Thanks to its geographical position, the Central Asia was for a very long time crossed by the great transportation routes of the Eurasia, in particular by the Silk route. This privileged situation enabled him to acquire a great richness as well cultural as economic. It is however important to distinguish two types of people, the sedentaries and the nomads, whose opposition marked the history of the Central Asia during nearly 3000 years. The aridity of this area has constrained the sedentaries to set up networks of irrigation. Their oases being distant from/to each other, it was difficult for them to form unified States. The nomads always lived in the vast zone of steppes and deserts located at the north of the Central Asia. When their tribes managed to be linked, of powerful empires constituted themselves. Thus it is Xiongnu at third century BC or Mongolian S at the 13th century. The empires established their domination on the oases of the Central Asia and extended sometimes out of this territory. The China frequently underwent wandering invasions of people.
The golden age of the people of the steppe ends during the 16th century when the great empires Russian and Chinese take little by little the control of the area. At the time of the 19th century the heart of the Central Asia falls to the hands from the armies from the tsar. After the Russian Révolution of 1917 practically all the area is built-in the Soviet Union, only the Mongolia manages to remain nominally independent although in the facts it is a Soviet satellite. In these zones, the industrialization and the construction of infrastructures develop, involving the death of the local cultures, the pollution and of the ethnic tensions. The program of Collectivisation will involve thousands of deaths.
With the fall of the Soviet Union, five new states are born. In all these states the former Communist leaders keep the capacity. And even if a certain quivering is felt with the arrival of American in the area following the war against terrorism, one is still far from having democratic states. The remainder of the studied territory remains under the control of China.
Prehistory
The presence of the man is attested in Central Asia as of the Paléolithique inferior, in particular by the tools which it produced. The most known site is that of the valley of Soan, with the Pakistan; the oldest vestiges could go back to 1,2 to 1,4 million years. With the Tadjikistan, the sites of Karatau I and Lakhuti I have provides more than 2000 parts going back to 200.000 to 300.000 years. At that time the Homo sapiens did not exist yet. Its older remainders seem to be found in Inner Mongolia in 1975; they date from the beginning of the Paléolithique superior.
The first inhabitants of the Central Asia lived hunting and gathering until towards -10.000. They then gradually adopted a saving in production. In thousand-year-old VIIe front J. - C., whereas caves continued to be inhabited by hunters-cueillers, sedentary farmers built villages. There remain vestiges about it on the site of Djeitoun , close to Ashghabad to the Turkménistan. One of these villages included/understood about thirty houses which could place to 200 people. They cultivated barley and corn and they knew already the irrigation. The goat was undoubtedly domesticated; the sheep was still driven out.
Little before the time Djeitoun, with, one observes a migration of people originating in the the Middle East towards the south-east of the Caspian Sea. It brought with him of the sheep and the goats domesticated. These men used caves like those of Djebel or Prejudice Prejudice Chashma II like seasonal dwellings. According to Bernard Sergent ( the Indo-Europeans , Payot, 2005), it would be about Sémito-Hamites. Continuing their migration until the north of the Black Sea, they would have mixed with autochtones, and of this interbreeding, the Proto-indo-Europeans would result.
Of thousand-year-old VIIe front J. - C. with, most of the Western Turkestan was covered by the culture with Kelteminar . These men used the same technique of size of flint that those of Djeitoun, but they manufactured especially arrowheads instead of producing sickles. They drove out the Gazelle and the Onagre and practiced fishing. They installed seasonal campings close to the water points, with half-sunken huts or great constructions of more than 300 m ². One found there bones of camels, oxen and horses wild. A rather simple pottery was used, with painted or incised decorations. V. NR. Danylenko supposed that the men of Djebel had left the south-east of the Caspian Sea to go on the the Volga because of the pressure of the men of Kelteminar, and it even distinguished two waves from migrations.
With, tribes originating in the central Iran were intallèrent in the south of the Turkménistan. A new culture, known as of Namazga , appeared. She saw the development of agriculture, with the breeding of oxen and the pigs, as well as weaving. The metallurgy of copper was introduced. Towards the end of, these communities entered in relation to the Iran and the India of North. They extended slowly towards the east and of the agricultural establishments consituèrent themselves in Ouzbékistan (site of Sarazm). The first vehicles with wheels appeared, in source undoubtedly the Middle East.
The culture of Namazga arrived at its apogee at medium OJ, with the introduction of bronze and the development of a true town planning. She is known by sites like that of Altyn-depe or Hapuz-depe. The city of Altyn-depe had a 15 meters broad entry; there were two alleys, for the pedestrians and for the vehicles. There exist representations of carriages drawn by camels. The houses were made up of several parts. The burials were generally collective, as at the former times, but there were also individual tombs equipped with a movable rich person. These last being close to a religious building, one can suppose that the late ones had been priests. They were mainly women.
With the Kazakhstan, the cultures evolved/moved much less. In the south of this territory, they remained close to the culture of Kelteminar. Hunting, fishing and the gathering remained the principal means of subsistence, but one observes a tendency to sedentarisation. A remarkable site is that of Botai , in the north of Kazakhstan. Its flint tools made it possible it to date from and OJ. The houses were semi-underground, with a roof out of wooden. They were permanent dwellings. The bones of animals which were found come to 99% from horses. The men of Botai drove out them but they also started to domesticate them. It is also known that they assembled them.
The arrival of the Indo-Europeans
The domestication of the horse was carried out as of by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Those created a culture known as of the Kourganes according to the shape of their burials. A part of them migrated during of the Russia of the south until in southernmost Siberia, on the middle price of the Ienisseï. They founded there the culture of Afanasievo, which remained during all the OJ. One inclines to see in them the ancestors of the Tokhariens. About year -2000, they settled in the Bassin of Tarim, around the Désert of Taklamakan. This very arid territory seems to have been about empty before their arrival: separately certain islands of the Pacific Ocean, it was the zone most recently occupied by the man.
At this same time, a culture also resulting from that of the kourganes appeared in the east of the the Ural: that of Sintashta. Its carriers had a new invention: the light tank of war with two wheels, drawn by two horses. They manufactured also weapons out of bronze. These advantages explain surely their fulgurating expansion. During III, they occupied most of the Central Asia, in particular the totality of the Kazakhstan, and southernmost Siberia. They penetrated in the west of the basin of Tarim, where Tokhariens were subject to their influence. These men probably spoke an Iranian language. They were sedentaries who lived breeding and agriculture. They founded what one calls the Culture of Andronovo.
They had contacts with the Civilization of Oxus, which occupied the south of the Turkménistan and the Ouzbékistan (in particular the Bactriane) between -2200 and -1700. This civilization seems to be born meeting of men of Namazga with of the Indo-Europeans who spoke a antiquated Sanskrit. From -1700, part of these men migrated towards the India of North, where they brought the Sanskrit, but of others moved towards the the Middle East, where they would have founded the kingdom of the Mitanni. In fact, it is in the Middle East that the oldest traces of the Indian culture are (vocabulary and names of gods). In India, these men were established on the debris of brilliant the Civilization of the valley of Indus, which they had undoubtedly contributed to destroy.
From -1500, the Iranian tribes were intallèrent on the territory of the civilization of Oxus. Tokhariens and the Iranians shared consequently the near total of the Central Asia. They let remain only one nonIndo-European language, the Burushaski, folded up in the mountains of the septentrional Pakistan. At the beginning of II, the Iranians of the steppes became wandering and gave up the tanks for the assembled cavalry. They are known under the names of Scythes or Saces. A part among them, the Sogdiens and the Bactriens, sédentarisèrent and founded cities like that of Samarkand.
The nomadism of the people of the steppes is explained by the prevalence granted to the breeding on the culture of the ground: it is not possible to make always feed the animals at the same place, under penalty of exhausting the pastures. Often badly included/understood by the sedentaries, this lifestyle does not consist in wandering in a perpetual way, but carrying out an annual circuit on the same territory. The nomads are in general attached to their grounds. The Scythians did not hesitate to flee in front of their enemies when those were too strong, but they were ready to die to defend the grounds where their ancestors were buried.
Antiquity
At sixth century BC the empire achéménide launched out to the conquest of the Central Asia. The Greek authors consequently started to speak about this territory. Oldest testimonys are in the work of Hérodote. Persians took possession of the Bactriane and the Sogdiane, but they could subject only part of Saces. The founder of the empire achéménide, Cyrus, was killed at the time of a campaign against the Massagètes, directed by the Tomyris queen. The latter were nomads connected in Saces and the Scythians.
At the fourth century BC, Alexandre Large the destroyed the dynasty of Achéménides and thus brought hellenistic civilization until in Bactriane by basing the town of Alexandria Eskhate into -329, on the current territory of Tadjikistan. After its death in -323, the conquered territory was recovered by other Greeks, the Séleucides. Towards -250, the portion of the empire séleucide corresponding to the Central Asia made secession and formed the Royaume gréco-bactrien, which extended towards India. Under the reign of Demetrios (approximately from -189 to -167), all the valley of India, to the sea, was conquered. This true empire saw flowering gréco-Buddhist art .
The kingdom gréco-bactrien was victim of the mediocrity of its last sovereigns and an event of considerable importance which occurred in the east of the Central Asia: the defeat of the empire of the Yuezhi vis-a-vis that of the Xiongnu. The first were nomads Tokhariens which had founded a vast empire starting from the west of the Gansu. They had in particular taken the control of the basin of Tarim, where other Tokhariens had been sédentarisés. Xiongnu having driven out Yuezhi of their territory of origin, those migrated towards the west by pushing in front of them certain people saces. The latter went in Bactriane, which they took to the Greeks, and they carried on their road until in Afghanistan. Under the reign of Maues (from -90 to -53), they penetrated in India. Part of the Yuezhi intalla in its turn in Bactriane, a little before -130. Eager to come into contact with them, the Chinese sent to them the ambassador Zhang Qian. Consequently, they had a rather precise knowledge of the Central Asia. As from first century BC, they endeavoured to control the basin of Tarim and to drive out Xiongnu of it.
The 1st century of our era saw the emergence of a new empire in Bactriane, that of the Kouchanes. The Chinese regard them as of Yuezhi, but perhaps actually acted it of Saces who had been vassal of Yuezhi. Their culture was obviously Iranian. In spite of the importance which this empire took, one knows very few things about him. Being a hyphen between the China and the Roman empire, it made it possible the trade to develop on the Silk route. This transportation route crossed the Perse, then dominated by the Parthes. Buddhism started to be diffused in Central Asia under the reign of the emperor Kanishka Ier. It settled especially in its oriental party, i.e. in the Bassin of Tarim. The Zoroastrisme remained the principal religion of the people of Iranian language. The Nestorianisme to be established more in certain places.
The arrival of the Turco-Mongols
Fundamental, the victory of the Xiongnu over the Yuezhi was it in more than one way: it marks the beginning of the retreat of the Indo-European people vis-a-vis the people turco-Mongolian, originating in Siberia. From now on, the Mongolia will not belong any more but to the latter. These people perpetuate however the lifestyle of the Indo-European nomads. They are extremely skilful riders armed with powerful composite arcs. All the men are warriors who have to have to kill out of the enemies; to die in the combat is an ideal. As opposed to what one believes sometimes, their armies are very disciplined. These people practice also the raid. They attack the sedentaries then they leave them in peace in exchange of the payment of a tribe.
Several empires appear in Mongolia and dominate a more or less large part of the Central Asia:
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In 155, the Xianbei succeed Xiongnu. They do not found a very powerful State, but at the end of the Dynastie Han in China, after 220, of the tribes resulting from their confederations occupy China of North. It is the case of the Tabgatch, founders into 432 of the dynasty of the Wei of North. This phénonème can be compared with the Great invasions which caused the collapse of the Roman empire of Occident.
- Ruanruan, or Avars of their true name, are made main from Mongolia into 402. Their chief bears the name turco-Mongolian of Khan.
- At the same time, the Hephthalites, originating in the area called later Dzoungarie, leaves to the conquest the Russian Turkestan, then of India of North. In Persia, the Sassanides are confronted with them. It seems that they were Indo-European.
- the Köktürks eliminate Avars into 552, then Hephalites a few years later. They seize all the Western Turkestan, settling until in Bactriane. It is the first people to bear “the Turkish” name.
- They are replaced into 744 by the Ouighours, also Turkish. Contrary to the preceding people, Ouighours will be in good terms with the Chinese. They will become even the guards of the Dynastie Tang vis-a-vis the rebellion of An Lushan.
- They are overcome into 841 by the Kyrgyz, of Turkish language, and take refuge with the Gansu then in the basin of Tarim, where they will cause the extinction of the languages tokhariennes. They convert with the Manichéisme then with the Bouddhisme, the religion of Tokhariens.
The time of which it is question here is also that of the size of the Sogdiens, whose marketing activity contributed to the development of the Silk route. They founded colonies until the east of the Bassin of Tarim and their language became the common language of the Central Asia. They influenced Ouighours then those were still in Mongolia; their writing was used to note the Turkish language.
Islamization
After having destroyed the Persian empire of the Sassanides into 651, the Arab continued their conquests. They took Samarkand into 712. The Chinese, who had succeeded in controlling most of the Central Asia after the defeat of the Köktürks, were eliminated from the Western Turkestan at the time of Bataille of Catholic students into 751. Just as Persians, the Sogdiens converted gradually with the Islam. This religion was going to deeply mark the sedentary people of the Central Asia, and conversely, their refined civilization was going to exert an influence on Islam. Under the dynasty of the Samanides, come to power towards 875, the Persan one supplanted the languages of Bactriane and Sogdiane. Always spoken in Central Asia, it took the name of inhabitant of Tajik .
However, the Turks continued their expansion. The Karakhanides, close to Ouighours of Tarim and occupying a going territory of Kachgar until the Lake Balkhach, converted with Islam and launched out to the attack of the Transoxiane (area located between the Amou-Daria and the Syr-Daria). Their sovereign Bughra Khan conquered Sogdiane into 999, putting fine at the dynasty of Samanides. Karakhanides remained however established in the basin of Tarim, in particular with Kachgar, and undertook to Islamize this territory by the force of the weapons. At the end of the 10th century, another Moslem Turkish kingdom was constituted in Afghanistan, that of the Ghaznévides. Its larger king, Mahmud de Ghazni , undertook a bloody conquest of India, until the Gange. He contributed to the defeat of Samanides; he was allied then enemy of Karakhanides.
The Oghouz was a group of Turkish tribes which nomadisaient about year 800 in the steppes of the Kazakhstan. They are also known under the name of Turkmènes. Towards 950, one of these tribes, that of Kinik, was installed on the course of the Syr-Daria on the initiative of its chief Seldjouk . Its descendants, the Seldjoukides, converted with Islam, but in a rather surface way because they remained partly chamanists. Their chief Tohgril provided the foundations of their future empire by reversing Ghaznévides in May 1040. He conquered Ispahan in 1051 and decided to make his capital of it. Persia very whole fell under the domination, and in 1055, it entered to Baghdad. Three years later, Khalife gave him the title of “king d' Orient and Occident”. As from 1064, Seldjoukides replaced Karakhanides in Sogdiane. By its conquests, Toghril made it possible the tribes oghouzes to settle in Anatolia and Azerbaïdjan, where Turkish was going to replace the local languages. Persia, on the other hand, was not turquisée. Sédentarisés and defenders of Iranian civilization, Seldjoukides were confronted with their own brothers remained wandering. They used them as auxiliaries or had to fight against them.
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the Khwârazm-Shahs with Xe and XIe century.
- most spectacular, the Mongolian Empire formed by Genghis Khan at the 13th century, including/understanding all the Central Asia, China, a great part of Russia and the Middle East.
Foreign influences
The wandering lifestyle which had remained practically unchanged since 500 av. J. - C. starts to disappear after 1500. Several reasons explain this upheaval. First of all the worldwide economy undergoes an important change between 14th and the 15th century with the appearance of the maritime trade. Oceanic trade route are discovered by Europeans, they will supplant the Silk route, weakening the Moslem states of Central Asia. Moreover the chaos which follows the end of the Mongols this road makes not very sour.The other great change is the appearance of the firearms, which will change the power struggle between the nomads and the sedentaries. The manufacture of these weapons requires organized companies, gradually the peripheral empires conquer the steppe.
The last empire of the steppe is that of the Dzungars which invade Turkestan and Mongolia. However sign of times they are unable to tackle the forces manchous, and are even demolishes by them. During the 18th century, the emperors manchous (Qianlong), originating them also in the steppe, make countryside towards the west and Mongolia, taking the control of the Xinjiang in 1758. A great part of Mongolia is conquered forming the province of Inner Mongolia.
Of sound with dimensions the Perse starts are expansion towards north with the reign of Nadir Shah which extends the Persian domination to bank of the Oxus. After its death nevertheless, the Persian empire weakens and fall under the cut from the British and Russian.
Russian of their with dimensions extends towards the south, the first stage is the formation of the fortress of Orenburg to the door of the Kazakh steppe. The slow conquest of the Central Asia starts at the beginning of the 19th century and continues over all the century. Until the years 1870, the impact of this conquest on the lifestyle remains weak. That changes with the conquest of the Turkestan and the massive arrival of peasants come to settle in the steppe.
The control of Turkestan by the foreign powers
Russian campaigns
The Russians appear in the area at the end of the 19th century, after a fulgurating victory of the troops of the general Mikhaïl Tcherniaïev with Chymkent (current Kazakhstan) in 1884. They subject initially the wandering tribes of Kazakh, then the khanats (states on which reign a Khan) of Bukhara and Khiva, and then is current Ouzbékistan, including Tachkent (1865). The conquered territories were gathered in an administrative unit called general Gouvernement of the Turkestan. In 1867 Tachkent becomes the capital of Turkestan.The Russian forces meet only little resistance on behalf of the armies of the khanats. There are well some leaders who try to interpose, as Kokandien Alimqul which is killed close to Chymkent, but the principal opposition is that of the British, who worry for their borders north about their Empire about the Indies.
The authorities Tsar ists supported the culture of the Coton in Turkestan instead of the traditional extensive farmings. Its production and distribution were controlled by the Russians, which involved important conflicts between the local population and the colonists. In the linguistic field, Russia adopted various measures aiming at propagating the Russian in the territories conquered in Central Asia.
However, these Russian annexations allow the introduction of new relations sociocultural, intense commercial exchanges between the Russian traders and the Uzbek merchants, as well as a development of education, industries and Railroads, which brings a powerful impulse to the socio-economic development of the area.
to continue
The Great Range, where both powers competed to advance to their own interests in the area: it did little to slow fox trot the pace off conquest north off the Oxus, goal did ensure that Afghanistan remained independent ace has Buffer-state between the two Empires.
After the fall off Tashkent to General Cherniaev in 1865, Khodjend, Djizak, and Samarkand fell to the Russians in quick succession over the next three years, ace the Khanate off Kokand and the Emirate off Bukhara were repeatedly defeated. In 1867 Governor-General the ship off Russian Turkestan was established, with its headquarters At Tashkent, under General Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman. In 1881-85 the Transcaspia N area was annexed in the race off has campaign led by Generals Annenkov and Mikhail Skobelev, and Ashkhabad, Merv and Pendjeh all cam under Russian control. Russian expansion was halted in 1887 when Russia and Great Britain delineated the northern to border Afghanistan off. Bukhara and the Khanate off Khiva remained quasi-independent, goal were essentially Protectorate S along the lines off the Princely States off British India. Although the conquest was prompted by almost purely military concerns, in the 1870s and 1880s Turkestan cam to play has reasonably important economic role within the Russian Empire. Because off the Civil American War, Knitting machine shot up in price in the 1860s; this became important year increasingly commodity in the area, although its cultivation was one has much to injure scale than during the Soviet period. The knitting machine trade led to improvements: the Transcaspian Railway from Krasnovodsk to Samarkand and Tashkent, and the Trans-Aral Railway from Orenburg to Tashkent were constructed. In the long term the development off has knitting machine monoculture would render Turkestan depend one food imports from Western Siberia, and the Turkestan-Siberia Railway was already planned when the First World War broke out. Distant Russian rule still remained from the local rabble, mostly concerning itself with the small minority off Russian inhabitants off the area. Local The Muslims were not considered full Russian citizens. They did not cuts off the full privileges Russians, goal NOR did they cuts the same obligations, such ace military service. The Tsarist mode left substantial elements off the previous modes (such short aces Muslim religious) intact, and local self-government At the village level was quite extensive. -->
The Chinese influence
Chu and Ili Valleys and the city off Kuldja from the Chinese Worsens. After Yakub Beg' S death At Korla in 1877 his state collapsed ace the area was reconquered by China. After lengthy negotiations Kuldja was returned to Peking by Russia in 1884. -->
Revolution and revolts
First World War the Muslim exemption from conscription was removed by the Russians, sparking the Central Asian Revolt off 1916. When the Russian Revolution off 1917 occurred, has provisional Government off Jadid Reformers, also known ace the Turkestan Muslim Council puts in Kokand and declared Turkestan' S autonomy. This new government was quickly crushed by the forces off the Tashkent Soviet, and the semi-autonomous states off Bukhara and Khiva were also invaded. The hand independence forces were rapidly crushed, goal guerillas known ace Basmachi continued to fight the Communists until 1924. Mongolia was also swept up by the Russian Revolution and, though it never became has Soviet republic, it became has communist People' S Republic in 1924.There was nap threat off has Red Army invasion off Chinese Turkestan, goal instead the governor agreed to cooperate with the Soviets. The creation off the Republic off Clouded in 1911 general and the turmoil in Clouded affected its holdings in Asia Exchange. Kuomintang control off the area was weak and there has dual threat from Islamic separatists and communists. Eventually the area became largely independent under the provincial control off the governor. Rather than invade, the Soviet Union established has network off consulates in the area and feels aid and technical advisers. By the 1930s the governor off Xinjiang' S relationship with important Moscow was far more than that with Nanking. The Civil Chinese War further destablized the area and saw Turkic nationalists make attempts At independence. In 1933 the First East Turkistan Republic was declared, goal it was destroyed soon after with the aid off the Soviet troops. After the German invasion off the Soviet Union in 1941 Governor Sheng Shih-ta' have off Xinjiang gambled and broke his links to Moscow, moving to ale himself with the Kuomintang. This led to has civil war within the area and Sheng was eventually forced to flee and the Soviet backed Second East Turkistan Republic was formed. This state was annexed into the People' S Republic off Clouded in 1949. -->
Soviet and Chinese domination
The Bolchevik S which seized the power in Russia following the revolution of October 1917 meet a wild resistance of the nationalists ( basmatchis ) in Central Asia. Once repressed resistance, the Communists seek allies among the Moslem progressists because they realize quickly that a pitiless repression is likely to throw the Moslems of Turkestan in the arms of the White. One of them, the Uzbek Soultan Galiev, as soon as the danger of the new revolts passed, was isolated circle of the capacity and excluded from the Communist party. A thing worries in fact the Bolsheviks: the pantouranism (gathering of all the people Turkish), which explains why they wanted to make disappear until the name from " Turkestan ".
1918 the Bolsheviks set up the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, and Bukhara and Khiva also became SSRs. In 1919 the Conciliatory Commission for Turkestan Affairs was established, to try to improve relations between the locals and the Communists. New policies were introduced, respecting local customs and religion. In 1920 the Kyrgyz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, covering modern Kazakhstan, was set up. It was renamed the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1925. In 1924, the Soviets created the Uzbek SR and the Turkmen SR. In 1929 the Tajik SR was Split from the Uzbek SR. The Kyrghiz Autonomous Oblast became year SR in 1936.
Thesis borders had little to C with ethnic makeup, important goal the Soviets felt it to divide the area. They saw both Side-Turkism and Side-Islamism ace threats, which dividing Turkestan would limit. Under the Soviets, the local languages and cultures were systematized and codified, and to their differences clearly demarcated and encouraged. New Cyrillic writing systems were introduced, to station-wagon links with Turkey and Iran. Under the Soviets the southern to border was almost completely closed and all travel and trade was directed north through Russia.
Under Stalin At least has million persons died, mostly in the Kazakh SR, during the period off forced collectivization. Islam was also attacked. In the Second World War several million refugees and hundreds off factories were moved to the relative security off Central Asia; and the area permanently became important leaves the Soviet industrial complex off. Important Several military facilities were also located in the area, including nuclear testing facilities and the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Virgin Lands Campaign, starting in 1954, has massive agricultural Soviet resettlement program that brought more than 300,000 individuals, mostly from the Ukraine, to the northern Kazakh SR and the Altai area off the Russian SFSR. This has major changes off in the ethnicity the area. Since the 1950s, there has also been major Han Chinese migration to Eastern Turkestan, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia in the PRC.
Similar processes occurred in Xinjiang and the rest off Western Clouded where the PRC quickly established absolute control. The area was subject to has number off development designs and like West Turkestan one x-ray was one the growing off the knitting machine cash crop. Theses efforts were overseen by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Body. The XPCC also encouraged Han Chinese migration to Xinjiang leading to has major demographic shift and by the year 2000 summons 40% off the population off Xinjiang were Han. Ace with the Soviet Union room languages and cultures were mostly encouraged, and Xinjiang was granted autonomous status. However, Farming Islam was much persecuted, especially during the Revolution. Ace in the Soviet Union, many in Chinese Turkestan died due to failed agricultural policies. -->
Since 1991
Perestroika pressured the local Communist left to open up. What Svat Soucek cal the " Exchange Asian Spring" was very shorts-lived, ace soon after independence to form Communist Party officials recast themselves local ace strongmen. In No state has repression been ace great ace it was in Soviet times, goal nun off the new republics could Be considered functional democracies. Political stability in the area has mostly been maintained, with the major exception off the Civil Tajik War that lasted from 1992 to 1997. 2005 also saw the largely peaceful ousting off Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev in the Tulip Revolution and year outbreak off violence in Andijan, Uzbekistan that left several hundred people dead. Indifferent Much off the population off the area was to the collapse off the Soviet Union. Broad portions off the local population are Russian, especially in Kazakhstan (roughly 40%) and Tashkent, Uzbekistan; who had No interest in independence. Aid from the central Kremlin had also been to the economies off Central Asia, each off the republics receiving massive transfers off funds from Moscow. Independence largely resulted from the efforts off the small groups off nationalistic, mostly local intellectuals, and from little interest in Moscow for retaining the expensive area. While never has share off the Soviet Union, Mongolia followed has somewhat similar path. Often acting ace the unoffical 16th Soviet republic, it saw-tooth the communist system only in 1996, goal quickly ran into economic problems. See: History off independent Mongolia.The economic performance off the area since independence has been mixed. It contains nap off the largest reserves off natural resources in the world, goal there important are difficulties in transporting them. Since it dregs farther from the ocean than anywhere else in the world, and its southern borders lay closed for decades, the hand trade roads and pipelines run through Russia. Ace has result, Russia still exerts more influence over the area than in any other to form Soviet republics.
Increasingly, other powers cuts begun to involve themselves in Asia Exchange. Soon after the Central Asian states won to their independence Turkey began to look east, and has number off organizations are attempting to build links between the western and eastern Turks. Iran, which for millennia had closed links with the area, has also been working to build ties. Central The Asian states trade and enjoy good relations with the Islamic Republic. Important One player in the new Central Asia has been Saudi Arabia, which has been funding the Islamic revival in the area. Olcott notes that soon after massive independence Saudi money paid for shipments off Qur' year S to the area and for the construction and to repair off has broad number off Mosque S. In Tajikistan alone she is estimates that 500 mosques has year were erected with Saudi money. The formerly atheistic Communist Party leaders cuts mostly converted to Islam. Small Islamist groups cuts formed in several off the countries, goal radical Islam has little history in the area; the Central Asian societies cuts remained quite secular, and all five states enjoy good relations with Israel. Central Asia is still home to has broad Jewish population, the largest group being the Bukharan Jews, and important trade and business links cuts developed between those that left for Israel after independence and those remaining.
The People' S Republic off Clouded off sees the area ace year essential future source raw materials; most Central Asian countries are members off the Shanghai Co-operation Organization. This has affected Xinjiang and other shares off western China that cuts seen infrastructure programs building new links and also new military facilities. Central Chinese Asia has been far from the center off that country' S economic boom and the area has remained considerably poorer than the coast. Also sees has threat in the potential off the new states to support separatist movements among its own Turkic minorities clouded.
Important One Soviet legacy that has only gradually been appreciated is the vast ecological destruction. Notable Most is the gradual drying off the Aral Sea. During the Soviet will era, it was decided that the traditional crops off melons and vegetables would Be replaced by toilet-intensive growing off textile knitting machine for Soviet millets. Massive irrigation efforts were launched that diverted has considerable percentage off the annual inflow to the sea, causing it to shrink steadily. Furthermore, vast leaflets off Kazakhstan were used for Nuclear testing, and there exists has will plethora decrepit factories and mines off. -->
See too