Which naval battle ended the Song dynasty in 1279?

The Battle of Yamen ended the Song dynasty in 1279. Fought on 19 March near the Pearl River estuary in southern China, it was the decisive naval confrontation between the Mongol-led Yuan forces and the remaining loyalists of the Southern Song.

The Yuan fleet, commanded by Zhang Hongfan, trapped the much smaller Song fleet under Zhang Shijie in a narrow coastal waterway. Yuan ships used chained or connected vessels, fire attacks, and controlled movement to restrict the Song fleet. After the Song position collapsed, the eight-year-old Song emperor Zhao Bing was carried away by his guardian and drowned, ending the dynasty’s imperial line.

The victory completed Kublai Khan’s conquest of China and consolidated the Yuan dynasty, which had been proclaimed in 1271. The Song had already lost much of its territory, but its court and navy continued resistance from the south.

Yamen is sometimes confused with Xiangyang, whose fall in the 1270s opened the route into Song territory. Xiangyang was strategically important, but Yamen was the final naval defeat.