History

In the 12-13th century, Uzbekistan was the centre of Genghis Khan's empire, and its cities of Samarkand and Tashkent grew rich from the silk caravan trade. It was divided into the khanates of Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand, which were subjected to attacks by Russia from the early 18th century until they were annexed in 1876.The Uzbeks rebelled against Russian rule in 1918 but were suppressed and the country was proclaimed a Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924. Uzbekistan declared its independence from the USSR in 1991 under President Islam Karimov, and became a member of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).

Early History

The territory of Uzbekistan was populated in the second millennium BC. There are findings of early human tools and monuments in Ferghana, Tashkent, Bukhara, Khorezm (Khwarezm, Chorasmia) and Samarkand regions.

The first civilisations to appear in Uzbekistan were Sogdiana, Bactria and Khwarezm (Chorasmia). Alexander the Great conquered Sogdiana and Bactria in 327 BC, marrying Roxana, daughter of a local Bactrian chieftain. However, the conquest was supposedly of little help to Alexander as popular resistance was fierce.

For many centuries the region of Uzbekistan was ruled by Iranian Empires such as the Parthian and Sassanid Empires.

Middle Ages

The area was conquered by Muslim Arabs in the 8th century AD. A century later, the Persian Samanid dynasty established an empire. The Samanids encouraged Persian culture in the area. Later, the Samanid Empire was overthrown by the Kara-Khanid Khanate. Uzbekistan and the rest Central Asia was invaded by Genghis Khan and his Mongol tribes in 1220.

In the 1300s, Timur (1336 - 1405), known in the west as Tamerlane, overpowered the Mongols and built his own empire. In his military campaigns Tamerlane reached as far as the Middle East, defeating Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I.

Tamerlane sought to build a capital of his empire in Samarkand, sending artisans to the city from each campaign he fought. Samarkand thus became home for many people, with Greek, Chinese, Egyptian, Persian, Syrian and Armenian neighbourhoods.

1865-1991: Russian Influence

In 1865, Russia occupied Tashkent and by the end of the 19th century, Russia had conquered all of Central Asia. In 1876, the Russians dissolved the Khanate of Kokand, while allowing the Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara to remain as direct protectorates. Russia placed the rest of Central Asia under colonial administration, and invested in the development of Central Asia's infrastructure, promoting cotton growing and encouraging settlement by Russian colonists.

Though stiff resistance to the Red Army after World War I was eventually suppressed, resistance groups called basmachi operated in the region reaching as far as the Pamir mountains until the 1930s. In 1924, following the establishment of Soviet rule, the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was created from ethnic Uzbek areas of Central Asia, including most of the territories of the Emirate of Bukhara and Khanate of Khiva as well as portions of the Fergana Valley that had constituted the Khanate of Kokand.

During the Soviet era, Moscow used Uzbekistan for its tremendous cotton-growing ('white gold'), grain, and natural resource potential. The extensive and inefficient irrigation used to support the cotton-growing industry has been the main cause of shrinkage of the Aral Sea to less than one-third of its original volume, making this one of the world's worst environmental disasters. The overuse of agrochemicals and the depletion of water supplies have left large parts of the land poisoned.

1991 - Present: Independence

On August 31, 1991, Uzbekistan declared independence, marking September 1 as a national holiday. Islom Karimov, former First Secretary of the Communist Party, was elected president in December 1991 with 88% of the vote; however, the elections were viewed as not free and fair by international observers. After independence Karimov encouraged anti-Russian nationalist sentiment, and 80% of ethnic Russians - more than 2 million people - fled Uzbekistan.

Activities of missionaries from some Islamic countries coupled with absence of real opportunities to participate in public affairs contributed to popularisation of radical interpretation of Islam. In February 1999, car bombs hit Tashkent, killing more than a dozen people. The government blamed the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) in the attacks. In August 2000, the militant groups tried to penetrate to the Uzbek territory from the Kyrgyz soil. Acts of armed violence were also carried out in the southern part of the country and in June the following year, 73 people were jailed for up to 18 years for aiding Islamic extremists in this region. In October of 2001, the Uzbekistan government allowed the United States military to use its airbases for attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In March 2004, another wave of attacks committed reportedly by international terrorist network shook the country. An explosion in the central part of Bukhara killed ten people in a house used by alleged terrorists on March 28, 2004. Later that day policemen faced an attack at a factory, then at a traffic check point early the following morning. The violence escalated on March 29, when two women separately set off bombs near the main bazaar in Tashkent, killing two people and injuring around twenty, the first suicide bombers in this country. On the same day, three police officers were shot dead; and in Bukhara another explosion at a suspected terrorist bomb factory claimed ten lives. Police raided a militant's hideout south of the capital city in retaliation the following day.

President Karimov claimed the attacks were probably the work of a banned radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir ('The Party of Liberation'), although the group denied responsibility. Other possibly responsible groups include militant groups operating from camps in Tajikistan and Afghanistan and opposed to the government's support of the United States since September 9, 2001.

On July 30, 2004 terrorists bombed the embassies of Israel and the United States in Tashkent, killing 3 people and wounding several in the process. The Jihad Group in Uzbekistan posted a claim of responsibility for those attacks on a website linked to Al-Qaeda. Terrorism experts say the reason for the attacks is Uzbekistan's support of the United States and its War on terror.

In May 2005, several hundred demonstrators were killed after Uzbek troops fired into a crowd protesting against the imprisonment of 23 local businessmen. In July 2005, the Uzbek government gave the US 180 days' notice to leave the airbase it leases in Uzbekistan. A Russian airbase and a German airbase remain.