Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbekistan to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southwest, with a coastline along the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Astana, while the largest city and leading cultural and commercial hub is Almaty.
Kazakhstan is the world's ninth-largest country by land area and the largest landlocked country. Hilly plateaus and plains account for nearly half its vast territory, with lowlands composing another third; its southern and eastern frontiers are composed of mountainous regions. Kazakhstan has a population of 20 million and one of the lowest population densities in the world, with fewer than. Ethnic Kazakhs constitute a majority, while ethnic Russians form a significant minority. Officially secular, Kazakhstan is a Muslim-majority country with a sizeable Christian community.
Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. In antiquity, various nomadic Iranian peoples such as the Saka, Massagetae, and Scythians dominated the territory, with the Achaemenid Persian Empire expanding towards the south. Turkic nomads entered the region from the sixth century. In the 13th century, the area was subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. Following the disintegration of the Golden Horde in the 15th century, the Kazakh Khanate was established over an area roughly corresponding with modern Kazakhstan. By the 18th century, the Kazakh Khanate had fragmented into three jüz, which were gradually absorbed and conquered by the Russian Empire; by the mid-19th century, all of Kazakhstan was nominally under Russian rule. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War, it became an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR within the Soviet Union. Its status was elevated to that of a union republic in 1936. The Soviet government settled Russians and other ethnicities in the republic, which resulted in ethnic Kazakhs being a minority during the Soviet era. Kazakhstan was the last constituent republic of the Soviet Union to declare independence in 1991 during its dissolution.
Kazakhstan dominates Central Asia both economically and politically, accounting for 60% of the region's GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry; it also has vast mineral resources, ranking among the highest producers of iron and silver in the world. Kazakhstan also has the highest Human Development Index ranking in the region. It is a unitary constitutional republic; however, its government is authoritarian. Nevertheless, there have been incremental efforts at democratization and political reform since the resignation of Nursultan Nazarbayev in 2019, who had led the country since independence. Kazakhstan is a member state of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Commonwealth of Independent States, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Eurasian Economic Union, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Organization of Turkic States, International Organization of Turkic Culture and Special Guest status with the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
Etymology
According to the most widely accepted theory, the word qazaq derives from a Turkic root meaning "free", "independent", or "wanderer".The Turkic word qazaq was reliably recorded in 13th–14th century dictionaries, including the Codex Cumanicus and a Mamluk-Kipchak Arabic dictionary published by Martin Houtsma. In these sources, the word meant "unattached", "homeless", "loner", or "exile", and later acquired the meaning "free man".
The English word Kazakh, meaning a member of the Kazakh people, derives from. The native name is . It might originate from the Turkic word verb qaz-, 'to wander', reflecting the Kazakhs' nomadic culture. The term Cossack is of the same origin.
In Turko-Persian sources, the term Özbek-Qazaq first appeared during the mid-16th century, in the Tarikh-i-Rashidi by Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, a Chagatayid prince of Kashmir, which locates Kazakh in the eastern part of Desht-i Qipchaq. According to Vasily Bartold, the Kazakhs likely began using that name during the 15th century.
Though Kazakh traditionally referred only to ethnic Kazakhs, including those living in China, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and other neighbouring countries, the term is increasingly being used to refer to any inhabitant of Kazakhstan, including residents of other ethnicities. In the Kazakh language, the country is called Qazaqstan in the Latin script.
History
Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. The Botai culture is credited with the first domestication of horses. The Botai population derived most of their ancestry from a deeply European-related population known as Ancient North Eurasians, while also displaying some Ancient East Asian admixture. Pastoralism developed during the Neolithic. The population was Caucasoid during the Bronze and Iron Age period.The Kazakh territory was a key constituent of the Eurasian trading Steppe Route, the ancestor of the terrestrial Silk Roads. Archaeologists believe that humans first domesticated the horse in the region's vast steppes. During recent prehistoric times, Central Asia was inhabited by groups such as the possibly Indo-European Afanasievo culture, later early Indo-Iranian cultures such as Andronovo, and later Indo-Iranians such as the Saka and Massagetae. Other groups included the nomadic Scythians and the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the southern territory of the modern country. The Andronovo and Srubnaya cultures, precursors to the peoples of the Scythian cultures, were found to harbour mixed ancestry from the Yamnaya Steppe herders and peoples of the Central European Middle Neolithic.
In 329 BC, Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army fought in the Battle of Jaxartes against the Scythians along the Jaxartes River, now known as the Syr Darya along the southern border of modern Kazakhstan.
Turkic Khaganate
The main migration of Turkic peoples occurred between the 5th and 11th centuries when they spread across most of Central Asia. The Turkic peoples slowly replaced and assimilated the previous Iranian-speaking locals, turning the population of Central Asia from largely Iranian, into primarily of East Asian descent.The First Turkic Khaganate was founded by Bumin in 552 on the Mongolian Plateau and quickly spread west toward the Caspian Sea. The Göktürks drove before them various peoples: Xionites, Uar, Oghurs, and others. These seem to have merged into the Avars and Bulgars. Within 35 years, the eastern half and the Western Turkic Khaganate were independent. The Western Khaganate reached its peak in the early 7th century.
Cuman-Kipchak and the Golden Horde
The Cumans entered the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later joined with the Kipchak and established the vast Cuman-Kipchak confederation. While ancient cities Taraz and Hazrat-e Turkestan had long served as important way-stations along the Silk Road connecting Asia and Europe, true political consolidation began only with the Mongol rule of the early 13th century. Under the Mongol Empire, the first strictly structured administrative districts were established. After the division of the Mongol Empire in 1259, the land that would become modern-day Kazakhstan was ruled by the Golden Horde, also known as the Ulus of Jochi. During the Golden Horde period, a Turco-Mongol tradition emerged among the ruling elite wherein Turkicized descendants of Genghis Khan followed Islam and continued to reign over the lands.Kazakh Khanate
In 15th century, the Kazakh Khanate emerged as a result of the dissolution of the Golden Horde. Established by Janibek Khan and Kerei Khan, it continued to be ruled by the Chingissid clan of Tore. The Kazakh Khanate was a successor state of the left wing of Ulus Of Jochi.In the early 16th century, Kazakhs transformed the Khanate into a nomadic empire stretching across the steppes east of the Caspian Sea and north of the Aral Sea as far as the upper Irtysh River and the western approaches to the Altai Mountains. During the reigns of Burunduk Khan and Kasym Khan, the Kazakhs were the masters of virtually the entire steppe region, reportedly able to bring 200,000 cavalry into the field and feared by all their neighbours. Many historians consider Kasym Khan's leadership the starting point of a distinct and sovereign Kazakh state. His influence extended Kazakh authority from the southeastern regions of modern Kazakhstan to the Ural Mountains. Mirza Muhammad Haidar wrote in his Tarikh-i-Rashidi that:
During the reign of the three sons of Kasym Khan, the authority of the khan weakened somewhat, leading to the eventual fragmentation of the Kazakh Khanate into three distinct "hordes": the Great Horde in southeastern Kazakhstan north of the Tien Shan, the Middle Horde in the central steppe near the Aral Sea, and the Little Horde between the Aral Sea and the Ural River. In these regions, the khan’s power was often constrained by tribal leaders, known as sultans, and even more so by the beys and batyrs, heads of the clan-based communities. Although the khans nominally commanded a formidable military, their authority relied heavily on the loyalty of these local leaders.
The final son of Kasym Khan to rule, Haqnazar, overcame these challenges, reunited the three hordes, and expanded his power beyond the steppes. He brought under his control not only the Kazakh hordes but also the Bashkirs, Kyrgyzes and Nogais, as well as territories such as the Kazan, Siberian, and Astrakhan khanates, and cities like Bukhara, Khiva, and Tashkent. According to Rychkov, Haqnazar’s reign was marked by a brutal consolidation of power, where he exploited the instability of neighbouring peoples, imposed heavy tributes, and severely restricted their movements and resources. He limited them to a single cooking pot per three households, confiscated livestock, goods, and even children, and prohibited land ownership and movement across certain rivers. These actions rendered these peoples impoverished and submissive, but they also strengthened his dominion across the region.
He initiated regular raids into Transoxiana, a pattern continued by his successors, including Tauekel Khan, who briefly occupied Samarkand. However, by the early 17th century, the unity that had been restored began to unravel once again, leading to the fragmentation of the khanate. As a result, central power weakened significantly, and numerous smaller, local rulers emerged across the region.
After Tauke’s death in 1715/1718, the Kazakh Khanate lost its unity, and the three hordes effectively became separate khanates.
During the 17th century, the Kazakhs fought the Oirats, a federation of western Mongol tribes, including the Dzungar. The beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. During this period the Little Horde participated in the 1723–1730 war against the Dzungar Khanate, following their "Great Disaster" invasion of Kazakh territory. Under the leadership of Abul Khair Khan, the Kazakhs won major victories over the Dzungar at the Bulanty River in 1726 and at the Battle of Añyraqai in 1729.
Ablai Khan participated in the most significant battles against the Dzungars from the 1720s to the 1750s, for which he was declared a "batyr" by the people. He later became the last khan whose authority was recognized across the Kazakh steppe, ruling the Middle Zhuz from 1771 to 1781. In 1740, Ablai had accepted Russian suzerainty, while pursuing a policy of balancing between Russian Empire and Qing dynasty, which for a time allowed the Kazakh Khanate to preserve relative autonomy. After his death, his son Vali Khan abandoned an independent policy and acknowledged Russian authority.
File:Абылай_ханның_қытай_императорына_хаты_.png|thumb|Letter from Abilai to Emperor Qianlong in the Oirat language|150px
In 1822, the Khanate institution among the Kazakh Hordes was abolished, sparking the uprising of Sultan Qasym in 1824–1827. The final attempt to restore the Khanate was led by Sultan Kenesary Qasymov, who proclaimed himself khan in 1837 and conducted an armed struggle against Russian authorities until his death in 1847.