The Oirats are considered the heirs of Genghis Khan. They lived in a vast country stretching from the Kazakh steppes to Tibet.
The first mention of the Dzungars (or as they called themselves — Oirats) dates back to the beginning of the 13th century. According to Mongolian chronicles, the leader of this people submitted to Genghis Khan in 1208, and since he himself surrendered to the mercy of the winner, he and his family joined the ranks of the Mongolian nobility. The enterprising leader was not confused and twinned his daughters with all branches of the great conqueror’s family so that the Oirats would be forgotten under any ruler.
The rulers of the Dzungars really stood out in their ability to keep their noses in the wind. They successfully survived all internecine clashes of Genghisids and in 1399 created the first independent state — Derben-Oirat (or Oirat Khanate). For a long time everything went well. In 1449 the Oirat-Chinese war began. The steppe nomads defeated the arrogant young emperor, who for some reason decided to defeat the enemy on his field and threw all the troops into the steppe. The heavy Chinese infantry had little to oppose the mounted nomads and were defeated despite their huge numerical advantage. The emperor was taken prisoner. The ruler of the Dzungars decided that with such a hostage he could bargain any terms of peace, but he miscalculated. The Chinese quickly put a new emperor on the throne, and about the old one declared that «the state is more important than the life of the ruler». The former emperor spent six years in captivity, and then he was released on all four sides.
A new chance to gain independence appeared in the 17th century
The successful Dzungarian state collapsed when one of the Chingizids wanted to reunite the lands of his great ancestor. He started just with the Oirats. In 1468 the Oirat army was defeated by the Mongols, and the Khanate ceased to exist for 170 years, becoming only a part of the Mongol state of Northern Yuan. The Dzungars tried to keep a low profile, remembering what had happened to their state.
A new chance to gain independence came in the 17th century, when an ambassador from Tibet arrived to the Oirat ruler Gushi. He asked to protect the Buddhists and the Dalai Lama personally from the attacks of secular feudal lords, who were encroaching on the monasteries and their wealth. The Oirats responded to the call and helped protect the monasteries of Tibet, receiving rich gifts as a reward. In 1635, the Dzungar Khanate was proclaimed again. It, along with several other steppe states, refused to submit to the weakened Mongols. In 1640 the congress of rulers of all nomadic peoples adopted the Steppe Statute — a code of laws, and voted for a single religion — Buddhism.
A friend of the steppes — the Dzungars
The revived khanate began to expand actively. Its first victim was the Kazakh Khanate. In 1681-1685 Dzungar troops under the command of Tsevan-Rabdan pushed the Kazakhs to the west and reached Tashkent. The local population was imposed such a huge yasak (i.e. tribute) that the Tatars living in these lands preferred to become subjects of the Russian Tsar. There they had to pay less, and the ruler was far away. The Dzungars did not like this. In addition, they were threatened by Russian plans for expansion in Central Asia. Conflict became inevitable. In 1710, the Oirats attacked and practically razed to the ground the Bikatun stockade, which the Cossacks had erected on lands belonging to the Dzungar Khan’s tribute.
In 1716, when the conqueror of the Kazakhs Khan Tsevan-Rabdan was defending the sacred city of Lhasa in Tibet from Chinese troops, a Russian detachment under the command of Colonel Ivan Bukhholts tried to establish the Yamyshev fortress on the lands of the Dzungars. The nomads did not like such audacity, and the fortifications under construction were taken under siege. Dzungars did not even need to attack — hardships and deprivation in the Russian camp did all the work for them. From 3 thousand soldiers almost a third of them were cut down by disease, hunger and cold, and the transport with food and ammunition nomads intercepted on the distant approaches. The surviving Russians had to retreat.
Map of the Dzungarian Khanate [first half of the 18th century]. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile, fighting in Tibet was going on with mixed success. The sacred city of Lhasa was changing hands, falling into the hands of the Dzungars and Qing China. In the midst of battles Tsewang-Rabdan had to meet the ambassador of Peter I, who delivered a letter from the Russian Tsar. He «allowed the Dzungars to live as they lived» and notified about the construction of new fortresses along the Irtysh. Khan did not like it so much that the ambassador spent several years in captivity.
Peter did not abandon his attempts to get to the gold, which he believed was in the Central Asian oases, and sent a new expedition to the south under the command of Major Ivan Likharev. In August 1720, this detachment in the upper reaches of the Irtysh encountered and defeated the Dzungar army. During the negotiations, the Oirat commander, son of Tsevan-Rabdan, managed to convince his Russian colleague that the gold of the southern oases, of which Peter dreamed so much, was just a legend. This satisfied both sides, and on January 18, 1721 Peter issued a decree of peace with the Dzungarian Khanate. Since then there were no major clashes between Russians and Dzungars, and the restless nomads concentrated on their confrontation with China.
The inglorious end of the glorious khanate
The war had long been fought not in the sacred mountains near Lhasa, but on a very wide front from Tibet to Mongolia. The Chinese wanted to put the arrogant steppes in their place. The emperors of the Celestial Empire considered Tibet their possessions, and no steppe nomads dared to tell them, the sons of heaven. The Dzungars, on the other hand, wanted to reclaim a part of Mongolia for their pastures. Neither side was able to gain a decisive advantage during the long war that took place in 1729-1737. After long negotiations, which took almost two more years, peace was signed between the Khan and the Emperor.
Battle of the Chinese army with the Dzungars. Source: Wikimedia Commons
However, the Chinese were not going to make peace with their neighbors forever. In 1755, when a khan died in Dzungaria and a power struggle began, they struck. The Chinese bribed one of the pretenders to the khan’s throne and with his help killed all his opponents. When the traitor was no longer needed, they tried to eliminate him as well. He managed to escape from the Chinese and asked for asylum in Tobolsk. Having deprived the khanate of rulers, the Chinese army surrounded the entire territory of the state and organized a real genocide there, slaughtering about 90% of the population of Dzungaria. Only a few thousand Oirats survived and scattered throughout Asia. Thus ended the history of the Dzungarian Khanate, which stretched from the Kazakh steppes to the peaks of Tibet.