Sources Karma