Uzbekistan occupies the heart of the area of Central Asia. According to archeologists, this land is one of the man’s most ancient habitats. Within the last 50 years, several sites of the Stone Age’s primitive man have been discovered; the most renowned are Teshiktash and Amankutan.
The fertile lands, water supply, and warm climate promoted the development of agriculture. The vast non-irrigated parts of deserts and steppes adjoining the agricultural areas served as pastures for cattle breeding. While evolving, the inhabitants of these lands established multi-faceted relations with their neighbors. Three main factors—geographical, economic, and social—predetermined the formation on the territory of Transoxiana (the lands between Amudarya and Syrdarya) of such ancient states as Sogdiana, Bactria, Khorezm, and others.
After the Arab campaigns of the 7th and 8th centuries, Islam replaced Buddhism as the dominant religion, and by the 10th century, the area had become an important center in the Muslim world.
In the late 14th century, the tribal prince Amir Temur (Tamerlane) became one of the main champions of a centralized state. In the second half of the 14th century, having taken advantage of the disintegration of domains belonging to Genghis Khan’s successors in Central Asia, he consolidated these kingdoms and founded a powerful state with the capital in Samarkand.
Great state leaders, scientists, thinkers, and poets lived and created in medieval Movarounnahr. Among them is Abu Ali Ibn Sino (Avicenna). Along with Hippokratus, he is considered to be a father of modern medicine. Al-Khorezmi—for whom algebra and algorithm were named—also lived in this era. Many distinguished names can be added to the list, including scholar, mathematician, physicist, astronomer, distinguished historian, chronologist and linguist Abu Raikhon Biruni; politician, poet, linguist, and painter Alisher Navoi; and philosophers Bahauddin Nakshbandi, Al-Bukhari, and At-Termezi, among many others.
After Russian invade in 19th century, country became colony of Russian Empire, then Soviet Union. World War II had a profound effect on the republic by bringing women and children into the workforce to replace the men who had left to fight in the war. The war increased industrialization within the republic, which also experienced a large influx of refugees from the European part of the Soviet Union.
On August 31, 1991 the 6th Extraordinary Session of the Supreme Council declared the political independence of the country, which was officially named the Republic of Uzbekistan. September 1 was proclaimed Independence Day.
The Great Silk Road. The Great Silk Road is an original phenomenon in the history of humanity’s development, its aspirations for union, the exchange of cultural wealth, conquest of living spaces, and markets for goods. In the East there is a saying: “a sitting man is a mat and a walking man is a river.” To travel and learn about the world has always been a driving force in the region’s progress.
Caravans traveled to the Ferghana valley and Tashkent Oasis to Samarkand, the capital of Sogdiana, Bukhara, Khorezm, and further to the shores of the Caspian Sea. Part of the caravans from Samarkand headed to Baktria and through the Qashqadarya valley to Termez, and, crossing the Amudarya River, headed south to Baktria and India.
During hundreds of years, scientists and researchers traveled the caravan road. We know much about the history of the region from the travel notes and scientific works of the Chinese monk Soan Czan and the Venetian merchant Marco Polo, the Arab traveler-merchant Ahmad ibn-Fadlan, Bavarian warrior Schiltberger, Hungarian researcher Armin Vamberi, Swedish geographer Sven Hedin, Russian scientist Aleksey Fedchenko, French journalist Ella Mayer, American geologist Raphael Pumpelly, and French traveler Joseph Martin.
