HISTORY
Archaeological excavations indicate
that the south of Kazakhstan was inhabited by man as early as
the Palaeolithic Era and tribes were breeding cattle and producing
bronzeware by the middle of the second millennium BC. By the beginning
of the first millennium BC, the Saks tribe occupied the territory
of the steppes, the Savromat tribe the north and west of Kazakhstan,
the Kangues the Syr-Daria River area and the Usuns (whose writing,
weapons and jewellery have been preserved) the south. Later, the
Huns, who bred cattle, made handicrafts and possessed a well-organised
army, occupied Kazakhstan. By the fourth century AD, most of the
Saks and Usuns had moved west and new individual states began
to appear, such as Westturkic Khanate, which was established by
Turkish tribes trading on the Silk Road.
During the eighth and ninth centuries,
the Syr-Daria region and lands around the Aral Mountains were
settled by Kimak tribes, the largest and strongest being the Kipchaks,
considered the primary ancestors of the present-day Kazakhs. The
tenth century was a time of considerable economic, social and
cultural progress. Islam was declared the state religion and some
outstanding works of literature in the Turkic language were written.
The Mongols invaded in the 13th century and Genghis Khan and his
army completely destroyed most of the towns and settlements and
portioned the land out between his sons. However, by the 15th
century, the Kazakh Khanate state was formed, consisting of the
remaining descendants of the Saks, Usuns and Kangues of the West
Turkic Khanate, and the gradual revival of agriculture, urban
culture and trade relations took place.
The tribes integrated further and
reformed into three tribal groups called Zhuzes - Senior, Middle
and Junior - which became known under the ethnic name of the 'Kazakhs'.
In 1734 the Junior Zhuze became Russian citizens, followed by
the Middle Zhuze in 1742 and the Senior Zhuze in 1849. By 1860,
Kazakh land had become fully annexed to Russia in return for which
Russia was expected to protect the Kazakhs from the invasions
of the Jungar tribes. The Russians built new military installations
and settlements. Kazakhstan obtained its full national statehood
in 1920 and was declared a republic. Kazakhstan's economic, mining
and chemical industries, as well as agriculture and cattle breeding,
developed greatly at this time, but during the terrible famine
of the 1930s over two million Kazakhs died of hunger due to the
failure of farm collectivisation plans instituted by Stalin.
The first winds of reform swept
the republic in 1986 when the Brezhnevian regime, led by Dinmukhamed
Kunayev, was deposed in favour of a new administration led by
Gennadi Kolbin, a protégé of the reformist Soviet leader, Mikhail
Gorbachev. However, many Kazakhs objected to having an ethnic
Russian at the head of the republic and a period of civil unrest
followed his appointment. Kolbin was transferred to Moscow in
1989 and replaced as President by Nursultan Nazarbayev, the most
prominent ethnic Kazakh in the central government. Following the
attempted coup against Gorbachev in August 1991, Nazarbayev quickly
guided Kazakhstan to independence within the Commonwealth of Independent
States, while the Kazakh Communist Party split from the Moscow-based
Communist Party and re-established itself as the Socialist Party
of Kazakhstan (SPK). Although the SPK, like the CPSU, was ordered
to cease functioning, Nazarbayev used many of the old personnel
and party structures to maintain a firm grip on power. (The SPK
was later allowed to reform, but Zarabayev had by then established
his own political vehicle, the People's Unity Party, later the
Republican Party). As the only candidate at the presidential election
in December 1991, Nazarbayev won 98 per cent of the vote. Following
the introduction of a new constitution in 1995, a new set of political
forces emerged in Kazakhstan. However, this made little difference
to the distribution of power. The PUP took control of the Supreme
Kenges while Nazabayev has been twice re-elected (in 1995 and
1999), unopposed on both occasions.
Despite its small size compared to Russia, Kazakhstan's extensive
unexploited oil and gas fields and its ex-Soviet nuclear arsenal
give it a political clout unavailable to the other Central Asian
states. In the short term, however, Kazakhstan has experienced
some economic difficulties which have, on a number of occasions,
given rise to public unrest. Nazarbayev has received political
overtures from all the main regional powers: Iran, Turkey and
China. The Kazakh leadership is not at all keen on Iranian-style
Islamism and seems more inclined to pursue the quasi-secular capitalist
route roughly modelled on Turkey. To the east, the Chinese province
of Xinjiang is developing closer economic ties with both Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan, whose peoples have ethnic links with China's five
million Uygur minority. Kazakhstan has ratified the START-1 treaty
on nuclear missile reduction, and is engaged in negotiations with
Moscow over the future of the nuclear test site at Semipalatinsk,
which lies inside Kazakh territory and is seen by many Kazakhs
as an environmental blight. In 1997, President Nazarbayev's pet
project, the establishment of a new capital city, was fulfilled.
In June that year, amid much ceremony, Astana, based on a former
Cossack fortress and located 750 miles north of the old capital,
Almaty, was inaugurated as the new capital. Various reasons are
thought to underlie the move, of which poor environmental conditions
in Almaty and the old capital's proximity to the Chinese border
are thought to have been decisive.
