Eurasian Crossroads by James A. Millward

A History of Xinjiang

A concise history of Xinjiang as a dynamic Eurasian borderland, tracing its transformation from a network of Silk Road trading routes and nomadic polities into a contested imperial frontier and modern Chinese region; the book examines how successive empires (including Mongol, Qing, Russian and Soviet influences) and local Turkic, Mongolic and Chinese communities shaped the area’s social, economic and religious life. It analyzes 19th- and 20th-century upheavals—rebellions, migration, warlordism and the impact of Soviet and Republican politics—before turning to the People’s Republic of China’s incorporation of the region, state-led development, demographic change and contemporary tensions over identity, Islam, security and governance. Throughout, the narrative emphasizes Xinjiang’s role as a crossroads where global trade, imperial rivalry and local agency intersect to produce complex and often contested outcomes.

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