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Russia's conquest of Central Asia was perhaps the nineteenth century's most dramatic and successful example of European imperial expansion. Alexander Morrison provides a definitive diplomatic and military history, explaining how and why a vast region of steppe, desert, mountain and oasis, mainly populated by Muslims, came under Russian rule.
List of contents
Introduction; 1. Russia's steppe frontier and the Napoleonic generation; 2. 'Pray for the camels': the winter invasion of Khiva, 1839-1841; 3. 'This particularly painful place': the failure of the Syr-Darya line as a frontier, 1841-1863; 4. From Ayaguz to Almaty: the conquest and settlement of Semirechie, 1843-1882; 5. The search for a 'natural' frontier and the fall of Tashkent, 1863-1865; 6. War with Bukhara, 1866-1868; 7. The fall of Khiva, 1872-1873; 8. 'Those who should be spared': the conquest of Ferghana, 1875-1876; 9. 'The harder you hit them, the longer they will be quiet afterwards': the conquest of Transcaspia, 1869-1885; 10. Aryanism on the final frontier of the Russian empire: the exploration and annexation of the Pamirs, 1881-1905; Epilogue: after the conquest.
About the author
Alexander Morrison is Fellow and Tutor in History at New College, Oxford. His publications include Russian Rule in Samarkand 1868–1910: A Comparison with British India (2008).
Summary
Russia's conquest of Central Asia was perhaps the nineteenth century's most dramatic and successful example of European imperial expansion. Alexander Morrison provides a definitive diplomatic and military history, explaining how and why a vast region of steppe, desert, mountain and oasis, mainly populated by Muslims, came under Russian rule.
