Temujin does not die, however.

In a dramatic struggle described in The Secret History of the Mongols, Temujin, by the age of twenty, has become the leader of the Kiyat subclan and by 1196, the unquestioned chief of the Borjigin Mongols.

Sixteen years of nearly constant warfare follow as Temujin consolidates his power north of the Gobi.

Much of his early success is because of his first alliance, with the neighboring Keraite clan, and because of subsidies that he and the Keraite receive from the Jin emperor in payment for punitive operations against Tatars and other tribes that threaten the northern frontiers of Jin.

Jin by this time has become absorbed into the Chinese cultural system and is politically weak and increasingly subject to harassment by Western Xia, the Chinese, and finally the Mongols.

Later Temujin breaks with the Keraite, and, in a series of major campaigns, he defeats all the Mongol and Tatar tribes in the region from the Altai Mountains to Manchuria.

In time Temujin emerges as the strongest chieftain among a number of contending leaders in a confederation of clan lineages.

His principal opponents in this struggle have been the Naiman Mongols, and he selects Karakorum (westsouthwest of modern Ulaanbaatar, near modern Har Horin), their capital, as the seat of his new empire.