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14 - Crossroads region: Central Asia

from Part Four - Crossroads regions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Morris Rossabi
Edited by
Jerry H. Bentley ,
Sanjay Subrahmanyam  and
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Jerry H. Bentley
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, Manoa
Sanjay Subrahmanyam
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
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Summary

During Mongol Empire of thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Central Asia was the crossroads through which merchants, scientists and envoys traveled, generally without hindrance, from one part of the Mongol domain to another, and then to other lands. After the collapse of Mongol rule in China in 1368, the Ming, an indigenous dynasty, took power. In the last third of fourteenth century, Temur and his descendants have been portrayed as barbaric devastators of the economies and cultures of the regions they subjugated. Uzbeks began to settle in cities and to engage in trade and self-sufficient farming. Galdan Khan initiated the last Mongol effort to create a nomadic empire. Qing troops were determined to occupy oases in the northwest. The Tsarist court had started to secure leverage over neighboring Central Asian regions. Although Central Asia appeared to be less central to global history from 1400 to 1800, it continued to be a crossroads, with links to numerous states across all of Asia.

Keywords

early modern periodChristopher ColumbusColumbian Exchangeenvironmental historyorganic material
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 347 - 371
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

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