Overview
The Tran are remembered above all for defeating the Mongols. Three invasions by the Mongol Yuan — 1258, 1285, and 1287–88 — were all repelled, the last at the second battle of the Bach Dang River in 1288 under the supreme command of Prince Tran Hung Dao. The campaigns stand as a defining epic of Vietnamese history.
Key developments
Vietnam’s first official national history, the Dai Viet su ky, was compiled in 1272 — the original is lost, and its text survives through incorporation into the 1479 Dai Viet su ky toan thu. The demotic Nom script spread in literature. Late in the era, wars with Champa ran hot.
End and transition
Exhausted by war and weakened at court, the dynasty saw the throne fall to the minister Ho Quy Ly in 1400. His brief Ho dynasty ended when Ming China invaded in 1406–07 and annexed Dai Viet as a province — twenty years of harsh occupation until the Lam Son uprising prevailed in 1427.