Stepa Eurasia itu apa sih?

Stepa Eurasia, juga dinamakan Stepa Raksasa atau stepa, adalah stepa luas kawasan ekologi dari Eurasia di bioma padang rumput, sabana, dan semak beriklim sedang. Stepa ini membentang dari Rumania, Moldova melewati Ukraina, Rusia, Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, dan Mongolia menuju Manchuria, dengan sebuah eksklave utama sebagian besar terletak di Hungaria, yakni Stepa Pannonian.

Stepa ini telah menghubungan Eropa Timur, Asia Tengah, Tiongkok, Asia Selatan, dan Timur Tengah secara ekonomi, poliitk, dan budaya melalui rute perdagangan darat, terutama Jalur Sutra semasa Era Klasik dan Abad Pertengahan, dan Jembatan Darat Eurasia pada era modern. Stepa ini telah menjadi rumah bagi imperium nomaden dan banyak konfederasi suku bangsa besar dan negara-negara kuno sepanjang sejarah, seperti Xiongnu, Skithia, Kimmeria, Sarmatia, Kekaisaran Hun, Chorasmia, Transoxiana, Sogdiana, Xianbei, Mongol, dan Kekhanan Göktürk.

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Barthold, W., Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion, T. Minorsky, (tr.), New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1992.

Christian, David, A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Volume 1: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire’, Malden MA, Oxford, UK, Carlton, Australia: Blackwell Publishing 1998.

Fletcher, Joseph F., Studies on Chinese and Islamic Inner Asia, Beatrice Forbes Manz, (ed.), Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1995, IX.

Grousset, René, The Empire of the Steppes: a History of Central Asia, Naomi Walford, (tr.), New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970.

Krader, Lawrence, "Ecology of Central Asian Pastoralism," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 11, No. 4, (1955), pp. 301–326.

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Sinor, Denis, "The Inner Asian Warrior," in Denis Sinor, (Collected Studies Series), Studies in Medieval Inner Asia, Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, Variorum, 1997, XIII.

Sinor, Denis, "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asian History," in Denis Sinor, (Collected Studies Series), Inner Asia and its Contacts with Medieval Europe, London: Variorum, 1977, II.