Uzbekistan

F

Social Services

A comprehensive social welfare system was in place in Uzbekistan during the Soviet period. After independence, the government of Uzbekistan created a social insurance fund, a pension fund, and an employment fund. These funds are intended to provide a safety net for underprivileged social groups, especially during the economic upheaval caused by the transition from a planned economy to a market-based economy. The government-funded health-service sector is generally underdeveloped and has been in decline since independence. Some rural areas are not served by even the most rudimentary of health services.

G

Communications

The media are state-controlled and heavily censored in Uzbekistan. Most newspapers are published by the government, registered political parties, and state-sanctioned organizations. One of the major government publications is Khalq Sozi (Word of the People), a daily newspaper published in both Uzbek and Russian. Television and radio broadcasts are regulated by the state-operated broadcasting company.

H

Defense

During the Soviet period, Uzbekistan had no armed forces separate from the centrally controlled Soviet security system. Today, Uzbekistan has Central Asia’s strongest armed forces. In 2004 the republic had an army of 40,000 personnel and an air force of 15,000. Paramilitary forces include a National Guard that acts as the personal army of the president. Beginning at the age of 18, all male citizens must perform 18 months of military service.

Together with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan contributes military personnel to a Central Asian peacekeeping force that is reserved solely for international peacekeeping missions of the United Nations (UN). Uzbekistan works with other countries of Central Asia to address regional security issues, such as cross-border crime, drug trafficking, religious extremism, and terrorism.

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I

International Organizations

Uzbekistan joined the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a loose alliance of 12 former Soviet republics, in December 1991. Uzbekistan has maintained strong ties with other CIS members, especially Russia and the other nations in Central Asia. However, in 1999 Uzbekistan withdrew from the CIS Collective Security Treaty, citing concerns over Russia’s military dominance in the CIS. In 2001 Uzbekistan joined with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan in forming the Central Asian Cooperation Organization (CACO), which provides a framework for addressing regional and cross-border issues, such as the sharing of water and energy resources. Uzbekistan was admitted as a member of the United Nations in 1992. It subsequently joined the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Partnership for Peace (PFP) program of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was established in 1994 to strengthen relations between NATO and non-NATO states.

VII

History

The area of what is now Uzbekistan was incorporated into the eastern satrapies (Persian provinces ruled by a satrap) of Cyrus the Great’s Persian Empire in the 500s bc. These satrapies were known as Sogdiana, Bactria, and Khorezm. Macedonian leader Alexander the Great conquered the region in the early 300s bc, but Macedonian control lasted only until Alexander’s death in 323. In the 100s bc, part of present-day Uzbekistan was included in the vast empire of the Kushānas, descendants of a tribe from western China. At this time the region became an important part of the overland trade routes, known collectively as the Silk Road, that linked China with the Middle East and imperial Rome.

In the 3rd century ad the Sassanid dynasty of Persia gained control over the region of Central Asia. Nomadic tribes from the north invaded between the 4th and 6th centuries, and the Western Turks gained the most extensive control over the region. In the 7th and 8th centuries Arab invaders conquered present-day Uzbekistan and introduced Islam. Then in the 9th century a Persian dynasty, the Samanids, emerged as local rulers and developed Bukhara as an important center of Muslim culture. The Samanid dynasty declined in the 10th century, however, and a number of Turkic hordes vied for control until the great conquest of Mongol emperor Genghis Khan in the 13th century. In the 14th century the area was incorporated into the empire of the Turkic conqueror Tamerlane (Timur Lang), who established the Timurid dynasty. Tamerlane made Samarqand the capital of his vast empire in 1369, fashioning it into a magnificent imperial capital. Tamerlane’s grandson Ulug Beg emerged as the ruler of Samarqand in the early 1400s.

During the 14th century, the nomadic Turkic-speaking tribal groups of Orda, Shiban, and Manghit, who inhabited the steppes of what is now Kazakhstan, formed what is often referred to as the “Uzbek” (also “Uzbeg” or “Ozbek”) confederation. From 1465 to 1466 a group under the Uzbek chieftains Janibek and Keray launched a rebellion against the khan of the confederation, Abul Khayr (1428-1468). The rebellion lasted until 1468, when the khan was killed. This group began to call themselves Qazaqs (or Kazakhs). In part because of the defeat of Abul Khayr, nomadic clans from the Uzbek confederation began to move south into what is now Uzbekistan (known then as Mawarannahr) in the late 15th century. These groups not only engaged in raids on sedentary areas but also conducted a substantial amount of trade and furnished military forces that local rulers could draw upon. The Kazakhs remained in the north.

In the first decade of the 16th century, Timurid authority collapsed when Mohammed Shaybani, grandson of Abul Khayr, seized Khorezm, Samarqand, Bukhara, and Toshkent. The conquered lands became two separate khanates, one centered in Bukhara, seat of the Shaybanid dynasty, and one in Khorezm, seat of the rival Yadigarid dynasty. The Shaybanid dynasty reached its zenith of power in the late 16th century under Abdullah Khan. After Abdullah Khan’s death, power in Bukhara passed to the Janid dynasty.

During the 17th century Uzbeks continued to settle in present-day Uzbekistan, primarily in the oasis areas of the east that were already inhabited by Turkic and Persian-speaking people. In the west, a Turkic-speaking people called Qoraqalpoghs inhabited the Amu Darya delta by the 18th century; a new dynasty in Khiva (as Khorezm had come to be known) forcefully incorporated the Qoraqalpoghs’ homeland into its khanate in 1811.

Meanwhile, the Qŭqon (Kokand) khanate was formed in the Fergana Valley in the early 1700s. In 1740 Persian forces under Nadir Shah invaded Bukhara and then Khiva, conquering both territories. Persian control was short-lived, effectively ending with Nadir Shah’s death in 1747, and the Janid dynasty never recovered. Uzbek clans succeeded in ousting the Janids by the late 18th century, creating three states ruled by rival Uzbek dynasties. The Kungrats were enthroned at Khiva, the Manghits at Bukhara, and the Mins at Qŭqon. The Manghits ruled as emirs, making Bukhara an emirate, while the other two dynasties established khanates. Although distinct borders were never drawn, these three states dominated the area roughly corresponding to present-day Uzbekistan, or the area between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers. Bukhara was centrally located, and included the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand; Khiva was farther to the west in the area of the Amu Darya delta; and Qŭqon was centered in the Fergana Valley in the east. In the early and mid-19th century, the khanate of Qŭqon expanded into the Tien Shan mountains in the east and the Syr Darya basin in the north.

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