Overview
The Trần 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 Bạch Đằng River in 1288 under the supreme command of Prince Trần Hưng Đạo. The campaigns stand as a defining epic of Vietnamese history.
Key developments
Vietnam’s first official national history, the Đại Việt su ky, was compiled in 1272 — the original is lost, and its text survives through incorporation into the 1479 Đại Việt 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 Hồ Quý Ly in 1400. His brief Ho dynasty ended when Ming China invaded in 1406–07 and annexed Đại Việt as a province — twenty years of harsh occupation until the Lam Sơn uprising prevailed in 1427.