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Central Asia is one of the most diverse regions in the world.
After centuries of power struggles, nomadic exploration, cultural trade, and independence,
today a majority of Central Asia is comprised of five countries.
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; collectively known as ‘The
Stans’.
So how did the Stans come about, and how powerful are they today?
Well, Central Asia has been considered the birth of international relations between the
Eastern and Western worlds.
Since the early 200s BCE, the region was home to the infamous Silk Road, a trade route connecting
China, India, Europe, and the Horn of Africa.
Central Asia is also known to have been populated by nomads; And later, powerful war clans of
nomads; most notably the fearsome Mongols, led by Genghis Khan.
By the early 7th century, lower Central Asia had been settled by the Persian Empire, which
today we know as Iran.
This is where the modern day name of “stans” comes from.
In Persian, the word “stan” means “land of”.
So, Kazakhstan actually means “the land of Khazaks” an ethnic group which predates
the independent country.
Around the time of the Persian Empire, Islam took hold in Central Asia and the Middle East
during a period known as the Golden Age of Islam.
Over the next few centuries, power bounced back and forth between competing ethnic groups
and caliphates.
Ultimately, by the 19th century, Central Asia ended up in the center of a massive rivalry
between the Russian and British Empires, called “The Great Game”.
Between 1813 and 1907, Russia slowly expanded its control south, annexing major portions
of Central Asia, including the “five Stans”.
But the British - who controlled the Indian subcontinent to the south - were vehemently
against the potential threat posed by the ever-growing Russian empire.
Eventually, the two empires smoothed out their conflict, and when Russia underwent a revolution
in 1917 and became the Soviet Union, it took much of Central Asia with it.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union roughly 70 years later, the region now established
as the five “Stans” gained independence.
So where are they today?
Well, their combined population is roughly 66 million, however nearly half live in Uzbekistan,
which is the largest, and the only one to border all four other “Stans”.
Each country has a majority population of the ethnic group the country is named after.
Despite holding significant geo-military importance as a neighbor of the Greater Middle East,
including Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Central Asian “Stans” are not very militarily
powerful.
Combined they only have about 675,000 active troops, of which 500,000 come from Kazakhstan
alone.
While military cooperation with the United States led to bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan
in 2005, by 2014 pressure from Russia and regional unrest convinced both countries to
evict the US presence.
The Stans have a long and complicated history, but their importance in the development of
world history, culture, and modern geopolitics cannot be understated.
Geographically, Kazakhstan is the largest of the Stans but is relatively small in population.
For a deeper dive into Kazakhstan’s power, check out our video at the top.
And watch our video at the bottom to find out which of the Stans is home to one of the
most radioactive places in the world.
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