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This brutal act prompted immediate retaliation in the course of which
the Kazakhs were defeated (1698) and set the stage for the events of 1723
( Aktaban shubirindy ) when the Jungars claimed their livestock, pastures,
and towns. 26 The Jungars were more powerful than the Kazakhs since they
not only built a centralized political authority and strong military, but ex-
panded their subsistence base, previously including herding only, through
the introduction of agriculture, crafts, and construction (Millward, 2007;
Perdue, 2005). By the mid-18th century, the Jungars had gained strength
based on this gradual shift to a more sedentary orientation of their econ-
omy that, we may argue, stimulated Ablai's thinking about moving in a
similar direction with his nomadic people.
The Jungars achieved their desired security by demoralizing the Ka-
zakhs and attacked the Chinese in 1731. Four years later, they signed a peace
pact with the Emperor. But in 1745, Galdan Ceren passed away prompting
a fierce competition among his heirs. The Chinese used this situation and
crushed the Jungars in 1757 causing the downfall of the Jungar political
and even demographic dominance in the area. The Chinese army wiped out
almost the entire Choros tribe to make sure that the ghost of Genghis khan
would never reappear (Grousset, 2000). 27 Twenty years later, the Torghuts,
who had nothing to do with this conflict, returned to the Tarbagatai from
the Lower Volga helping China to repopulate its New Frontier - Xinjiang. 28
The annihilation of Jungars ended the long-standing trouble for the Ka-
zakhs. The new political disposition, however, opened the steppe for new
players. During the 16th century the interaction between the Russians, who
were still recovering from the Mongol bondage, and the Kazakhs was limited
to sporadic encounters. The presence of Jungars facilitated the establishment
of regular contacts between Russia and the khans of Kazakhs who sought its
assistance but the Russians remained disengaged observing the explosions
of hostility between the two nomadic people (Khodarkovsky, 2002). 29
26 The towns of Tashkent, Turkistan and Sayram (Grousset 2000: 531-532).
27 The massacre was followed by a small pox epidemics in 1758, which amplified human loss (Kho-
darkovsky 2002: 168).
28 They came to be called Kalmyk. For more on the Torghuts and Jungars see: Perdue (2005: 209-227)
and Millward (2007: 78-123). Not all Torghuts moved away from Russia, only some 150 thousand of
them. The others stayed behind where they still live today forming an autonomous region in Russia
(Perdue 2005: 293).
29 The Russians seemed to have their interests on the Kazakh side, but they did not confront Jungars,
perhaps realizing their strength. Bokeikhanov comments that in “1739, Jungars attacked Kazakhs and
chased them until the Ural River, in the course of which many Russian Bashkirs were killed; yet, Rus-
sian state did not punish them for the latter ([1903] 1995: 50).
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