History of the central steppe

This is a short History of the central steppe, an area roughly equivalent to modern Kazakhstan. Because the history is complex it is mainly an outline and index to the more detailed articles given in the links. It is a companion to History of the western steppe and History of the eastern steppe and is parallel to the History of Kazakhstan and the History of central Asia.

Geography

"Central steppe" is an informal term for the middle part of the Eurasian steppe. It is grassland with some semi-desert and becomes dryer toward the south. On the east it is separated from Dzungaria and the eastern steppe by the low mountains along the current Chinese border. On the west it merges into the western steppe along the narrowing between the Ural Mountains and the Caspian Sea. On the north it is bounded by the forests of Siberia. The southern boundary has three sections. In the east the Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan extend about 650 kilometres west and give the steppe a sharp southern boundary. The center is approximately the line of the Syr Darya which runs from the eastern mountains northwest to the Aral Sea. South of the Syr Darya the steppe grades into semi-desert but there are cities based on irrigation agriculture which give the area a different history. The western part between the Aral and Caspian Seas is dry and thinly populated. The Syr Darya and the area between the Urals and Caspian were not significant barriers and the low mountains of Dzungaria were fairly easy to cross. The other boundaries were significant barriers to movement.

General

The central steppe is far from the areas of literate civilization and is therefore poorly documented. Most of the "peoples" mentioned were some tribe or clan that gained power over its neighbors and became important enough to be noticed by literate historians. Some were definite ethnic groups and some movements were genuine folk migrations, but in most cases it is uncertain. Most dates are ''circa'' because they were processes or ill-documented. There are two major facts which theorists have not explained. During the last 2,500 years nearly all movements on the steppe have been from east to west. From about 1000 BC all the known peoples of the western and central steppe spoke Iranian languages. From about 500 AD the Turkic languages expanded from Mongolia and replaced most of the Iranian languages.

Before written history

The origins of pastoral nomadism and horse archery are not clearly understood. At some time in the distant past people of European appearance lived in or crossed the central steppe and left the Tarim mummies in the Tarim basin. In the centuries around 3000 BC we find the semi-nomadic and probably Indo-European Yamnaya culture west of the central steppe. East of the central steppe was the rather similar Afanasevo culture. The Yamnaya-Afanasevo complex is probably connected to the eastward spread of the Indo-European languages, especially Tokharian. Between them on the central steppe was the horse-using Botai culture. After 2000 BC the Andronovo Culture complex was southeast of the Urals. They had chariots, fortified towns, spread southeast to much of central Asia and are associated with the rise of the Indo-Iranian languages. The usage of iron appears around 1000 BC. Around 500 BC Herodotus vaguely described the area as inhabited by Massagetae, Issedoneans and others. Around 200 BC we begin to get Chinese reports from the east.

Eastern third (Zhetysu or Semirechye)

The area north of the Tien Shan needs special treatment because of better documentation and the large number of peoples who moved through it. It is a type of steppe "bay" bounded on the north by the Siberian forests, on the south by the Kyrgyz mountains and on the east by low mountains. ''Zhetysu'' is Turkic and ''Semirechye'' ( ru , Семиречье) is Russian for "seven rivers".
*Sakas (before 200 BC): The Iranian-speaking nomads in the western and central steppe were called Scythians by the Greeks, Sakas by the Persians and Sai by the Chinese; the three words mean about the same thing. The Sakas also occupied the western Tarim basin. Iranian languages extended south to Persia and Afghanistan.
*Chinese: Under the Han dynasty the Chinese expanded westwards. In 125 BC Zhang Qian returned with the first reports of the Western Regions. Around 100 BC to 100 AD, with interruptions, the Chinese controlled the Tarim Basin southeast of the central steppe. Chinese historians have given us the earliest surviving good written information about the central steppe.
*Yuezhi ( 162-132 BC): The Yuezhi were originally a major power in Gansu and Mongolia. Around 162 BC, driven west by the Xiongnu, they settled in the Ili valley, driving out the Sakas. About 132 BC they were driven out by the Wusun and moved south and later formed a major state in Bactria as the Kushans.
*Wusun, 133 BC-100 AD: The Wusun