Dzungar genocide
| Dzungar genocide | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Conquest of Dzungaria | |
The Battle of Oroi-Jalatu (1756). Chinese general Zhao Hui attacked the Dzungar camp at night, in present Wusu, Xinjiang. | |
| Location | Dzungar Khanate (modern-day Dzungaria, Western Mongolia, Kazakhstan, northern Kyrgyzstan, southern Siberia, Xinjiang) |
| Date | 1755–1758 |
| Target | Dzungars |
Attack type | Genocide, mass murder, ethnic cleansing |
| Deaths | 420,000–480,000 (70%–80% of the Dzungar population, from both warfare and disease) |
| Perpetrators | Qing Eight Banners, Khalkha Mongols, Chagatayan (Uyghur), Salar and Hui rebels |
| Motive | Anti-Mongolian sentiment |
perpetrators, perps.The Dzungar genocide (Chinese: 準噶爾滅族; pinyin: Zhǔngáěr mièzú) was the mass extermination of the Dzungar people, a confederation of Oirat Mongol tribes, by the Qing dynasty. The Qianlong Emperor ordered the genocide after the rebellion in 1755 by Dzungar leader Amursana against Qing rule, after the dynasty first conquered the Dzungar Khanate with Amursana's support. The genocide was perpetrated by Manchu, Han, Salar and Khalkha Mongol troops of the Qing army, supported by Turkic oasis dwellers of Altishahr, now known as Uyghurs, who rebelled against Dzungar rule. Although the main targets had been the Dzungars, the Turkic Kipchak nomads Kazakhs and Kyrgyz were also targeted as well, as the Qing troops could not distinguish the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz from the Dzungars.
The Dzungar Khanate was a confederation of several Tibetan Buddhist Oirat Mongol tribes that emerged in the early 17th century, and the last great nomadic empire in Asia. Some scholars estimate that about 80% of the Dzungar population, or around 500,000 to 800,000 people, were killed by a combination of warfare and disease during or after the Qing conquest in 1755–1757. After wiping out the native population of Dzungaria, the Qing government then resettled Han, Hui, Uyghur, Salar and Sibe people on state farms in Dzungaria, along with Manchu Bannermen to repopulate the area.
This brutal massacre, and the fact that Qing Chinese rulers could not distinguish between Dzungars, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz, had triggered a deep, long-lasting animosity from the Dzungars and even among the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz as well; it was this very massacre that the First Sino-Kazakh War later broke out, out of anger of Qing China's brutal repression of the nomads.