Development of China's Qing dynasty policy in Central Asia

Principal trends of the Qing empire's policy in Central Asia have been shown in the paper. This policy's motives as well as periods in its development have been analyzed. Necessity of elimination of the threat, perceived by the ruling Chinese dynasty from the north-west direction, was the fundamental reason underlying large-scale expansion to Central Asia initiated by the Manchurians, who had conquered China in the 17 century and had founded a new emperor's dynasty - Qing. The effective elimination of this threat was only possible by the prevention of the formation in Central Asia of a powerful state, which was very likely to happen due to consolidation processes taking place in Mongol khanates, bordering to the Qing empire. Thus, despite the expansionist methods, the Qings resorted to, their policy in Central Asia during its initial period (prior to the conquest of the Zhungarian khanate) should be seen as defensive in its profound nature. In the course of the conquest of the Zhun-garian khanate the Qings' policy passed to the second period of its development. This period should be characterized by the absolute predominance of expansionist motives underlying the foreign policy pursued by the Qing government. This second period of the development of the Qings' policy in Central Asia was the period when their army conquered East Turkestan and was preparing to rush further in the western direction. However, very soon after the conquest of the Zhungarian khanate and East Turkestan the Qings had to abandon their plans of the all-out expansion in Central Asia. Their policy in this region, despite their own will, entered the third, final, period in its development. During this period the Qings still continued aggressive rhetoric against their neighbors in Central Asia, but the ultimate goal of their policy in the region became retention of the previous territorial acquisitions. As the result of Muslim uprisings in 1860 - 1870s the Qings had temporarily lost control over Xinjiang. But they managed to re-conquest this region by 1879 and officially establish the empire's border in Central Asia in 1881 by signing of the Russian-Chinese Saint-Petersburg treaty. Despite the point of view of a significant number of Chinese historians that this treaty significantly encroached legitimate rights of the Qing empire, we believe that, taking into consideration severe crisis of the Qing empire by the end of the 19th century, stabilization of the Qing's position in Central Asia as it was made by the Saint-Petersburg treaty should be seen as a positive result of the policy pursued by the Qings in this region since the middle of the 17th century.

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