With its Genghis Khan-style policy of conquest, the Dzungar Khanate could not help but clash with the other strongest power of its time, the Manchu Qing Empire. Both of these states had their own views on East Turkestan, Tibet and Khalkha-Mongolia, which could not but lead to a war between them, which the Dzungars almost won, but because of internal strife lost everything.
Battle of Khorgos in 1757.
The conflict between the Dzungars and Manchus broke out in the year of the emergence of both empires — 1645 — and was associated with the expansionist aspirations of both states: The Dzungars, who were following Genghis Khan’s path, were aiming at China, which was being taken over by the Qing Empire, while the Manchus were firmly established in eastern Mongolia and were about to annex the western Mongolia occupied by the Dzungars, but since the Dzungars and Manchus were busy conquering other areas, it did not come to a direct armed conflict for a long time. Everything changed in 1688, when the Dzungars invaded eastern Mongolia and defeated the local ruler Tushetu Khan, who surrendered to the mercy of the Manchu conquerors. Such a move of the Dzungars was perceived by the Manchus as an encroachment on their national interests and in 1690 the First Oirat-Manchurian war began, for which both sides were not ready, so the first battle of the Manchus with the Dzungars on the Ologoi River on July 21, 1690 ended in complete defeat for the Manchus, although they planned the battle as their super easy victory: The outnumbered Manchu army was supposed to surround the Dzungar camp on the Ologoy River, overpower the army standing there and move westward, but the Dzungars, thanks to illiterate reconnaissance made by the Manchus, learned everything about the enemy, repulsed all his attacks on the camp and almost surrounded them themselves, forcing them to flee to Manchuria.
The Battle of Ologoi on July 21, 1690.
Ologoi disgrace showed the Manchus that the Dzungars were a strong opponent and next time a six times larger army led by Emperor Kangxi fell on them, but it could not do anything in the four-day battle of Ulan-Butun on August 1-4, 1690. All the last seven years the Dzungars crushed the Manchus on the battlefield and only active Manchu propaganda was able to first push the Mongols away from the Dzungars, and then helped the Manchus to win the battle on the Terelzh River on May 13, 1696, after which eastern Mongolia legally joined the Qing Empire.
Emperor Kangxi’s camp at the battle on the Terelzh River on May 13, 1696.
The Dzungars did not resign themselves to defeat and in 1715 the war with the Manchus broke out with renewed vigor. Initially the war was rather sluggish, mainly because of the Kazakh-Dzungarian war going on in parallel. Everything changed in 1729, when the Dzungars were defeated in Kazakhstan, and the Manchus adopted the Chinese tactics of military settlements, but it helped them poorly, the Dzungars with enviable constancy crushed the Manchu troops and chased them throughout Mongolia and Tibet and only the conclusion of peace in 1739, according to which the parties shared Mongolia, saved the Qing Empire from complete defeat.
The fortress of Modon-Tsagan-Kul, built by the Manchus as a base of operations during the Second and Third Oirat-Manchurian Wars.
In the middle of the XVIII century, the Dzungarian Khanate fell into a period of infighting, which was immediately taken advantage of by the Manchus, who invaded Dzungaria in 1755. This time they easily won victories, helped neither by the fury of the Dzungars, who fought for their freedom and independence, nor by the rebellion in eastern Mongolia, nor by active assistance from Russia. The answer to the desperate resistance of the Dzungars was their genocide by the Manchus, as a result of which some of those who were lucky enough to survive, went to Russia (also joined the Mountain Altai, which was part of Dzungaria), and western Mongolia became part of China until the early twentieth century.
The retreat of the Dzungars under the leadership of Noyon Tseren into Russian territory.