History of Xinjiang

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Xinjiang consists of two main regions, geographically separated by the Tianshan Mountains, which are historically and ethnically distinct: Dzungaria to the north, and the Tarim Basin (currently mainly inhabited by the Uyghurs) to the south. In the 18th and 19th centuries, these areas were conquered by the Qing dynasty, which in 1884 integrated them into one province named Xinjiang (新疆; Xīnjiāng; 'new frontier'). The first inhabitants of Xinjiang, specifically from southern and western Xinjiang, formed from admixture between locals of Ancient North Eurasian and Northeast Asian descent. The oldest mummies found in the Tarim Basin are dated to the 2nd millennium BCE. In the first millennium BCE Indo-European-speaking Yuezhi nomads migrated into parts of Xinjiang. In the second century BCE the region became part of the Xiongnu Empire, a confederation of nomads centered on present-day Mongolia, which forced the Yuezhi out of Xinjiang. Eastern Central Asia was referred to as "Xiyu" (Chinese:...

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