History of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan, the largest country fully within the Eurasian Steppe, has been a historical crossroads and home to numerous different peoples, states and empires throughout history. Throughout history, peoples on the territory of modern Kazakhstan used to have a nomadic lifestyle, which developed and influenced Kazakh culture.

Human activity in the region began with the extinct Homo erectus one million–800,000 years ago in the Karatau Mountains and the Caspian and Balkhash areas. Neanderthals were present from 140,000 to 40,000 years ago in the Karatau Mountains and central Kazakhstan. Modern Homo sapiens appeared from 40,000 to 12,000 years ago in southern, central and eastern Kazakhstan. After the end of the last glacial period (12,500 to 5,000 years ago) human settlement spread across the country and led to the extinction of the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. Hunter-gatherer communes invented bows and boats and used domesticated wolves and traps for hunting.

The Neolithic Revolution was marked by the appearance of animal husbandry and agriculture, giving rise to the Atbasar, Kelteminar, Botai, and Ust-Narym cultures. The Botai culture (3600–3100 BC) is credited with the first domestication of horses, and ceramics and polished-stone tools also appeared during this period. The fourth and third millennia witnessed the beginning of metal production, the manufacture of copper tools and the use of casting molds. In the second millennium BC ore mining developed in central Kazakhstan.

The change in climate forced the massive relocation of populations in and out of the steppe belt. The dry period that lasted from the end of the second millennium to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC caused the depopulation of the arid belts and river-valley oasis areas, the populations moving north to the forest steppe.

After the end of the arid period at the beginning of the first millennium BC nomadic populations migrated into Kazakhstan from the west and the east, repopulating abandoned areas. They included several Indo-Iranians, often known collectively as the Saka.

In 329 BC, Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army fought in the Battle of Jaxartes against the Scythians along the Jaxartes River, now known as the Syr Darya along the southern border of modern Kazakhstan.

In the 13th century, the region of modern-day Kazakhstan was part of the Mongol Empire and later controlled by the Golden Horde. After the Horde's decline, the region became part of the Uzbek Khanate, whose nomads were collectively known as Uzbeks due to their conversion to Islam under Uzbeg Khan (1313–1341). This group, including the founders of the Kazakh Khanate, arose from the merging of Mongols and Turkic peoples in the Kipchak Steppe. In the 1450s, Zhanibek Khan and Kerey Khan, two Jochid princes, broke away from the Uzbek Khanate and established the Kazakh Khanate. The Kazakh identity emerged when the eastern nomads of the Kipchak Steppe split into Kazakhs and Shibanid Uzbeks in the early 16th century. The Kazakhs, like other Chinggisid peoples such as the Shibanid Uzbeks, Crimean Tatars, and Mangyt/Nogais, shared a common Turkic language, Mongol traditions, Chinggisid royal lineage, and Sunni Islam. By the 16th century, the Kazakhs had asserted their independence and expanded their territory, transforming their khanate into a nomadic empire. The Kazakh Khanate reached its peak in the 16th century, controlling vast parts of the Qipchaq steppe and was the last remaining Chinggisid state.

During the reign of the three sons of Kasym Khan, the authority of the khan weakened somewhat, leading to the eventual fragmentation of the Kazakh Khanate into three distinct "hordes": the Great Horde in southeastern Kazakhstan north of the Tien Shan, the Middle Horde in the central steppe near the Aral Sea, and the Little Horde between the Aral Sea and the Ural River. In these regions, the khan’s power was often constrained by tribal leaders, known as sultans, and even more so by the beys and batyrs, heads of the clan-based communities. Although the khans nominally commanded a formidable military, their authority relied heavily on the loyalty of these local leaders.

The final son of Kasym Khan to rule, Haqnazar, overcame these challenges, reunited the three hordes, and expanded his power beyond the steppes. He brought under his control not only the Kazakh hordes but also the Bashkirs, Kyrgyz and Nogais, as well as territories such as the Kazan, Siberian, and Astrakhan khanates, and cities like Bukhara, Khiva, and Tashkent. According to Rychkov, Haqnazar’s reign was marked by a brutal consolidation of power, where he exploited the instability of neighboring peoples, imposed heavy tributes, and severely restricted their movements and resources. He limited them to a single cooking pot per three households, confiscated livestock, goods, and even children, and prohibited land ownership and movement across certain rivers. These actions rendered these peoples impoverished and submissive, but they also strengthened his dominion across the region.

His successors continued these military campaigns, including Tevkkel Khan (1586–1598), who briefly captured Samarkand. However, by the early 17th century, the khanate's internal unity once again began to erode, and central power weakened further, leading to a period of fragmentation and the rise of numerous smaller, local rulers.

But After Tauke's death in 1715/1718, the Kazakh Khanate lost its unity, and the three hordes essentially became separate khanates. During the 17th century, the Kazakhs fought the Oirats. The early 18th century marked the height of the Kazakh Khanate. During this time, the Little Horde took part in the 1723–1730 war against the Dzungar Khanate, following the invasion known as the "Great Disaster." Under the leadership of Abul Khair Khan, the Kazakhs achieved notable victories at the Bulanty River in 1726 and at Añyraqai in 1729.

Ablai Khan also played a major role in the wars against the Dzungars during the 1720s–1750s, for which he was honored as a "batyr" ("hero") by the people. He later became the last khan whose power was recognized throughout the Kazakh steppe, ruling the Middle Zhuz between 1771 and 1781. In 1740, Ablai accepted Russian suzerainty, while at the same time maintaining a policy of balancing between the Russian Empire and the Qing dynasty, which for a period allowed the Kazakh Khanate to keep a degree of autonomy. After his death, his son Vali Khan (1781–1819) abandoned an independent stance and acknowledged Russian suzerainty.

In 1822, the khanate institution among the Kazakh hordes was formally abolished, which led to the uprising of Sultan Qasym in 1824–1827. The last serious effort to revive the khanate was undertaken by Sultan Kenesary Qasymov, who in 1837 proclaimed himself khan and conducted an armed struggle against Russian authorities until his death in 1847.

Following Kazakhstan’s incorporation into Russian Empire, Kazakh intellectuals led a cultural renaissance that was more advanced than that of other Central Asian peoples. Figures like Shoqan Walikhanov and Abay Kunanbayev adapted modern ideas to create a secular, dynamic Kazakh culture, setting them apart from other Central Asian intellectual movements Despite their rural, nomadic existence, the Kazakhs were one of the most literate and progressive indigenous groups in the region. This intellectual leadership helped them absorb and adapt modern ideas more effectively than their neighbors.

In the wake of the Russian Revolution, the Alash Orda government was formed in 1917 as an attempt to secure Kazakh autonomy. Although it existed only in name, Alash Orda represented the Kazakh push for self-rule. Despite its short lifespan, Alash Orda played a significant role in promoting modern Kazakh education, culture, and national consciousness. The Bolshevik Red Army eventually defeated White Russian forces in the region by 1920, and Kazakhstan was incorporated into the Soviet Union.

Despite their nomadic lifestyle, Kazakhs were one of the most literate indigenous groups in Central Asia. But the Soviet policy of forced collectivization devastated the Kazakh population. Between 1926 and 1939, Kazakhstan’s population dropped by nearly one-fifth, with 1.5 million deaths, primarily due to mostly starvation and related diseases, others as a result of violence. Thousands of Kazakhs fled to China, though most did not survive the journey.

Kazakhstan became a full Soviet republic in 1936. The Virgin Lands Program, launched in the 1950s, opened northern Kazakhstan to wheat farming by Slavic settlers, contributing to an ecological disaster that severely impacted the Aral Sea. Kazakhstan’s strategic importance grew during the Soviet period, with the establishment of the Soviet space-launch center and nuclear testing sites on its territory. From 1959 to 1986, Dinmukhamed Kunayev, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, dominated the region's politics. His pragmatic leadership balanced the interests of both Kazakhs and Russians. However, Kunayev’s removal by Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986 led to the Jeltoqsan riots, the first serious protests in the Soviet Union during the 1980s, signaling widespread discontent among the Kazakh population.

Kazakhstan declared sovereignty on 25 October 1990, and became fully independent on 16 December 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union.