The Mongol Empire was divided into four major states. Which list contains those four states?

• A. The Yuan Dynasty, the Ilkhanate, the Golden Horde, the Chagatai Khanate
• B. The Yuan Dynasty, the Ilkhanate, the Golden Horde, the Great Khanate
• C. The Yuan Dynasty, the Ilkhanate, the Golden Horde, the Changatai Khanate
• D. The Yuan Dynasty, the Ilkhanate, the Golden Horde, the Timur Khanate

Answer: (C)

When the Mongol Empire split after Genghis Khan’s reign, it didn’t stay one united realm. It divided into four main khanates, each ruled by different lines of successors. Those four are the Yuan Dynasty in China, the Ilkhanate in Persia, the Golden Horde in the western steppes and Russia, and the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia. This arrangement is how historians describe the empire’s major political divisions.

That set—the Yuan Dynasty, the Ilkhanate, the Golden Horde, and the Chagatai Khanate—is the standard list. Note that Chagatai Khanate is sometimes spelled Changatai as a transliteration variant; they refer to the same region. The other options introduce names that aren’t the four Mongol subdivisions (for example, a non-existent “Great Khanate” or “Timur Khanate”), so they don’t fit the historical four-way division.