The Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China ruled over Xinjiang from the late 1750s to 1912. In the history of Xinjiang, the Qing rule was established in the final phase of the Dzungar–Qing Wars when the Dzungar Khanate was conquered by the Qing dynasty, and lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912. The post of General of Ili was established to govern the whole of Xinjiang and reported to the Lifan Yuan, a Qing government agency that oversaw the empire's frontier regions. Xinjiang was turned into a province in 1884.
Terminology Xinjiang
The name "Xinjiang" () was introduced during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796) as "Xiyu Xinjiang" (). Xinjiang became the common designation for the region under the General of Ili Songyun in the late 18th century. It was split between Zhunbu (Dzungaria) in the north, also known as Tianshan Beilu (Northern March), Huibu (Muslim Region) in the south, also known as Tianshan Nanlu (Southern March) or Huijiang (Muslim frontier), and Tianshan Donglu (Eastern March) in the east, also known as "Little Suzhou-Hangzhou" for its large number of merchants. In European and Central Asian sources, southern Xinjiang has been called the Tarim Basin (after the river), Chinese Turkestan, Bukharia, Little Bukharia, Kashgaria, and East Turkestan. The Uyghur word for southern Xinjiang is Altishahr, which means "six cities", but "four cities" (Dorben shahr) or "seven cities" (Yeti shahr) have also been used.
Uyghur There was no unified ethnonym for the people now known as the Uyghurs during the Qing period. Prior to the Qing, the term "Uyghur" had been used to refer to non-Muslim inhabitants of Qocho, mainly Buddhists, who resisted conversion to Islam until the 16th century. The term fell out of use afterward and was not used to refer to the modern Uyghur people until 1921. Prior to this, the oasis inhabitants of Xinjiang were called Sart by both Chinese and foreigners. Sart originally meant "merchant" and was used by Turkic and Mongolic speaking groups to refer to Iranian people they ruled over. In the post-Mongol Empire Central Asia, Sart meant sedentary. Foreigners also called them Tartars. The Chinese called the oasis peoples chantou, meaning "turban head," but this was used for the modern Hui people (Dungan people) in Xinjiang as well. Huihu (Uyghur) was used in 1779 by the Qing to refer to rebel leaders in Xinjiang. However the Qing did not draw any specific connection between the Huihu and oasis peoples but with Chinese-speaking Muslims and Xinjiang Muslims in general, both of whom were called Hui. In northern Xinjiang they were known as Taranchi, a Mongolian term for "farmer", because they were relocated from the oases to northern Xinjiang by the Dzungar Khanate as bondservants.
The locals identified as inhabitants of their cities, such as Kashgaris, Khotanese, Kucheans, and so on. They used Musulman to distinguish themselves from the non-Muslim population and the Dungans. They were also often referred as Chagatayan, due to the fact that these people were descended from the Chagatai Khanate and wrote the language from such. Muslim oasis dwellers could also refer to anyone Muslim as locals.
Dungan Chinese-speaking Muslims in the northwest were called the Dungans, transcribed as Tungan, Dungan, or Donggan. They were also called hanhui in Qing documents; the Oghuz-speaking Salars were also sometimes referred as Dungans. The oasis peoples of Xinjiang referred to themselves as Musulman to distinguish themselves from the Dungans.
Background Dzungar-Qing wars
Prior to Qing rule, Xinjiang was ruled by the Oirat Mongols of the Dzungar Khanate based in northern Xinjiang, an area known as Dzungaria. The Dzungars lived in an area from the west end of the Great Wall of China to present-day eastern Kazakhstan and from present-day northern Kyrgyzstan to southern Siberia (most of which is located in present-day Xinjiang). They were the last nomadic empire to threaten China, waging war on the Qing dynasty and their subjects in the middle of the 18th century.. Chapters 3–7 describe the rise and fall of the Dzungar empire and its relations with other Mongol tribes, the Qing dynasty, and the Russian empire.
In 1680, the Dzungars conquered the Tarim Basin, then ruled by the Yarkent Khanate under the influence of the Muslim Khojas. In 1690, the Dzungars attacked the Qing dynasty at the Battle of Ulan Butung and were forced to retreat. In 1696, the Dzungar ruler Galdan Khan was defeated by the Qing at the Battle of Jao Modo. From 1693 to 1696, the Tarim Basin khans rebelled against the Dzungars, resulting in the defection of Abdullah Tarkhan Beg of Hami to the Qing. In 1717, the Dzungars invaded Tibet, then under the control of a Qing ally, Lha-bzang Khan of the Khoshut Khanate. The Qing retaliated the next year with an invasion force but was defeated at the Battle of the Salween River. A second and larger Qing expedition was sent in 1720 and successfully defeated the Dzungars, expelling them from Tibet. The people of Turpan and Pichan took advantage of the situation to rebel under a local chief, Emin Khoja, and defected to the Qing. The Dzungars then attacked the Khalka Mongols subject to the Qing, resulting in another Qing expedition that was defeated by the Dzungars near Khoton Lake. In 1730, the Dzungars attacked Turpan, forcing Emin Khoja to retreat and settle in Guazhou. A succession dispute in 1745 caused widespread rebellion in the Dzungar Khanate. While the Dzungar nobles Dawachi and Amursana fought for control over the khanate, the Dörbet and Bayad defected to the Qing in 1753. The next year, Amursana also defected while the rulers in Khotan and Aksu rebelled against Dzungar rule. In 1755, a Qing army invaded the Dzungar Khanate and met with practically no resistance, ending Dzungar rule in the span of a hundred days. Dawachi attempted to flee but was captured by Khojis, the beg of Uchturpan, and delivered to the Qing.
After defeating the Dzungar Khanate, the Qing planned to install khans for each of the four Oirat tribes, but Amursana wanted to rule over all the Oirats. Instead the Qianlong Emperor made him only khan of the Khoid. In the summer, Amursana and another Mongol leader, Chingünjav, led a revolt against the Qing. Unable to defeat the Qing, Amursana fled north to seek refuge with the Russians two years later and died of smallpox in Russian lands. In the spring of 1762 his frozen body was brought to Kyakhta for the Manchu to see. The Russians then buried it, refusing the Manchu request that it be handed over for posthumous punishment.C. P. Atwood ibid, 623Millward 2007, p. 95.G. Patrick March, Eastern Destiny: Russian in Asia and the Pacific, 1996, Chapter 12
When Amursana rebelled, the Aq Taghliq khojas Burhanuddin and Jahan rebelled in Yarkand. Their rule was not popular and the people greatly disliked them for appropriating anything they needed from clothing to livestock. In February 1758, The Qing sent Yaerhashan and Zhao Hui with 10,000 troops against the Aq Taghliq regime. Zhao Hui was besieged by enemy forces at Yarkand until January 1759, but otherwise the Qing army did not encounter any difficulties on campaign. The khoja brothers fled to Badakhshan where they were captured by the ruler Sultan Shah, who executed them and handed Jahan's head to the Qing. The Tarim Basin was pacified in 1759.
Dzungar genocide
The Qianlong Emperor issued the following orders, as translated by Peter C. Perdue:
Deaths in the Dzungar genocide are estimated at between 70 and 80 percent of the 600,000 or more Dzungars, who were destroyed by disease and warfare between 1755 and 1758,Powers & Templeman 2012, p. 537. which Michael Clarke describes as "the complete destruction of not only the Dzungar state but of the Dzungars as a people." According to the Qing scholar Wei Yuan (1794–1857), the Dzungar population before the Qing conquest was around 600,000 in 200,000 households. Wei Yuan wrote that about 40 percent of the Dzungar households were killed by smallpox, 20 percent fled to Russia or Kazakh tribes, and 30 percent were killed by Manchu bannermen. Khalkha Mongols and Salars also participated in the killing.Lorge 2006, p. 165. For several thousands of li, there were no gers except of those who had surrendered.Perdue 2009, p. 285. According to Russian accounts, all the men, women and children of the Dzungars were slaughtered by the Manchu troops. The population of Dzungaria would not rebound for several generations.Tyler 2004, p. 55.
The destruction of the Dzungars has been attributed to an explicit policy of extermination, described as "ethnic genocide", by the Qianlong Emperor which lasted for two years.Perdue 2005, pp. 283–285. He ordered the massacre of the majority of the Dzungar population and the enslavement or banishment of the remainder, resulting in the destruction of the Dzungars. The Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity classifies the Qianlong Emperor's actions against the Dzungars as genocide under the definition given by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.Shelton 2005, p. 1183. The Emperor saw no conflict between his order of extermination and upholding the peaceful principles of Confucianism. He supported his position by portraying the Dzungars as barbarians and subhuman. The Qianlong Emperor proclaimed that "to sweep away barbarians is the way to bring stability to the interior", that the Dzungars "turned their back on civilization", and "Heaven supported the emperor," in their destruction.Nan & Mampilly & Bartoli 2011, p. 219.
His commanders were reluctant to carry out his orders, which he repeated several times using the term jiao (extermination) over and over again. The commanders Hadaha and Agui were punished for only occupying Dzungar lands but letting the people escape. The generals Jaohui and Shuhede were punished for not showing sufficient zeal in exterminating rebels. Others such as Tangkelu were rewarded for their participation in the slaughter. Qianlong explicitly ordered the Khalkha Mongols to "take the young and strong and massacre them." The elderly, children, and women were spared but they could not preserve their former names or titles. Loyalist Khalkhas received Dzungar Khoit women as slaves from Chebudengzhabu, and orders to deprive the starving Dzungars of food were issued. Manchu Bannermen and loyalist Mongols received Dzungar women, children, and old men as bondservants, and their Dzungar identity was wiped out.Crowe 2014, p. 31-32. Mark Levene, a historian whose recent research interests focus on genocide, states that the extermination of the Dzungars was "arguably the eighteenth century genocide par excellence."
Genocide of Kazakh and Kyrgyz nomads Despite the Qing policies mainly targeted the Dzungars, the Turkic Kipchak Kazakhs and Kyrgyz were also targeted as well. Since both Kazakhs and Kyrgyz share very little in common with the Uyghurs (who were descended from the Karluks) despite being Muslims, and far more commons with the Dzungars for being Borjigin nomads, the Qing Chinese force couldn't reliably distinguish Kazakhs and Kyrgyz from Dzungars. As for the result, Kazakhs and Kyrgyz were also slaughtered en masse by the Qing force and their Uyghur, Salar and Hui allies as they all looked alike.
Because of the genocide, the relations between Qing China and Kazakh Khanate deteriorated rapidly, as Amursana, who rebelled against the Qing rulers, was married into the family of Kazakh Khan Ablai. Subsequently, Qing officials considered Kazakh Khanate as complicit, before launching the invasion of Kazakh Khanate, triggering the First Sino–Kazakh War.
Anti-Dzungar Uyghur rebels