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In 555 B.C. the Jujan khanate was defeated by the Altai Turks and for almost five centuries they were subjugated by the Turkic people - the Turks, Uigur and Kyrgyz. During the period of domination of Turkic peoples on Mongolian territory, the native Mongols lived in the eastern and northeastern regions of Mongolia, forming small separate khanates.

The largest Mongolian tribes at that time were the Khamag (Whole) Mongols, the Khereid, Merged, Naiman, Tatars and others. The basic wealth of the Mongolian cattle-raising tribes consisted of sheep, goats, horses and cattle. There were a few camels, bred chiefly by the Naiman. The horse was a means of locomotion in everyday life and a faithful friend in battle, on the march and in hunting. Under conditions of feudal division and internecine strife the khuree, or ring-shaped disposition of families, was widely used as a means of defence against surprise attack. Vestiges of the clan system, customs and religious beliefs (Shamanism) were retained by the Mongols of that time even after the feudal mode of production became predominant. At the beginning of the eleventh century, Khamag Mongols had emerged in central Mongolia as the leading clan of a loose federation. The Khamag Mongol ulus (state) was ruled by Khabul khan, one of whose most influential successors was his grandson Yesuhkei-baatar. He ruled over the largest of the Khamag Mongol tribes - the Taichuud.

Temujin, the future Genghis Khan, was born into Yesukhei-baatar's family in Deluun Boldog on the upper reaches of the Onon river in 1162. In 1170 Yesukhei-baatar was poisoned by hostile Tatars, and soon after his death his ulus disintegrated. Yesukhei's widow Oelun and her children lived for a long time in misery, but her eldest son, Temujin, turned out to be extremely energetic, enterprising and shrewd. He married Burte, daughter of Khongirad tribal chief Dei Setsen, to whom he had been betrothed by his father, and shortly afterwards began fighting for power over the other tribes, entering into an alliance with Tooril Khan, chief of the Khereid tribe. In 1884 the Merged, who had been at loggerheads with Yesukhei, attacked Temujin's camp, but with the help of his blood brother, Wan Khan, and Jadran tribe's prince Jamukha, Temujin inflicted a heavy defeat upon them.

However the Temujin-Jamukha alliance did not last, since each had claims to rule over the Khamag Mongol. Eventually, Temujin broke with Khereid's Tooril Khan and his ambitious son Sengum and, in a series of major campaigns, he defeated all the Tatar tribes. He subordinated all Mongol Khanates to himself in the year 1205.