Dzungar-Russian conflicts

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Dzungar-Russian Conflicts
Part of Russian conquest of Central Asia, Russian conquest of Siberia
Renat map.jpg
The map of Dzungaria by the Swedish prisoner of war, Johan Gustav Renat
Date17th to the 18th century
Location
Various cities and towns on Siberia, Russia. Dzungar Khanate
Result Dzungar Victory
Belligerents
Oirat Mongol Dalkha Banner.png Dzungar Khanate Flag of Oryol ship (variant).svg Tsardom of Russia
Commanders and leaders
Sengge(1665-1667)
Baigorok(1710)
Tsewang Rabtan(1713-1719)		 Rodion Koltsov (POW)(1667)
Cheokton  Skull and Crossbones.svg (1710)
Buchholz(1713-1716)
Johan Renat  (POW)(1713-1716)
Likharev(1719)
Strength
Approx. 30,000 Unknown
Casualties and losses
Light Heavy

The Dzungar-Russian Conflicts were a series of military wars, expeditions and raids between the Oirat led Dzungar Khanate and the Tsardom of Russia from the 17th to the 18th century. [1] [2]

Contents

Background

By the 16th century, with the Russian conquest of Kazan and destruction of the Astrakhan khanate, the Russians started their expansion for Siberia in 1582, under Yermak Timofeyevich invaded the territory of the Voguls, subjects to Kuchum Khan, ruler of the Sibir Khanate. Later with following Tatar raids and later Russian invasions, they succesfully annexed the Sibir Khanate and created cities and towns to settle in and secure trade routes. [3] By 1640, the eastern borders of Russia had expanded more than several million square kilometers. [4]

During 1634, Erdeni Batur, the son of the Oirat prince, Kharkhul who was granted the title of Khong Tayiji, married the khan's daughter Amin Dara, and sent back from Tibet to establish the Dzungar Khanate on the upper Emil River and south of the Tarbagatai Mountains. [5] Unlike the more fragmented nomadic groups to their east, the Dzungars possessed a highly organized military, a centralized political structure, and a diversified economy that combined pastoral nomadism with agriculture and craft production. [6]

History

Early conflict

In 1614, The Oirats occupied the Kuznetsk basin, where Abins and Shors inhabited the area, around the River Tom engaging in mining and metal-working. [7] They also laid claim to all the salt lakes along the middle and upper reaches of the River Irtysh. [7] But the people residing there refused to pay tributes and/or work for the Oirats. [7] For this, The Oirats later sieged Kuznetsk in 1622, however they failed to capture the city. [7]

Later in 1665, [8] The leader of the Dzungars -- Sengge and with the support of the Khakas, moved towards the Krasnoyarsk fortress. The residents of Krasnoyarsk and its surroundings did not expect this, so many were caught by surprise. The servicemen and peasant farmers who were outside the town walls were killed, villages and farms were destroyed, and it is likely that food supplies were captured. [9] After this, they defeated a Russian force, taking Rodion Koltsov as a prisoner of war [10] and lay siege to Krasnoyarsk on 1667, [11] [12] reducing its inhabitants to starvation. Later he demanded that the Russian authorities to recognize him as Hegemon or Suzerain of the "Kyrgyz Land", implying it is the domain of his father (Erdeni) and grandfather (Kharkhul). Though he later abondons the Siege as well as the "Kyrgyz Land" to defeat the Erinchin Lobsang Tayiji of the Khalkhas. [13] [14] [15]

In 1709, The Dzungars led a raid on Kuznetsk again. For instance, only Taisha Baigorok in 1710 "defeated the yasak foreigners of ... 6 yurts and captured the yasak Tatar Cheokton, ordered the eyes to be gouged out of the living man, and straps (of skin) to be cut from his back, and [then] he was hanged on a tree. [16] Afterwards they campaigned between the Altai rivers Biya and Katun. They went on to siege and destroyed a fortification on between them. [17] With 4000 cavalry, they plundered many Russian villages in the Kuznetsk district. Then, the Dzungars also defeated nearby garrisons on the district. [18]

Russian Expeditions to Dzungar Khanate

In 1714, Ivan Dmitrievich Buchholz, a lieutenant colonel (and the commandant of the Yamyshev Fortress on the Irtysh River), received the following commands signed by Peter I on the St. Natalia galley: [19]

“On the capture of the city of Erket (Yarkand) and on the search for golden sand along the Darya River” (Amu Darya), “On sand gold in Bukhara, about the departures made for this, and about the construction of fortresses along the Irtysh River, which are named:Omskaya, Zhelezenskaya, Yamyshevskaya, Semipalatnaya, Ust-Kamenogorsk. Decrees ordered him to go to Tobolsk, gather a detachment there and move up the Irtysh to Yamysh Lake." There he had to stop for the winter, build a fortress, leave a garrison in it, and then continue on his way to the city of Yarkand, where there were supposedly placers of sand gold. The fact that there is a gold deposit in those places, Peter I was convinced by the Siberian governor Prince Matvey Gagarin. On early octobor of 1715, the detachment arrived at the Yamyshevsky salt lake. Here Buchholz started the construction of the Yamyshev fortress. [20] Months later on middle of december, 1715, the lieutenant colonel did not dare to go further and wrote to Peter I that it was dangerous to meet the Dzungars with such a small number of troops, but the letter did not reach until August 7, 1716. [21]

Dissatisfied with the appearance of Russian troops, the Leader of the Dzungar Khanate, Tsewang Rabtan sent Buchholz a demand to leave, and when they refused, on the night of February 10, 1716, he attacked the Yamyshev fortress with his 10,000 strong army and recaptured a herd of horses. [22] The winter blockade of the fortress began, in which a detachment of Russians lost 2,300 people from hunger and disease. The relief and provisions sent to help were intercepted by the Dzungars, and Buchholz did not try to repel them, showing passivity. Capturing a caravan of 700 people with a food convoy and 20,000 rubles of money for salaries, as well as 600 merchants from Tobolsk, Tara and Tomsk. [23]

Around 2 months later, Buchholz was forced to leave the fortress, with his departure Tsewang fortifications were razed to the ground, houses and barracks were destroyed, military supplies were sacked. There were less than 700 officers and privates left, most of whom were sick as well releasing some prisoners of war: a priest and the commissar who was at the execution. [24]

In 1719, another expedition was organized led by I. M. Likharev, which reached Lake Zaisan, but, having been attacked by the Dzungars, was forced to return to Tobolsk. [25]

References

  1. ↑ Khodarkovsky, Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500–1800 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002), 127-130, 219-223.
  2. ↑ Peter B. Golden, Central Asia in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 115-118; and Michael
  3. ↑ Michael Khodarkovsky, Russia's Steppe Frontier: The Making of a Colonial Empire, 1500–1800 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002)
  4. ↑ Richards, John F. (2003). The Unending Frontier: An Environmental History of the Early Modern World. University of California Press. p. 538. ISBN 0520939352.
  5. ↑ Adle, Chahryar (2003). History of Civilizations of Central Asia 5. p. 146.
  6. ↑ Peter C. Perdue, China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), 103-127.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Adle, Chahryar (2003), History of Civilizations of Central Asia 5 p. 177
  8. ↑ (Gorod u Krasnogo Yara, p. 54).
  9. ↑ (Butanaev, p. 144)
  10. ↑ ДЖУНГАРЫ У СТЕН КРАСНОЯРСКА 1667 ГОД Уметбаев Тимур Шамилевич
  11. ↑ Adle, Chahryar (2003), History of Civilizations of Central Asia 5 p. 180.
  12. ↑ ДЖУНГАРЫ У СТЕН КРАСНОЯРСКА 1667 ГОД Уметбаев Тимур Шамилевич
  13. ↑ Adle, Chahryar (2003), History of Civilizations of Central Asia 5 p. 178.
  14. ↑ Adle, Chahryar (2003), History of Civilizations of Central Asia 5 p. 180.
  15. ↑ Службы «на крови». Служилые люди красноярского острога и борьба с енисейскими киргизами в конце XVII столетия
  16. ↑ Службы «на крови». Служилые люди красноярского острога и борьба с енисейскими киргизами в конце XVII столетия
  17. ↑ Adle, Chahryar (2003), History of Civilizations of Central Asia 5 p. 180.
  18. ↑ Двоеданничество в Сибири XVII - 60-е гг. XIX в. Олег Валерьевич Боронин
  19. ↑ Мартынов Л. Крепость на Оми: [Исторический очерк]. — Омск: Омскоблиздат, 1939.
  20. ↑ Мартынов Л. Крепость на Оми: [Исторический очерк]. — Омск: Омскоблиздат, 1939.
  21. ↑ Энциклопедический лексикон. — Т. 7: Бра — Бял. — СПб.: Тип. А. Плюшара. 1836. — С. 622.
  22. ↑ Источник:Радик Темиргалиев - Эпоха последних батыров
  23. ↑ Чулков М. Историческое описание Российской коммерции при всех портах и границах от древних времён до ныне настоящего и всех преимущественных узаконений по оной государя императора Петра Великого и ныне благополучно царствующей государыни императрицы Екатерины Великой. — Том 3. — Книга 1. — М.: Универ. тип., 1785. — Ст. 447.
  24. ↑ Чулков М. Историческое описание Российской коммерции при всех портах и границах от древних времён до ныне настоящего и всех преимущественных узаконений по оной государя императора Петра Великого и ныне благополучно царствующей государыни императрицы Екатерины Великой. — Том 3. — Книга 1. — М.: Универ. тип., 1785. — Ст. 447.
  25. ↑ РОССИЙСКО-КАЗАХСКИЕ ОТНОШЕНИЯ В XVI–XIX ВВ.
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