Editing History of Uzbekistan (section)

==Arrival of the Russians==
[[File:KarazinNN VstRusVoyskGRM.jpg|thumb|right|Russian troops taking [[Samarkand]] in 1868, by [[Nikolay Karazin]]]]

The following period was one of weakness and disruption, with continuous invasions from Iran and from the north. In this period, a new group, the [[Russians]], began to appear on the Central Asian scene. As Russian merchants began to expand into the grasslands of present-day [[Kazakhstan]], they built strong trade relations with their counterparts in Tashkent and, to some extent, in Khiva. For the Russians, this trade was not rich enough to replace the former transcontinental trade, but it made the Russians aware of the potential of Central Asia. Russian attention also was drawn by the sale of increasingly large numbers of Russian slaves to the Central Asians by Kazakh and [[Turkmen people|Turkmen]] tribes. Russians kidnapped by nomads in the border regions and Russian sailors shipwrecked on the shores of the [[Caspian Sea]] usually ended up in the slave markets of Bukhara or Khiva. Beginning in the eighteenth century, this situation evoked increasing Russian hostility toward the Central Asian khanates.<ref name=ar>Lubin, Nancy. "Arrival of the Russians". In Curtis.</ref>{{Full citation needed|date=January 2014}}

Meanwhile, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries new dynasties led the khanates to a period of recovery. Those dynasties were the [[Qongrats]] in Khiva, the [[Manghits]] in Bukhara, and the [[Min Chinese speakers|Mins]] in [[Quqon]]. These new dynasties established centralized states with standing armies and new irrigation works. However, their rise coincided with the ascendance of Russian influence in the Kazakh steppes and the establishment of [[British Raj|British rule in India]]. By the early nineteenth century, the region was the scene of the "[[Great Game]]", a series of political maneuverers between the two powers to prevent the other from gaining power in Central Asia. The Central Asian powers took little notice of this political bickering between the European powers, continuing to wage wars of conquest amongst themselves.<ref name=ar/>