The death of Ogedei Khan saved Europe from Mongol conquest, as the ensuing succession crisis halted the western invasion and plunged the empire into a decade of internal power struggles.

The Mongols were now on the borders of both the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, Europe's two major powers. It looked as though all of Europe would now fall just like Northern China and the Khwarazmian Empire before it. If it had, it's likely that the entire history of the world would have gone down another path. If the Mongols had devastated Florence, Venice, and Milan the way they had devastated Beijing and Samarqand, the Renaissance would likely never have taken place... But history again had other plans. One event would transpire that would save Europe from this fate; that was the death of the Great Khan Ogedei.

verbatim transcript · starts at 427:11