The territory currently known as Tuva has been occupied by various groups throughout its history. Sources are rare and unclear for most of Tuva's early history. Archeological evidence indicates a Scythian presence possibly as early as the 9th century BC. Tuva was conquered relatively easily by the succession of empires which swept across the region. It was most likely held by various Turkic khanates until 1207. It was then ruled by various Mongol-led regimes (including the Yuan dynasty) until the 18th century, when it submitted to the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. Slow Russian colonization during the 19th century led to progressive annexation of the region to Russia in the 20th century. The region was then controlled by the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union before finally joining the Russian Federation in 1992. Throughout this whole time, the borders of Tuva have seen very little modification.
Early history
There are few written sources for the history of Tannu Uriankhai prior to the mid-18th century. Moreover, these sources often do not distinguish between the Tannu Uriankhai, the Altai Uriankhai, and the Altainor Uriankhai. In general, the land has played only a passive role in the history of Inner Asia, passing without much difficulty from one conqueror to another. It was dominated by a series of Turkic khanates of northern Mongolia: Turks, Uighurs and Kirghiz, although it appears that the real Turkification of the region began with the flight of Turkic tribes into this area after the rise of Genghis Khan in the 13th century.
Archeological finds indicate a long occupation of what is now Tuva. Tombs have been found dating as far back as the late Paleolithic Era. Probably the most spectacular Scythian finds known to archaeologists have been discovered in northern Tuva near Arzhaan. Dating to between the 7th and 9th centuries BC they are also among the earliest known, as well as the easternmost. See p. 1087. Following restoration in St Petersburg, the sumptuous gold treasure hoard is now on display in the new National Museum in Kyzyl.
The Xiongnu ruled over the area of Tuva prior to 200 AD. The identity of the ethnic core of Xiongnu has been a subject of varied hypotheses and proposals by scholars, including Mongolic and Turkic. At this time a people known to the Chinese as Dingling inhabited the region. The Chinese recorded the existence of a tribe of Dingling origin, named Dubo, in the eastern Sayans. This name is recognized as being associated with the Tuvan people and is the earliest written record of them. The Xianbei defeated the Xiongnu and they in turn were defeated by the Rouran. From around the end of the 6th century, the Göktürks held dominion over Tuva up until the 8th century, when the Uyghurs took over.
The indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Tuva Republic are a Turkic-speaking people of South Siberia, whose language shows strong Samoyedic and Mongolian influences.Karl Menges, Die sibirischen Türksprachen [The Siberian Turkic Languages] in Handbuch der Orientalistic, (Leiden/Cologne, 1963), v. 5, pp. 73-74. The name "Tuva" probably derives from a Samoyedic tribe, referred to in 7th-century Chinese sources as Dubo or Tupo, who lived in the upper Yenisei region. These people were known to the Chinese and Mongolians as Uriankhai. Most scholars trace the name to the Uriankhai of the Greater Hinggan Range, a Jurchen people who as a result of extensive migrations gave their name to several peoples living in the region from east Siberia and northeast China to the Altai mountains.Helmut Welhelm, A Note on the Migration of the Urianghai, in Ural-Altaische Bibliothek, (Wiesbaden, 1957), v. 4, pp. 172-75. These should not be confused with the Altai Uriankhai (ethnic Mongolians living in western Mongolia), the Altainor Uriankhai (a Turkic-speaking people in the Altai Republic within the Russian Federation), and the Khovsgolnor Uriankhai (reindeer herders in the eastern Tuva Republic).
Tuvans were subjects of the Uyghur Khaganate during the 8th and early 9th centuries AD. The Uyghurs established several fortifications within Tuva as a means of subduing the population. The Uyghur Khaganate was overthrown in 840 AD by a rebellion of the Yeniseian Kyrgyz who came from the upper reaches of the Yenisei. During this period, some Uyghurs were absorbed into Tuvan society. The Kirgiz ruled Tuva until the 13th century.
Mongol rule In 1207, Tuva was conquered by the Mongols under Jochi, the eldest son of Genghis Khan. This was the beginning of Mongol suzerainty over the Tuvans. Tuvans were ruled by the Khalkha Mongol leader Sholoi Ubashi's Altyn-Khan Khanate until the 17th century.
The state of the Altyn-Khan disappeared due to constant warring between the Oirats and the Khalkha of Jasaghtu Khan Aimak. The Tuvans became part of the Dzungarian state ruled by the Oirats. The Dzungars ruled over all the Sayano-Altay Plateau until 1755.
The historic region of Tannu Uriankhai, of which Tuva is a part, was controlled by the Mongols from 1207 to 1757, when it was brought under the rule of the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China, until 1911.
It came under the dominion of the Yuan dynasty of China (1271–1368), and with the fall of the Yuan it was controlled by the Oirats until the end of the 16th and early 17th century.Iakinf (Bichurin), Sobranie svedenii o narodakh obitgavsikh v srednei Asii v drevniya vremena [Collected Information on the Peoples of Central Asia] (St. Petersburg, 1851), v. 1, p. 439; M.G. Levin and L.P. Potapov, The Peoples of Siberia (Chicago and London, 1961), pp. 382-83. Thereafter, the history of western Mongolia, and by extension Tannu Uriankhai, is a story of the complex military relations between the Altan Khanate (Khotogoit tribe) and the Oirots, both competing for supremacy in western Mongolia.For a history of this period, see Ewing, The Forgotten Frontier, pp. 176-184. The territory of current Tuva has been ruled by the Xianbei state (93–234), Rouran Khaganate (330–555), Mongol Empire (1206–1271), Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), Northern Yuan dynasty (1368–1691) and Dzungar Khanate (1634–1758).
Qing rule The Qing dynasty established its dominion over the Khalkhas after intervening in their war against the Oirat. In 1691, the Kangxi Emperor accepted the submission of the Khalkhas at Dolon Nor in modern Inner Mongolia, then personally led an army in 1696 defeating the Oirat under the rule of Galdan. The Khalkha Mongols and their subjects (some Uriankhais) were now under Qing rule, with the Dzungar Empire continuing to control the territory of modern-day Tuva. In 1726, the Yongzheng Emperor ordered the Khotogoit Khan Buuvei Beise to accompany a high Qing official ("amban") to "inform the Uriankhais of [Qing] edicts" in order to prevent "something untoward from happening."Chi Yunshi, comp., Huangchao fanbu yaolue [Essential Information Regarding the Imperial Dependencies on the Frontier], (1845; rpr. Taipei 1966), v. 1, p. 213. Qing subjugation of the Altai Uriankhai and the Altainor Uriankhai occurred much later, in 1754, as part of a broader military offensive against the Dzungar Empire.
Tannu Uriankhai
The Tannu Uriankhai were reorganized into an administrative system similar to that of Mongolia, with five khoshuns ("banner") and 46 or 47 sumuns ("arrow") (Chinese and Russian sources differ on the number of khoshuns and sumuns). Each khoshun was governed by an hereditary prince nominally appointed by the Qing military governor at Uliastai. In the latter half of the 18th century, one of the khoshun princes was placed in charge of the others as governor (Mongolian:"amban-noyon") in recognition of his military service to the dynasty.
Tannu Uriankhai (as well as Altai and Altainor Uriankhai) occupied a unique position in the Qing Dynasty's frontier administration system. Qing statutes rigorously defined procedures to be followed by the nobles of Outer and Inner Mongolia, Zungaria, and Qinghai for rendering tribute, receiving government stipends, and participating in imperial audiences. However, they are silent regarding Tannu Uriankhai.Thomas E. Ewing, The Forgotten Frontier: South Siberia (Tuva) in Chinese and Russian History, 1600-1920, Central Asiatic Journal (1981), v. XXV, p. 176. After the demarcation of the Sino-Russian border by the Treaty of Kyakhta in 1727, the Qing placed border guards ("yurt pickets," Mongolian: ger kharuul) south of the Tannu-ola Mountains separating Tannu Uriankai from Outer Mongolia, not along the Sayan Mountains separating the region from Russia. This fact was used by 19th-century Russian polemicists, and later Soviet writers, to state that Tuva had historically been "disputed" territory between Russia and China. The Qing military governor at Uliastiai, on his triennial inspection tours of the 24 pickets under his direct supervision, never crossed the Tannu-ola mountains to visit Uriankhai. When problems occurred meriting official attention, the military governor would send a Mongol from his staff rather than attend to the matter himself. After this treaty, inhabitants of Uriankhai without citizenship ties to either side were required to pay taxes to both Russia and China.
Indeed, there is no evidence that Tannu Uriankhai was ever visited by a senior Qing official (except in 1726). Chinese merchants were forbidden to cross the pickets, a law which was not lifted until the turn of the 20th century. Instead, a few days were set aside for trade at Uliastai when Uriankhai nobles delivered their annual fur tribute to the military governor and received their salaries and other imperial gifts (primarily bolts of satin and cotton cloth) from the emperor.Yang Jialo, ed., Zhongguo jingchi shiliao [Sources on the Economic History of China] (Taipei, 1977), p. 447. Thus, Tannu Uriankhai enjoyed a degree of political and cultural autonomy unequalled on the Chinese frontier.
Russian colonists
During the 19th century, Russians began to settle in Tuva, resulting in an 1860 Chinese-Russian treaty, in which the Qing Dynasty allowed Russians to settle providing that they lived in boats or tents. Russian gold prospectors came as early as 1838 to mine gold from the upper Systyg-Khem. In the following decades, gold was mined on the Khüt, Öök, Serlig, and northern tributaries of the Bii-Khem and Ulug-Khem. By 1885, almost 9,000 kilograms of gold had been extracted.
In 1881, Russians were allowed to live in permanent buildings. By that time a sizeable Russian community had been established. Their affairs were managed by an official in Russia. These officials also settled disputes and checked on Tuvan chiefs. By 1883, the total number of Russian miners had reached 485.V.I. Dulov, "Russko-tuvinskie ekonomicheskie svyazi v. XIX stoletii (Russian-Tuvin economic relations in the 19th century)". In Uchenye zapiski tuvinskogo nauchno-issledovatel’skogo instituta yazyka, literatury I istorii (Kyzyl, 1954), no. 2, p. 104.
Russian merchants from Minusinsk followed, especially after the Treaty of Peking in 1860, which opened China to foreign trade. They were lured by the "wild prices", as one 19th-century Russian writer described them, that Tuvans were willing to pay for Russian manufactured goods: cloth, haberdashery, samovars, knives, tobacco, etc. By the end of the 1860s there were already sixteen commercial "establishments" (zavedenie) in Tannu Uriankhai.V.M. Rodevich. Ocherki Uriankhaiskogo kraya ("Essays on the Uriankhai Region".) St. Petersburg, 1910. p. 104. The Tuvans paid for these goods in livestock-on-the-hoof, furs, and animal skins (sheep, goat, horse, and cattle). But crossing the Sayan Mountains was a journey not without hardships, and even peril; thus, by 1880–85, there were perhaps no more than 50 (or fewer) Russian traders operating in Tannu Uriankhai during the summer, when trade was most active.