Khanate of Khiva

The **Khanate of Khiva** is an Indo-Persian Empire. The Khanate is North of the Imperial Kingdom of Persia Prime, west of the Emirate of Bukhara and south of Soviet Rus.

## History

### Origin

Khiva is that exists in the historical region of Khwarezm in Central Asia as a sovereign nation since 1511, except for a period of Afsharid occupation by Nadir Shah between 1740 and 1746. Centered in the irrigated plains of the lower Amu Darya, south of the Aral Sea, with the capital in the city of Khiva, the country is ruled by a Turco-Mongol tribe, the Khongirads, who came from Astrakhan.

Russians made five attacks on Khiva. Around 1602 some free Ural Cossacks unsuccessfully raided Khwarazm. In 1717 Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky attacked Khiva from the Caspian. After he won the battle, Shir Ghazi Khan (1715–28) made a treaty and suggested that the Russians disperse so that they could be better fed. After they dispersed they were all killed or enslaved, only a few surviving to tell the tale. In 1801 an army was sent toward Khiva but was recalled when Paul I was murdered. In the Khivan campaign of 1839 Perovsky tried an attack from Orenburg. The weather was unusually cold and he was forced to turn back after losing many men and most of his camels. Khiva was finally conquered by the Khivan campaign of 1873.

The conquest of Khiva was part of the Russian conquest of Turkestan. British attempts to deal with this were called the Great Game. One of the reasons for the 1839 attack was the increasing number of Russian slaves held at Khiva. To remove this pretext Britain launched its own effort to free the slaves. Major Todd, the senior British political officer stationed in Herat (in Afghanistan) dispatched Captain James Abbott, disguised as an Afghan, on Christmas Eve, 1839, for Khiva. Abbott arrived in late January 1840 and, although the khan was suspicious of his identity, he succeeded in talking the khan into allowing him to carry a letter for the Tsar regarding the slave issue. He left on 7 March 1840, for Fort Alexandrovsk, and was subsequently betrayed by his guide, robbed, then released when the bandits realized the origin and destination of his letter. His superiors in Herat, not knowing of his fate, sent another officer, Lieutenant Richmond Shakespear, after him. Shakespear had more success than Abbott: he convinced the khan to free all Russian subjects under his control, and also to make the ownership of Russian slaves a crime punishable by death. The freed slaves and Shakespear arrived in Fort Alexandrovsk on 15 August 1840, and Russia lost its primary motive for the conquest of Khiva, for the time being.

A permanent Russian presence on the Aral Sea began in 1848 with the building of Fort Aralsk at the mouth of the Syr Darya. The Empire's military superiority was such that Khiva and the other Central Asian principalities, Bukhara and Kokand, had no chance of repelling the Russian advance, despite years of fighting. In 1873, after Russia conquered the great cities of Tashkent and Samarkand, General Von Kaufman launched an attack on Khiva consisting of 13,000 infantry and cavalry. The city of Khiva fell on 10 June 1873 and, on 12 August 1873, a peace treaty was signed that established Khiva as a quasi-independent Russian protectorate. See Khivan campaign of 1873. After the conquest of what is now Turkmenistan (1884) the protectorates of Khiva and Bukhara were surrounded by Russian territory.

The first significant settlement of Europeans in the Khanate was a group of Mennonites who migrated to Khiva in 1882. The German-speaking Mennonites had come from the Volga region and the Molotschna colony under the leadership of Claas Epp Jr. The Mennonites played an important role in modernizing the Khanate in the decades prior to the October Revolution by introducing photography, resulting in the development of Uzbek photography and filmmaking, more efficient methods for cotton harvesting, electrical generators, and other technological innovations.

### Reza Shah's Conquest

Reza Shah conquered Khiva with Bukhara and Afghanistan as a way to prevent Afghanistan from falling into socialism (especially the fact they were once part of his ancestor Tamerlane's Empire) and use the countries to invade India. Sayid Abdullah was recognized as Khan of Khiva with other rulers who were made Persian Puppets later on during the conquest. White Russian Soldiers in the region then submit themselves under the banner of Reza Shah and help with the invasion.

### After Conquest

After the conquest of India, Sayid Abdullah then married Princess Eftekhar os-Saltaneh and they have 3 sons and 1 daughter.

## Government

The Government of Khiva is an Absolute Monarchy ruled by a Khan as an absolute monarch and autocratic head of state. The Khan rules with a Satrap appointed as Reza Shah.

## Military

### Army

The Army consists of 120 Mechanized Infantry, 110 Artillery Pieces, 100 Gun Cars and 90 Tanks which is the only thing they got as an official Military due to the fact they are a landlocked country.

## Foreign Relations

* Colonial Relations with the Indo-Persian Empire
* Great Relations with the Emirate of Bukhara and the Kingdom of Afghanistan.
* Bad Relations with Soviet Rus.