page_title: Qing dynasty in Inner Asia
section_title: Xinjiang
hierarchical_section_title: Qing dynasty in Inner Asia / Xinjiang
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruins of a Theater in ChuguchakРусский: Развалины театра в Чугучаке
context_page_description: The Qing dynasty in Inner Asia was the expansion of the Qing dynasty's realm in Inner Asia in the 17th and the 18th century AD, including both Inner and Outer Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet, Qinghai and Xinjiang.
  Wars were fought primarily against the Northern Yuan dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate. Even before the conquest of China proper, the Manchus had established the Later Jin dynasty that controlled Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, with the latter being previously controlled by the Northern Yuan dynasty under Ligdan Khan.
  After suppressing the Revolt of the Three Feudatories and the conquest of Taiwan as well as ending the Sino-Russian border conflicts in the 1680s, the Dzungar–Qing War broken out. This eventually led to Qing conquests of Outer Mongolia, Tibet, Qinghai and Xinjiang. All of them became part of the Qing Empire and were garrisoned by Qing forces, but they were governed through several different types of administrative structures and also retained many of their existing institutions. Furthermore, they were not governed as regular provinces, but instead were supervised by the Lifan Yuan, a Qing government agency that oversaw the empire's frontier regions.
context_section_description: The area called Dzungaria in present-day Xinjiang was the base of the Dzungar Khanate. The Qing dynasty gained control over eastern Xinjiang as a result of a long struggle with the Dzungars that began in the 17th century. In 1755, with the help of the Oirat noble Amursana, the Qing attacked Ghulja and captured the Dzungar khan. After Amursana's request to be declared Dzungar khan went unanswered, he led a revolt against the Qing. Over the next two years, Qing armies destroyed the remnants of the Dzungar khanate. The native Dzungar Oirat Mongols suffered heavily from the brutal campaigns and a simultaneous smallpox epidemic. After the campaigns against the Dzungars in 1758, two Altishahr nobles, the Khoja brothers Burhān al-Dīn and Khwāja-i Jahān, started a revolt against the Qing Empire. However, it was crushed by the Qing forces by 1759, which marked the beginning of whole Xinjiang under Qing rule. The Kumul Khanate was incorporated into the Qing Empire as a semi-autonomous vassal within Xinjiang. The Qianlong Emperor compared his achievements with that of the Han and Tang ventures into Central Asia. The Qing dynasty put the entire Xinjiang under the rule of the General of Ili who established a center of government at the fort of Huiyuan (the so-called "Manchu Kuldja", or Yili), 30 km (19 mi) west of Ghulja (Yining). This brought the previously two separate regions, the Dzungaria in the north and the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) in the south under his rule as Xinjiang.
  The Qing implemented two different policies for Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin. Han Chinese were encouraged by the Qing to permanently settle and colonize Dzungaria while permanent Han settlers were banned from the Tarim with only Han merchants and Han Green Standard Army soldiers stationed in rotating garrisons allowed in the Tarim Basin. The ban was lifted in the 1820s after the invasion of Jahangir Khoja and Han Chinese were allowed to permanently settle in the Tarim. During the weakening of the Qing dynasty in the mid-19th century, both Chinese Muslims (Hui) and Uyghurs rebelled in Xinjiang cities, following on-going Chinese Muslim Rebellions in Gansu and Shaanxi provinces further east. In 1865, Yaqub Beg, a warlord from the neighbouring Khanate of Kokand, entered Xinjiang via Kashgar and conquered nearly all of Xinjiang over the next six years. At the Battle of Ürümqi (1870) Yaqub Beg's Turkic forces, allied with a Han Chinese militia, attacked and besieged Chinese Muslim forces in Ürümqi. In 1871, the Russian Empire took advantage of the chaotic situation and seized the rich Ili River valley, including Gulja. At the end of this period, forces loyal to the Qing held onto only a few strongholds, including Tacheng. Yaqub Beg's rule lasted until the Qing general Zuo Zongtang (also known as General Tso) reconquered the region between 1876 and 1878. In 1881, the Qing recovered the Gulja region through diplomatic negotiations, via the Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881). The Qing dynasty established Xinjiang ("new frontier") as a province in 1884, formally applying to it the political systems of the China proper and dropping the old names of Zhunbu (準部, Dzungar region) and Huijiang, "Muslimland."
caption: Tacheng (Chuguchak) was among the towns that suffered grievously during the fighting insurrection of 1864
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