1. Europe at the Gates of #China and India – How Silk Routes made Central Asia Important
Most of the silk routes and spice routes have passed through Central Asia, creating some great caravan cities like Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Khokhand, Kashgar etc.
#ArunachalPradesh
Most of the silk routes and spice routes have passed through Central Asia, creating some great caravan cities like Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva, Khokhand, Kashgar etc.
#ArunachalPradesh
2. Being on the ancient trade route this region was quickly penetrated by Buddhism. Some of the greatest Buddhist monoliths were created in this region along with several monasteries.
3. It was the golden age of Buddhism in Central Asia in which various great murals, several great paintings and sculptures were created all throughout the vast steppes of Central Asia.
4. China and India, the two powerhouses of ancient world, supplied many important articles to Europe. While China provided silk and other rare items, India provided spices along with many other trade items.
5. When Islam broke forth upon the medieval world, it took hold of these trade routes at first to create trade monopoly and starve Europe of goods at one hand and India and China of gold reserves on the other.
6. While the Arabs never managed to win over Central Asia, it was the Persians upon conversion to Islam who first colonized and converted Central Asia. Later on the Turks took over and the Great Steppes of Central Asia turned Islamic, changing future forever.
7. Central Asia under Islam experienced a Buddhist Holocaust. The great centers of Buddha were destroyed, the monoliths desecrated and some completely destroyed, the monasteries burnt to ground and the free culture of the region came to an end.
8. Had the ancient and medieval kingdoms of India tried to colonize Central Asia, it might not have been so easy for Islamic armies to invade India. For it was in Central Asia that these Islamic armies originated, camped and travelled through to invade India.
9. The Ghaznis and the Ghauris made Afghanistan their base. The Mughals invaded India because they could so easily stroll through Central Asia. Without the support of their armies back in Central Asia, even the Mughals might not have found a permanent foothold in India.
10. As the Mughals waned other great powers started emerging on the Western horizon. And it was not only by sea that these great powers of Europe were coming. They were also making their way through Central Asia.
11. While Western European powers like Spain, Portugal, Holland and Britain searched for sea routes to India, Imperial Russia on the other hand was expanding all through the vast continent that lay east and south of it.
12. Russian Imperialism expanded on land. Making a quick meal of ‘empty’ Siberia, Russia was soon in Central Asia on one hand and Mongolia and Manchuria on the other. It was simultaneously knocking on the gates of India and China.
13. One by one it started guzzling up the various caravan cities and fiefdoms that the crazy Islamic sheikhs of Central Asia governed. There were no ‘-istans’, or well defined countries in Central Asia when Russia colonized it.
14. The region was inhabited by roaming bands of tribes which seldom lived permanently at one place. They would roam across the great seamless steppes of central Asia, spending one season in one ‘country’ and another in other.
15. What were permanent were the great caravan cities like Samarkand, Bokhara, Merv, Tokhan, Kashgar etc. They were ruled by the Islamic despots whose torturous and capricious reigns are stuff of medieval legends. They controlled some areas around. Steppes were no man’s land.
16. Like other European powers, the Russian generals also had a great sense of geo-politics and they knew that the age had come where if they did not take control of the ‘empty steppes’ and the ‘no man’s land’, some other great power will.
17. They quickly moved in and carved out ‘stans’ and assigned capitals to these places. The Great Russian Bear was moving towards India’s borders. As expressed above, India was the greatest prize.
18. India was the most important British colony and it wanted to protect India from Russian any advance. First it gained access to great heights of the Himalayas on all sides of India to create a protective ring of mountains, preventing any invading army an easy march.
19. It also took care that the borders of the newly acquired territories of the Tsar in Central Asia would not touch India’s borders. For this they created a protective ring of buffer states on the west of India, trying to make Shah of Persia and Emir of Afghanistan their ally.
20. In order to keep puppet regimes in Afghanistan Britain would subsequently fight two Afghan Wars. Along with this, the British were swinging spies all over Central Asia in hostile lands just so that India’s borders could remain secure. Their geo-political wisdom was great.
21. On the other side of Central Asia, Tibet was also penetrated by the Western Empires for the first time in history. The Race to Lhasa is an important chapter in this series. Read next thread to know what happened when China entered the Great Game.
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