User:Phaisit16207/sandbox/Russian conquest of Central Asia

The Russian conquest of Central Asia were a series of conquests that were carried out by the Russian Tsardom and later the Empire from 1714 to 1895, which mainly occured in the area that's what called Turkestan against the predominantly Turkic tribes and many rebel figures who resisted the Russian invasion. Due to the century-long conquest, Russia streched the territory from the Kazakh Steppe to Iran and Afghanistan, with two imperial protectorates of Khiva and Bukhara.

Outline
In the eighteenth century the Russian Empire gained increasing control over the Kazakh Steppe. The Russian conquest of Central Asia took place over several decades. In 1839, Russia failed to conquer the Khanate of Khiva south of the Aral Sea. In 1847–53, the Russians built a line of forts from the north side of the Aral Sea eastward up the Syr Darya river. In 1847–64, they crossed the eastern Kazakh Steppe and built a line of forts along the northern border of Kyrgyzstan. In 1864–68, they moved south from Kyrgyzstan, captured Tashkent and Samarkand and dominated the Khanates of Kokand and Bokhara. They now held a triangle whose southern point was 1600 km south of Siberia and 1920 km southeast of their supply bases on the Volga River. The next step was to turn this triangle into a rectangle by crossing the Caspian Sea. In 1873, the Russians conquered Khiva, and in 1881, they took western Turkmenistan. In 1884, they took the Merv oasis and eastern Turkmenistan. In 1885, further expansion south toward Afghanistan was blocked by the British. In 1893–95, the Russians occupied the high Pamir Mountains in the southeast.

Geography


The area was bounded on the west by the Caspian Sea, on the north by the Siberian forests and on the east by the mountains along the former Sino-Soviet border. The southern border was political rather than natural. It was about 1300 mi from north to south, 1500 mi wide in the north and 900 mi wide in the south. Because the southeast corner (Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) is mountainous the flat desert-steppe country is only about 700 mi wide in the south. Using modern borders, the area was 1,545,730 sqmi, about half the size of the United States without Alaska. On the east side two mountain ranges project into the desert. Between them is the well-populated Fergana Valley which is approximately the "notch" on the west side of Kyrgyzstan. North of this projection the mountain-steppe boundary extends along the north border of Kyrgyzstan about 400 mi before the mountains turn north again.

Rainfall decreases from north to south. Dense population, and therefore cities and organized states, requires irrigation. Streams coming down from the eastern mountains support a fairly dense population, especially in the Ferghana Valley. There is a line of oases along the Persian border. The interior is watered by three great rivers. The Oxus or Amu Darya rises on the Afghan border and flows northwest into the Aral Sea, forming a large delta which was ruled by the Khanate of Khiva and has a long history under the name of Khwarezm. The Jaxartes or Syr Darya rises in the Ferghana Valley and flows northwest and then west to meet the northeast corner of the Aral Sea. Between them is the less-famous Zarafshan River which dries up before reaching the Oxus. It waters the great cities of Bokhara and Tamerlane's old capital of Samarkand.

The deserts in the south have enough grass to support a thin nomadic population. The Kyzylkum Desert is between the Oxus and Jaxartes. The Karakum Desert is southwest of the Oxus in Turkmenistan. Between the Aral and Caspian Seas is the thinly-populated Ustyurt Plateau.

When the Russians arrived the organized states were the Khanate of Khiva in the Oxus delta south of the Aral Sea, the Khanate of Bukhara along the Oxus and Zarafshan and the Khanate of Kokand based in the Ferghana Valley. Bokhara had borders with the other two and all three were surrounded by nomads which the Khanates tried to control and tax.