After many defeats (last in 1306?) at the hands of the Delhi Sultanate, the Chagatai Khanate ceased the invasions. What were the main reasons for this decision?
I read on wiki that many thousands of Mongols were enslaved and later murdered in the Delhi Sultanate. I'd expect the Chagatai Khanate to be angered by this development.
It was because from the very beginning the Chagatai Khanate was split to 2 countries.
They were Western Chagatai, and the other was Eastern Chagatai.
I don't know why the English Wiki quotes this incident so minimally, only saying,
The khanate lasted in one form or another from 1220s until the late 17th century, although the western half of the khanate was lost to Timur's empire by 1370. The eastern half remained under Chagatai khans, who were, at times, allied or at war with Timur's successors, the Timurid dynasty.
It was not according to the "fall", but by the replacement by Timur.
So where did Eastern Chagatai Khanate go?
Here is the summary.
Moghulistan (Mughalistan, Moghul Khanate) (from Persian: مغولستان, Moqulestân/Moġūlistān), also called the Eastern Chagatai Khanate (Chinese: 东察合台汗国; pinyin: Dōng Cháhétái Hànguó), was a Mongol breakaway khanate of the Chagatai Khanate and a historical geographic area north of the Tengri Tagh mountain range,1 on the border of Central Asia and East Asia.
And the same Wiki says,
In actuality, local control rested with local Mongol Dughlats or Sufi Naqshbandi in their respective oases. Although the rulers enjoyed great wealth from the China trade, it was beset by constant civil war and invasions by the Timurid Empire, which emerged from the western part of the erstwhile Chagatai Khanate. Independence-minded khans created their own domains in cities like Kashgar and Turfan. Eventually it was overcome by the Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and Oirats.
So after the death of Chagatai Khan, the "dynasty" was split and had to fight with another normad people, so I think there is no afford for them to invade India.
Duwa died in 1307. His son Könchek died in 1308. Then Taliqu died in 1309. Then Kebek ruled for a year as well, until his brother Esen Buqa I took over. This -- finally -- reestablished some normalcy, before power returned in Kebek's hands a decade later.
The point in raising this is that instability was a thing when step nomad leaders changed. (It wasn't specific to the Chagatai; the Ottomans for instance had a similar type of problem and the Byzantine Empire took advantage of the chaos that invariably followed as much as they could get away with.) When leaders change, so can priorities. I'm not privy with the specific area or period but I doubt there's much more to it than that.
Invasions of India didn't stop there, though. According to this timeline, the Chagatai went on to invade India and reach as far as Delhi in 1328, so it didn't stop in 1306. (Another succession crisis followed two years later.) And there was Timur.
many thousands of Mongols were enslaved and later murdered in the Delhi Sultanate. I'd expect the Chagatai Khanate to be angered by this development.
FWIW I wouldn't. Nationalism wasn't a thing at the time. Also, thousands wasn't that many in those violent days. Vlad the Impaler had tens of thousands killed. Timur had millions killed.
