Dzungar Khanate: A Visual History

The Dzungar Khanate was the state of the Oirat (western) Mongols in the Ili valley and northern Xinjiang, unified by Erdeni Batur around 1634. Under Galdan and Tsewang Rabtan it fought the Qing, the Kazakhs and Russia, briefly held Lhasa in 1717-1720 and controlled the Tarim Basin cities. Weakened by smallpox and civil war, it was destroyed by the Qianlong Emperor's campaigns of 1755-1758, followed by the deliberate extermination of much of the Dzungar population.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Dzungar Khanate. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

Dzungar territory

Timeline of the Dzungar Khanate

1. 1634
   Erdeni BaturOirat unification.
2. 1640
   Mongol-Oirat law code
3. 1678
   Galdan takes the Tarim oases
4. 1688
   Invasion of KhalkhaThe Khalkha submit to the Qing.
5. 1696
   Jao ModoKangxi defeats Galdan.
6. 1717
   Lhasa seizedExpelled by the Qing 1720.
7. 1739
   Border treaty with the Qing
8. 1755
   Qing take Ghulja
9. 1758
   Dzungars destroyed

Oirat unification

The Oirats, western Mongols who had produced Esen in the fifteenth century, were pushed out of Mongolia by the Khalkha and settled between the Altai and the Tianshan. Erdeni Batur built a capital and issued the Mongol-Oirat law code of 1640. His son Galdan, a former lama, seized power in 1671, conquered the Tarim oases and in 1688 invaded Khalkha Mongolia, driving its princes to seek Qing protection.

War with the Qing

The Kangxi Emperor personally led armies against Galdan, defeating him at Ulan Butung (1690) and Jao Modo (1696); Galdan died in 1697. His nephew Tsewang Rabtan rebuilt the khanate, seized Lhasa in 1717 (killing the Khoshut ruler of Tibet) and was expelled by Qing armies in 1720. Galdan Tseren fought Kangxi's successors to a stalemate and secured a border treaty in 1739.

Annihilation

Galdan Tseren's death in 1745 triggered a succession war and smallpox epidemic. The Qianlong Emperor exploited the chaos, sending armies in 1755 that took Ghulja almost without a fight. When the Qing appointee Amursana rebelled, Qianlong ordered the Dzungars destroyed as a people. Massacre, disease and flight killed most of them; the empty land was resettled with Manchus, Chinese, Uyghurs and Kazakhs, and named Xinjiang, 'new frontier'.

Related empires and wars

Chosen automatically by overlap in time and geography, plus a few hand picked connections.

Empires of the same era and region

• Qing dynasty (1636 to 1912)
• Northern Yuan dynasty (1368 to 1635)
• Russian Empire (1721 to 1917)
• Chagatai Khanate (1226 to 1347)
• Mongol Empire (1206 to 1368)
• Mughal Empire (1526 to 1857)

Wars of the same era and region

• Manchu conquest of China (1618 to 1683)
• Japanese invasions of Korea (Imjin War) (1592 to 1598)

8 surprising things about the Dzungar Khanate

1. The Dzungars were the last steppe nomads to run a genuine empire, and the last to be conquered by a settled state.
2. The Kangxi Emperor led three campaigns in person, the last Chinese emperor to command in the field.
3. Galdan had been a Buddhist monk in Lhasa before becoming khan.
4. The Dzungars cast their own cannon with the help of a Swedish prisoner of war, Johan Renat.
5. The name Xinjiang ('new frontier') was given to the conquered Dzungar lands by the Qing.
6. Some Oirats who had migrated to the Volga (the Kalmyks) fled back east in 1771; most died on the way.
7. Qianlong's own edicts ordered the Dzungar males to be killed and the women and children distributed as slaves.
8. The Dzungar Gate through the mountains between China and Kazakhstan is named for them.

Sources

• Dzungar Khanate Wikipedia
• Dzungar Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Dzungar genocide Wikipedia
• Peter C. Perdue, China Marches West (2005) Harvard University Press

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