ABSTRACT
The history of Central Asia has been determined primarily by the area’s climate and geography. Nomadic horse peoples of the steppe dominated the area for millennia and used the high-altitude land for summer grazing. Relations between the steppe nomads and the settled people in and around Central Asia were marked by conflict. The most spectacular power to rise out of Central Asia developed when Genghis Khan united the tribes of Mongolia. The Russians also expanded south, first with the transformation of the Ukrainian steppe into an agricultural heartland, and subsequently onto the fringe of the Kazakh steppes. The slow Russian conquest of the heart of Central Asia began in the early 19th century. The Central Asia subsoil is rich in minerals as well as petroleum. Among the post-Soviet republics in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan has the smallest mineral reserves per capita, even though gold mining accounts for about 30% of the country’s exports.
