The History of Kazakhstan Timeline
Kazakhstan History Timeline: The Republic of Kazakhstan is located in the center of Eurasia, and is at the same time a European-Asian state. Most of the country is located in Asia, and a smaller part is in Europe. Such a geographical location influenced the history, formation of statehood and development of Kazakhstan. Its territory already in the Paleolithic era became the place of settlement of the first people. Now important trade, economic routes and routes pass through the republic, which allows connecting Kazakhstan with both European and Asian states. Such a synthesis can be traced throughout the Kazakh history, which is very rich, dynamic, filled with bright events.
Periodization of the history of Kazakhstan
- An ancient stage of development.
- The first Kazakh state.
- Kazakhstan in the Middle Ages.
- Modern times.
- Accession to Russia in the 18th century.
- The Soviet period. Independence
Primitive history Kazakhstan Timeline
A million years ago, on the territory of modern Kazakhstan, the first people appeared who settled the Karatau tract. These were gatherers who during the Paleolithic developed neighboring territories. The Stone Age was replaced by the Mesolithic and Neolithic, which left traces of people’s stay in Kazakhstan. This part of Eurasia became one of the centers of the formation of nomadic civilizations. Ancient tribes tamed and mastered the horse, learned to make products from stone, bone, metals.
Archaeologists find traces of living in Kazakhstan tribes that were engaged in breeding animals, agriculture, fought with neighboring tribes. In the Bronze Age, people who inhabited the Kazakh steppes mastered the war chariot, which can be found on numerous rock paintings. They were made by people in sanctuaries and temples, placing a chariot next to dancing people, gods, camels, bulls. This suggests that this transport was of particular importance in the society of the ancient Kazakhs.
Representatives of the nobility, including warriors, tribes buried in huge mounds. The most famous are:
- Necropolis of Begazy.
- Dandybai Necropolis.
- Necropolis Tagiskent.
During the Bronze Age, daggers, weapons, knives, jewelry were already being made, and ancient copper mines were being mastered. Most of them are still in use. It was during the Bronze and Copper periods that large cities and settlements began to appear, which protected the moats. Behind the powerful walls lived warriors, priests, artisans and nobles
Age of Iron Kazakstan History Timeline
What was Kazakhstan called before?
It is associated, first of all, with the tribes of the Scythians, whom Greek historians and philosophers called Scythians. But in Asia, including Persia and China, they were called Saks and Se. These tribes were nomadic pastoralists, perfectly mastered the bow and arrow. They created the first state association in Kazakhstan, which arose in the steppes in the 6th century BC. It existed for three centuries, and disintegrated in the 3rd century BC The capital was the city of Semirechye, which is in the south-east of modern Kazakhstan.
The Sakas were an advanced civilization, as evidenced by the presence of their own mythology, art, and writing. The Scythians-Saki made unique jewelry made of bronze and gold, which are now exhibited in museums around the world. The Sakas were ruled by kings, who were also priests.
In 1,<> BC, Kazakhstan, like other regions of Eurasia, came under the influence of the Turks, who caused a change in the ethnic situation. Archaeologists have established that the Kazakh steppes and valleys have become a place of constant internecine wars. As a result, the settlement of Turks in Europe and Asia began:
- The Pechenegs, Cumans, Oghuz, and Black Klobuks moved to Eastern Europe.
- In the south-eastern regions of Central Asia – Karluks, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Kipchaks, Turgesh, etc.
- Seljuks and Turkmens migrated to the Caucasus and Asia Minor.
Early Middle Ages History Kazakstan
Kazakhstan was located in the center of migration processes, which in the 5-7 centuries took place in Europe and Asia. Therefore, it is not surprising that here in the period from the 6th to the 13th centuries. constantly arose unstable state associations. In particular, the khaganates of the Karluks and Turgeshovs, the proto-states of the Kimeks, Kipchaks, and Oghuz.
In the 13th century the Mongols came to the Kazakh steppes. They founded two ulus here – Jochi and Jagatai, on the basis of which such state formations as Mogolistan, Ak-Orda, the Kazakh Khanate were later formed. The common features of the first states were:
- Mixed nature of economic development.
- Simultaneous development of cattle breeding and agriculture.
- Coexistence of populations in the steppe and cities.
- Active development of trade. Many cities were located along the Great Silk Road. Through it, the Kazakhs conducted trade with the countries of Western Europe, Kievan Rus, the Seljuk Khaganate, Japan, Korea, China, Iran, and Constantinople.
Proximity to the Silk Road contributed to the spread of new religious movements in Kazakhstan – Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, which supplanted paganism. But the main positions were taken only by Islam, as evidenced by numerous monuments of history and architecture. In the steppes, ancient mosques and minarets are perfectly preserved, indicating that the Kazakh tribes adopted Islam in the 8-9 centuries. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the processes of formation of the Kazakhs as a separate people ended.
State of kazakhs
At the beginning of the 16th century, the first state of Kazakhs arose in the steppes of modern Kazakhstan. This happened during the reign of Khan Qasim. In the future, his successors began to expand the borders of the state – zhuzy was formed in Central, Western Kazakhstan, in Semirechye. These associations were ruled by clans led by khans. They ruled independently, but the appearance of unity of the Kazakh state was constantly maintained. But periods of calm in the country were inferior to long internecine wars for power, territory, and wealth.
Such a jump-like development – from recession to rise – was characteristic of most of the states of that time that existed in Europe and Asia. When there were periods of relative stability, the rulers of Kazakhstan did everything possible to strengthen the borders of the state, to carry out reforms. For example, in the second half of the 16th century, the norms of customary law were codified and the state structure of the khanate was determined.
Nevertheless, it was difficult to keep Kazakhstan from disintegrating, since a single trade market, a single economic and political system, was not formed. This was exploited by external enemies, such as the Mongols. Their representatives concluded separate alliances with the Kazakh khans.
18th century: “great calamity” Kazakstan History
The most frequent attacks on the khanate were carried out by the Mongol-Dzungars, who lived in the territory between Altai and the Tien Shan mountain. The Dzungars intensified campaigns against the Kazakhs in the early 18th century, which caused mass migrations of the population from the zhuzes and worsened the internal situation in the middle of the Kazakh Khanate.
The years of great disaster are called the period in the history of Kazakhstan, which began in 1723 and ended in 1727. The rulers of the individual zhuzes made attempts to unite to protect the country from the Mongol invasion, but the situation was constantly deteriorating. At this time, one of the rulers of the Kazakhs, Khan Abulkhair, who ruled the Junior Zhuz, went to join the Russian Empire. This decision was opposed by some local khans, but in 1731 the Younger Zhuz became part of Russia.
Thus, at the beginning of the 1730s, the territory of Kazakhstan was divided into three parts:
- The junior zhuz was ruled by Russia.
- The Middle Zhuz remained independent, but repelled the attacks of the Mongols.
- The elder zhuz was conquered by the Dzungars.
Now the Kazakhs were protected from the attacks of the Mongols by Russian troops. Gradually, Russia’s power in the Kazakh steppes strengthened and expanded. In the 1770s and 1780s, Russian laws and management traditions began to be introduced in zhuzes.
In the late 1780s, kazakhs were allowed to settle further than the Urals and populate the regions of the Volga region. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Bukeyev horde was formed here.
As part of Russia: loss of independence history of Kazakhstan
The remaining regions of the Kazakh state were incorporated into the Russian Empire during the 1820s and 1840s, aided by internal contradictions between the Zhuz and the Khans, as well as Britain’s loss of the struggle for possession of Central Asia. As a result, the Elder and then the Middle Zhuzy were annexed to Russia. If the Kazakh khanates at first had relative autonomy and independence in internal affairs, then these rights were eliminated. The reason for this was the policy of maneuvering individual Kazakh khans between China and Russia.
So the rulers of the zhuzes sought to find the best option for development, tried to preserve the feudal statehood of the Kazakhs and conduct their own independent foreign and domestic policy.
In 1822, the Russian government decided to completely abolish the Khan’s power and form a separate district on the site of Kazakhstan. These changes were enshrined in the document “Charter on Siberian Kirgs”, which was developed by M. Speransky. On the basis of the Charter, the Kazakhs were governed. Russia sought to turn new subjects into farmers, which caused resistance from the Kazakh population. From time to time, uprisings and local conflicts broke out, which caused only the strengthening of the power of the Russian Empire in this part of the Eurasian continent.
In the second half of the 19th century, the resistance of the Kazakhs was practically broken, and the zhuzes began to be governed according to Russian laws.
The presence of Kazakhstan as part of Russia had the following consequences for the history of the Kazakhs and the further development of their state traditions:
- The territories of the Kazakh zhuzes were divided into separate regions, without taking into account ethnic borders.
- The quantitative ratio of the sedentary and nomadic population living in the steppes has changed.
- New forms of economic and economic activity began to emerge. In particular. Regions that were engaged in sedentary cattle breeding and sedentary agriculture began to develop actively.
- The differentiation of society intensified, which caused a large number of Kazakhs to move away from agriculture, and the transition to industrial production. Factories and plants employed mostly impoverished peasants.
- The nature of trade has completely changed, which has now taken place in the form of fairs. Elements of usury and private farming began to penetrate into trade.
- Railways were built on the territory of Kazakhstan, which contributed to the development of transit trade, and the establishment of ties with other regions of the empire.
History Kazakhstan in the 20th century: from the Soviet Union to independence
In the early 1900s, Kazakhstan was divided into several regions:
- Akmola.
- Semirechenskaya.
- Syrdarya.
- Uralskaya.
- Semipalatinsk.
- Turgaiskaya.
- Mangyshlak-Zakaspianskaya.Separately, there was the Bukeyev horde, which was included in the Astrakhan province.
The abolition of the monarchy, the establishment of Soviet power, the formation of the Soviet Union affected Kazakhstan, as well as other republics that became part of the USSR. The above regions were united as part of the Kyrgyz Autonomous Republic, which occurred in 1920 A few years later, the name of the republic was changed to Kazakh, which was administratively divided into several regions – Akmola, Turgai, Semipalatinsk, Ural, Bukeyev, Syrdarya, Zhetysuy, one province – Orenburg, one autonomous association – Karakalpak.
The capital of the new republic was the city of Kyzyl Orda, which is now called Alma-Ata. In the mid-1930s, the autonomous republic became a full-fledged Kazakh SSR within the Soviet Union.
Simultaneously with the processes of administrative division, active industrialization of the republic was carried out. As a result, Kazakhstan quickly turned into a major industrial center of the Soviet Union.
In the Second World War, enterprises from almost the entire USSR, which were responsible for supplying products to the defense and technical industry of the Union, were evacuated to Kazakhstan.
In the mid-1950s, Kazakhstan began to develop a new industry – space, thanks to which the Baikonur military training ground was built here. From it in 1961, the first spacecraft was launched with Yuri Gagarin on board. Rockets and satellites are still being launched from the test site. Now Baikonur until 2050 is leased by the Russian Federation.
In another city of Kazakhstan – Semipalatinsk – another test site was built, where nuclear and atomic weapons were tested.
In the second half of the 20th century, the Kazakh steppes were also developed, which were transferred to the needs of agriculture. This allowed the republic to take a leading position in the world market for the supply of grain crops. And this status remains with Kazakhstan today.
Late 20th century – early 21st century Kazakstan History
Like many republics after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan became sovereign. The state proclaimed its independence in December 1991, followed by a period of international recognition by the countries of Europe, Asia, and the United States.
When was Kazakhstan founded?
In the 21st century, Kazakhstan was included as a republic that was at the stage of reform and constant changes, establishing contacts with neighboring states. The country’s leadership supports the development of the history and national culture of the Kazakhs, the revival of ancient traditions. In 2017-2018, the President of the country decided to transfer the Kazakh alphabet to Latin. The introduction of the Latin alphabet will be gradual and will affect all spheres of public and political life of the country. The modern foreign policy of the republic is aimed at expanding regional ties, cooperation with Russia, the United States of America, the European Union, and cis members.
