Who was the founder of the Golden Horde?

Batu Khan was the founder of the Golden Horde, the Mongol successor state that grew from the western territories assigned to his father, Jochi. Batu was a grandson of Genghis Khan and became one of the most important rulers of the post-conquest Mongol world.

After Jochi died in the 1220s, Genghis Khan confirmed Batu as the principal ruler of Jochi's western inheritance, while Batu's elder brother Orda governed lands farther east. Batu then led the great western campaign of 1236–1242, which conquered or subordinated much of the Volga region, the Rus' principalities, and parts of Eastern Europe. He established Sarai on the lower Volga as his capital.

The name Golden Horde became common later; contemporaries often referred to the state as the Ulus of Jochi. Jochi was its dynastic ancestor, but Batu is conventionally credited as its founder because he consolidated the western ulus into a powerful khanate. Subutai was a general, Ögedei was a Great Khan, and neither held the founding role associated with Batu.