After being granted a large appanage and taking a number of wives, including Töregene, he played a prominent role in the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire.

When his older brothers Jochi and Chagatai quarrelled over strategies when besieging Gurganj, Genghis appointed Ögedei sole commander; his successful capture of the city in 1221 ensured his military reputation.

He launched a second invasion of Persia led by Chormaqan Noyan in 1230, which subdued the Khwarazmian prince Jalal al-Din and began to subjugate Georgia.

By the time of his death in 1241, large armies under the command of his nephew Batu Khan and Subutai had subdued the steppes and penetrated deep into Europe.

It is likely that this retreat was caused by the need to find a successor after Ögedei's death, although some scholars have speculated that the Mongols were simply unable to invade further because of logistical difficulties.

Working with officials such as Yelü Chucai, he developed ortogh trading systems, instituted methods of tax collection, and established regional bureaucracies which controlled legal and economic affairs.

[3] During the Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia, Ögedei and Chagatai massacred the residents of Otrar after a five-month siege in 1219–20 and joined Jochi who was outside the walls of Urganch.

In 1226, however, Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu, the last of the Khwarizm monarchs, returned to Persia to revive the empire lost by his father, Muhammad ‘Ala al-Din II.

Upon reaching the city of Rey, Chormaqan made his winter camp there and dispatched his armies to pacify the rest of northern Persia.

From there, he sent armies into the regions of Fars and Kirman, whose rulers quickly submitted, preferring to pay tribute to Mongol overlords rather than having their states ravaged.

In addition to the war with the Jin dynasty, Ögedei crushed the Eastern Xia founded by Puxian Wannu in 1233, pacifying southern Manchuria.

Ögedei announced plans for the conquest of the Koreans, the Southern Song, the Kipchaks and their European allies, all of whom killed Mongol envoys, at the kurultai in Mongolia in 1234.

Ögedei appointed Danqu commander of the Mongol army and made Bog Wong, a defected Korean general, governor of 40 cities with their subjects.

The Goryeo king finally sent his relative Yeong Nong-gun Sung with ten noble boys to Mongolia as hostages, temporarily ending the war in 1241.

Amid the conquest, Ögedei's son Güyük and Chagatai's grandson Büri ridiculed Batu, and the Mongol camp suffered dissension.

Most historians agree with Mongol accounts which attribute the drive's failure to his untimely demise necessitating Batu's withdrawal to personally participate in the election of Ögedei's successor.

[11] In a series of razzias from 1235 to 1245, the Mongols commanded by Ögedei's sons penetrated deep into the Song dynasty and reached Chengdu, Xiangyang and Yangtze River.

[12] The Mongol expansion throughout the Asian continent under the leadership of Ögedei helped bring political stability and re-establish the Silk Road, the primary trading route between East and West.

The Muslim merchants, working with capital supplied by the Mongol aristocrats, loaned at higher interest the silver needed for tax payments.

Ögedei abolished the branch departments of state affairs and divided the areas of Mongol-ruled China into ten routes according to the suggestion of Yelü Chucai.

Later, some of Yelu Chucai's duties were transferred to Mahamud Yalavach and taxes were handed over to Abd-ur-Rahman, who promised to double the annual payments of silver.

Ögedei had imperial princes tutored by the Christian scribe Qadaq and the Taoist priest Li Zhichang and built schools and an academy.

Ögedei Khan also decreed to issue paper currency backed by silk reserves and founded a department responsible for destroying old notes.

Yelu Chucai protested to Ögedei that his large-scale distribution of appanages in Iran, Western and North China, and Khorazm could lead to a disintegration of the empire.

He also prohibited the nobility from issuing paizas (tablets that gave the bearer authority to demand goods and services from civilian populations) and jarliqs.

The construction of the city, Karakorum (Хархорум), was finished in 1235, assigning different quarters to Islamic and North Chinese craftsmen, who competed to win Ögedei's favor.

Attached were private apartments, while in front of stood a giant stone tortoise bearing an engraved pillar, like those that were commonly used in East Asia.

[20] Like all Mongols at his time, he was raised and educated as a warrior from childhood, and as the son of Genghis Khan, he was a part of his father's plan to establish a world empire.

According to some sources, Tolui sacrificed his own life, accepting a poisoned drink in shamanist ritual in order to save Ögedei who was suffering from illness.

[23] According to Pamela Kyle Crossley, a posthumous Yuan dynasty portrait of Ögedei depicts him as having a stocky build, a red beard, and hazel eyes.