Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The beginnings
- 2 The Kök Turks, the Chinese expansion, and the Arab conquest
- 3 The Samanids
- 4 The Uighur kingdom of Qocho
- 5 The Qarakhanids
- 6 Seljukids and Ghaznavids
- 7 The conquering Mongols
- 8 The Chaghatayids
- 9 Timur and the Timurids
- 10 The last Timurids and the first Uzbeks
- 11 The Shaybanids
- 12 The rise of Russia, the fall of the Golden Horde, and the resilient Chaghatayids
- 13 The Buddhist Mongols
- 14 Bukhara, Khiva, and Khoqand in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries
- 15 The Russian conquest and rule of Central Asia
- 16 From Governorates-General to Union Republics
- 17 Soviet Central Asia
- 18 Central Asia becomes independent
- 19 Sinkiang as part of China
- 20 Independent Central Asian Republics
- 21 The Republic of Mongolia
- Summary and conclusion
- Appendix 1 Dynastic tables
- Appendix 2 Country data
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary and conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 The beginnings
- 2 The Kök Turks, the Chinese expansion, and the Arab conquest
- 3 The Samanids
- 4 The Uighur kingdom of Qocho
- 5 The Qarakhanids
- 6 Seljukids and Ghaznavids
- 7 The conquering Mongols
- 8 The Chaghatayids
- 9 Timur and the Timurids
- 10 The last Timurids and the first Uzbeks
- 11 The Shaybanids
- 12 The rise of Russia, the fall of the Golden Horde, and the resilient Chaghatayids
- 13 The Buddhist Mongols
- 14 Bukhara, Khiva, and Khoqand in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries
- 15 The Russian conquest and rule of Central Asia
- 16 From Governorates-General to Union Republics
- 17 Soviet Central Asia
- 18 Central Asia becomes independent
- 19 Sinkiang as part of China
- 20 Independent Central Asian Republics
- 21 The Republic of Mongolia
- Summary and conclusion
- Appendix 1 Dynastic tables
- Appendix 2 Country data
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
We can summarize the transformations that took place in Inner Asia during the last decade in the following manner: the five Soviet republics of Central Asia have attained a double liberation – from colonial domination and from Communism; Mongolia, already independent, from Communism; Sinkiang, however, has experienced neither – except that Marxist-Leninist dogma has acquired a different ring in pragmatic China.
Mikhail Gorbachev's accession to power, we have suggested, greatly accelerated and modified a process that otherwise might still be the property of political scientists and Kremlinologists forecasting the future. A special feature of the Gorbachev years – 1985 to 1991 – were several cross-currents that clashed in Central Asia and created a unique political and cultural climate. This climate could be labeled “Central Asian Spring,” for during those few years its citizens attained a degree of internal freedom unheard of before. This freedom has been considerably reduced since then – in other words, since the republics became independent.
Gorbachev's campaign against “corruption” in Central Asia was overshadowed, from a historian's vantage point, by yet another attempt to stave off nationalism there. It might have succeeded – for a time – if this statesman had had recourse to the formidable coercive apparatus of the Soviet state which was still in place at the time of his accession. Glasnost and perestroika declawed this apparatus, and the Central Asians, instead of withdrawing into a shell of sullen or sycophantic submission as they had been wont to do, counterattacked.
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- Information
- A History of Inner Asia , pp. 303 - 315Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000