CENTRAL ASIA

STRATEGIC BATTLEGROUND OF THE FUTURE?

I have just completed a very informative book , about a part of the world, ?of which I know little.

It is “A History of Central Asia” by Anne Davison.

It draws together the stories of the peoples who have lived an area than is encompassed between the western borders of China, the Himalayas, the Red Sea and the Ural mountains.

Broadly speaking , the peoples ?in this vast area speak a language drawn from ?one of two language groups, Persian or Turkic.

Parts of Central Asia are as much as 500 feet below sea level. The place in the world that is furthest from the sea (Urumqi in Sinkiang) is also in this general area.

Recorded history of the area starts around 500 BC.

This history was written by Greeks who traded and settled across in Central Asia.

?It is principally a history of Empires.? Empires had the merit of bringing a degree of stability to what otherwise would have been a lawless area. ?This facilitated trade and prosperity, and cultural development that was far ahead of anything happening in western Europe? in the same era.

The first such Empire was Persian (550 BC to 330BC). Many of these early Persian Emperors were called Darius, the last of whom was defeated by the Greeks at the battle of Marathon. After the battle, Darius took refuge in Afghanistan.

Alexander the Great ?followed up this success by creating ?an empire which included present day Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Northern Egypt, Northern India, Pakistan, Turkey. Palestine and, of course, Greece and Macedonia.

Alexander’s Greek Empire did not remain a unit for long. Custom dictated that , on a man’s death, his ?property be divided among ?all his surviving ?sons. So Alexander’s Empire was divided in four.

?The Greek language and culture, and ?Greek ideas about the purpose of life and ?of government , ?introduced by Alexander the Great, spread widely through central Asia. He had been tutored by Aristotle and this influence was profound and felt right up to the borders of China. Alexander’s family were succeeded by a number of other imperial dynasties.

The last non Muslim imperial dynasty ?in the area were the Sassanids, who ruled until the arrival of the all conquering Muslims from the Arabian peninsula around 640AD

The Sassanids promoted Zoroastrianism, a religion that still exists today in Iran. It is a mystical religion with a complex hierarchical priesthood. It lost out in competition with Islam, a simpler faith with more direct relationship between the faithful and God.

There were two major Empires in the Muslim World….the Ummyads based in Cairo and the Abbasids in Baghdad.

After the conquest by the Arabs, the next major development was the invasion of? central Asia by the Mongols. They were led by Genghis Khan. Mongols took Baghdad in 1258 and Damascus in 1260. This meant that they ruled all the way from China to the Mediterranean.

Mongol rule facilitated trade by land between Europe and Asia, on what became the Silk Road. But it also facilitated the spread of disease and, supposedly, the Black Death arrived in Europe along the Silk Road.

Tamerlane, born in Uzbekistan in? 1336, ?was the next major military figure to dominate? Central Asia. He was in conflict with Ottoman Turks who controlled most of modern Turkey, and the Balkans in Europe.

Tamerlane won this contest with the Turks and had plans to invade China when he died in 1404.

Russia , which had been occupied by the Mongols at one stage, decided to increase its power in central Asia in the mid nineteenth century. ?

The Khanate of Khiva? became a Russian protectorate in ?1873. This Russian advance brought it into indirect conflict with the British, who saw this as a threat to the very profitable British interests in India.

Central Asia is rich in natural resources. I have heard it said that a fundamental tenet of US strategic policy is the ensure that no one power ever controlled the whole of the Eurasian land mass. This includes western Europe. But, in terms of geography, the bulk of the Eurasian land mass is ?actually central Asia. The conflict in Ukraine can be seen? in this light, as can China’s “Belt and Road” initiative , designed to give China better access to the west.

How far will the US go in attempting to control the balance of power in the Eurasian land mass? The answer to that question is unfolding in Ukraine.

US Republicans seem to think that the US has no strategic interests to defend in Ukraine, whereas Democrats believe that the US does have interests to defend there.

The inhabitants of central Asia will, of course, have their own ideas. Russian and Chinese interventions in the area have met with local resistance. Forced settlement of central Asia by Russians ?over the last two centuries was, and is, resented by locals.

This is actually a very short book, but it covers a vast subject, more than competently.

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