The History of Central Asia

Central Asia is where this millennium turns on horseback. Its Silk Road cities, Samarkand and Bukhara among them, carried goods and ideas between China and the Mediterranean, and its steppes produced the force that reshaped everything: Genghis Khan, whose Mongol empire became the largest contiguous realm in history. This timeline follows the conquests and the surprising peace that followed, Timur rebuilding Samarkand in tile and marble, and the slow fragmentation into khanates as ocean routes stole the caravan trade. The nineteenth century brings the Great Game between Russia and Britain, the twentieth brings Soviet borders and cotton plans, and 1991 delivers five new republics still writing their story. Every event below links to a full page.