Central Asia

Map of countries in Central Asia.

Central Asia is a region of Asia. Central Asia is typically considered to span approximately from the Caspian Sea in the west to China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. There are multiple conceptions of which countries are included in Central Asia, but the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are included in virtually all common definitions of the area. Afghanistan is sometimes also included as part of Central Asia.

Central Asia is a region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains (Tian Shan), vast deserts (Kyzyl Kum, Taklamakan), and especially treeless, grassy steppes. The vast steppe areas of Central Asia are considered together with the steppes of Eastern Europe as a homogeneous geographical zone known as the Eurasian Steppe. Much of the land of Central Asia is not suitable for large scale farming, and water can be a scarce resource due to the region's primarily arid and semi-arid climate.

Central Asia is a diverse land with many ethnic groups, languages, and religions. The five main ethnic groups in Central Asia are the Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, Turkmen, and Kyrgyz. Linguistically all of these groups, with the exception of the Tajiks whose language is more similar to modern-day Persian, speak languages that are from Turkic language family and resemble Turkish. Russian is also an influential language in the region. Islam is the predominant religion in Central Asia.

History

Early history

Central Asia was historically closely tied to the Silk Road trade routes, acting as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Asia and the West.

In the 19th century, there was an imperial competition between the British empire and the Russian Empire for control over Central Asia.

In the early 1910s, Central Asian nationalists began moving towards Marxism, especially in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

Revolution

The Tashkent Soviet, composed of Slavs, took power in Tashkent in October 1917 and allied itself with the progressive nationalist Young Bukharans. In March 1918, they attempted to overthrow the Emir of Turkestan in Bukhara. The White Army encircled Tashkent for more than a year but never captured it.

In June 1918, the Muslim Bolshevik Party formed out of the Muslim Social Democratic Party and claimed equal status with the Russian Communist Party. A few years after forming, the Muslim Bolshevik Party merged with the CPSU. In July 1918, the Sixth Red Army included 50,000 Tatar and Bashkir soldiers fighting in the east. The Whites initially recruited many Muslims but many defected to the Bolsheviks. Lenin encouraged the Bolsheviks to oppose Russian chauvinism as many representatives in Moscow wanted to integrate the area with Russia. Many of the Young Bukharans wanted to quickly establish soviet power and eliminate feudalism.

In 1920, progressive forces overthrew the British-backed Emir of Bukhara and established the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic. Around the same time, the Khan of Khiva was overthrown. The Soviets redistributed the land of Russian settlers to Muslims. Non-Marxist groups in Central Asia wanted to unite the region into a Republic of Turan which would be allied with Soviet Russia. By 1924, Marxist forces had displaced non-Marxist progressives and the region was divided into five republics along national lines.

Socialist era

In the 1920s and 30s, five Soviet republics were formed, including Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. It is along the administrative lines of the Soviet era that the borders of the Central Asian republics of today were formed. Starting in 1928, collectivization of agriculture forced the historically nomadic Kazakh and Kyrgyz people to become sedentary.