Mongolia, country, Asia: Modern History

Modern History

For the early history of Mongolia, see Mongols. The area was under Chinese control from 1691 until the collapse of the Manchu dynasty in China in 1911, when a group of Mongol princes ousted the Manchu governor and proclaimed an autonomous Mongolia with Jebtsun Damba Khutukhtu (the Living Buddha of Urga) as ruler. The new state was reoccupied by the Chinese in 1919. The Chinese were driven out by White Russian forces under Baron von Ungern-Sternberg in early 1921, and the Whites in turn were ousted by Red Army troops and Mongolian units under the Mongolian Communist leaders Sukhe-Bator and Khorloin Choibalsan.

Mongolia was proclaimed an independent state in July, 1921, and remained a monarchy until the Living Buddha died in 1924. The establishment (Nov., 1924) of the Communist-led Mongolian People's Republic was followed by a struggle to divest the old privileged classes of their capital (largely in the form of land and livestock) and persecution of the Lama priests; this in turn led to the Lama Rebellion of 1932, when priests led thousands of people, with some 7 million head of livestock, across the border to Inner Mongolia.

In 1936 the USSR signed a mutual aid pact with the republic, thus formalizing the existing close relations between the two countries. A constitution adopted in 1940 consolidated the power of the Communist regime. During World War II the Mongolian army joined the USSR in Manchuria in the last, brief stage of the war against Japan. In 1945 a plebiscite was held under a Sino-Soviet agreement, and the republic overwhelmingly voted for continued independence. Khorloin Choibalsan, the prime minister from 1938 until his death in 1952, was succeeded by Yumzhaggiin Tsedenbal. A new constitution came into force in 1960, and Mongolia was admitted to the United Nations in 1961.

In the ideological dispute between the Soviet Union and China, Mongolia traditionally supported the Soviet Union. Mongolia's position shifted during the 1980s, however, and it established diplomatic relations with China in 1986 and with the United States a year later. After a series of demonstrations in the late 1980s calling for freedom and human rights, the Communist party voted to relinquish its constitutional power, which led to the election by the parliament of Punsalmaagiin Ochirbat as president in 1990. In the same year a multiparty political system was also instituted, and in 1991 the country was renamed the State of Mongolia.

In 1992, Mongolia opened its first stock exchange and adopted a new democratic constitution; the Mongolian People's Revolutionary party (MPRP—the former Communists) overwhelmingly retained control of parliament in elections that year. However, Ochirbat, running as a non-Communist, won Mongolia's first free presidential election in 1993. In the first half of 1996, Mongolia was beset by wildfires that raged for more than three months and scorched 41,000 sq mi (106,000 sq km) of forest and rangeland. In the 1996 parliamentary elections the opposition Democratic Union Coalition won a stunning upset, gaining nearly two thirds of the seats. Following a downturn in the economy, Natsagiyn Bagabandi, the candidate of the MPRP, won a decisive victory against Ochirbat in the 1997 presidential elections.

Parliamentary elections in 2000 resulted in a nearly total win for the MPRP, which won 95% of the seats; Natsagiyn Enkhbayar became prime minister. Bagabandi was reelected in May, 2001. In the 2004 parliamentary elections the opposition alliance, now called the Motherland Democratic Coalition, won two fewer seats than the MPRP, but also claimed two seats that MPRP contested in court. The unexpected turnabout led to weeks of wrangling and a delay in inaugurating parliament. In August, however, the MPRP and the opposition agreed to form a unity government, and Democrat Tsakhiagiyn Elbegdorj became prime minister. Elbegdorj had previously held the office for seven months in 1998.

In the 2005 presidential elections, MPRP candidate Nambaryn Enkhbayar won; Enkhbayar had served as prime minister in the early 1990s. In Jan., 2006, the unity government collapsed when the MPRP withdrew. The MPRP formed a new government with support from minor parties and some Democrats; Miyeegombo Enkhbold, the former mayor of Ulaanbaatar, was named prime minister. Enkhbold resigned in Nov., 2007, and was succeeded by fellow MPRP member Sanjaagin Bayar. Parliamentary elections in June, 2008, resulted in a majority for the MPRP. Although international observers called the vote free and fair, the opposition alleged that there had been electoral fraud, and a riot in the capital led to a brief state of emergency.

In the May, 2009, presidential election, former prime minister Elbegdorj defeated Enkhbayar. Bayar resigned as prime minister in Oct., 2009, and was succeeded in the post by Sukhbaatar Batbold, the foreign minister and a wealthy businessman. A severe winter in 2009–10 killed more than a sixth of Mongolia's livestock, with more than 30,000 families losing half or more of their animals. In the June, 2012, parliamentary elections the Democratic party won a plurality, and the Mongolian People's party (MPP; the main body of the former MPRP) placed second. The Democrats formed a coalition government with Enkhbayar's splinter MPRP and other small parties, and Democrat Norov Altankhuyag became prime minister. In Aug., 2012, Enkhbayer was convicted of corruption, on charges that he asserted were politically motivated; the manner of his arrest in April and his subsequent jailing was questioned by Amnesty International, and he was pardoned a year later.

Elbegdorj was reelected president in 2013. Economic issues and corruption charges contributed to Altankhuyag's dismissal as prime minister in 2014; Chimed Saikhanbileg succeeded him. The MPP won a landslide victory in the June, 2016, parliamentary elections, and Jargaltulga Erdenebat, a former finance minister, became prime minister. In the 2017 presidential election, Khaltmaa Battulga, a businessman and the Democratic party candidate, was elected after a runoff in July.

Erdenebat was ousted as prime minister in Sept., 2017, for alleged corruption and incompetence; Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, also from the MPP, succeeded him in October. Constitutional amendments adopted in 2019 increased the powers of the prime minister at the expense of the president and, beginning in 2025, limited the president to one six-year term. Parliamentary elections in June, 2020, gave the MPP a landslide victory, and marked the first time a party had won a majority two elections in a row. In Jan., 2021, after antigovernment protests that Khurelsukh accused the president of orchestrating, he resigned as prime minister.

Sections in this article:

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Chinese and Mongolian Political Geography