Editing Irtysh (section)

==History==
[[File:Irtysh River landscape in the Burqin 02.jpg|thumb|Irtysh River landscape in [[Burqin County]], China|left]]
A number of [[Mongols|Mongol]] and [[Turkic people|Turkic]] peoples occupied the river banks for many centuries. In 657, [[Tang dynasty]] general [[Su Dingfang]] defeated [[Ashina Helu]], [[Khan (title)|qaghan]] of the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]], at the [[Battle of Irtysh River]], ending the [[Tang campaign against the Western Turks]].<ref name="Cosmo">{{cite book|author=Jonathan Karem Skaff|editor=Nicola Di Cosmo|title=Military Culture in Imperial China|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03109-8|pages=181–185}}</ref> Helu's defeat ended the Khaganate, strengthened Tang control of [[Xinjiang]], and led to Tang suzerainty over the western Turks.<ref name="Millward">{{cite book|author=James A. Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|page=33}}</ref>

In the north-east of Irtysh, there is the [[:mn:Янди_ван|Yenisei Kingdom]], ruled by the [[:ja:メリク_(オゴデイ家)|Melig]] family from the [[House of Ögedei|Ögedei dynasty]] of the [[Yuan dynasty]], which ruled until 1361. It was destroyed by the [[Oirats]].

In the 15th and 16th centuries the lower and middle courses of the Irtysh lay within the Tatar [[Khanate of Sibir]]; its capital, [[Qashliq]] (also known as [[Qashliq|Sibir]]) was located on the Irtysh a few kilometres upstream from the mouth of the [[Tobol]] (where today's [[Tobolsk]] is situated).

The Khanate of Sibir was [[Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir|conquered]] by the Russians in the 1580s. The Russians started building fortresses and towns next to the sites of former Tatar towns; one of the first Russian towns in Siberia (after [[Tyumen]]) was [[Tobolsk]], founded in 1587 at the fall of the Tobol into the Irtysh, downstream from the former Qashliq.<ref>{{citation
|first=James |last=Forsyth
|publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994
|isbn=978-0-521-47771-0
|title=A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=nzhq85nPrdsC&pg=PA34
|page=34
}}</ref>
Farther east, [[Tara, Omsk Oblast|Tara]] was founded in 1594, roughly at the border of the [[taiga]] belt (to the north) and the [[steppe]] to the south.<ref>{{citation
|first=G. Patrick |last=March
|publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=1996
|isbn=978-0-275-95648-6
|title=Eastern Destiny: Russia in Asia and the North Pacific
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=eNc7bwXKs_kC&pg=PA31
|page=31
}}</ref>

In the 17th century the [[Dzungar Khanate]], formed by the Mongol [[Oirats|Oirat]] people, became Russia's southern neighbor, and controlled the upper Irtysh.<ref>{{harvnb|Forsyth|1994|pp=37,125–127}}</ref> As a result of Russia's confrontation with the Dzungars in the [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great]]'s era,<ref>{{harvnb|Forsyth|1994|p=128}}</ref> the Russians founded the cities of [[Omsk]] in 1716, [[Semipalatinsk]] in 1718, [[Ust-Kamenogorsk]] in 1720, and [[Petropavl]]ovsk in 1752.

The Chinese [[Qing dynasty|Qing Empire]] [[Ten Great Campaigns#The Dzungars and pacification of Xinjiang (1755–1759)|conquered]] [[Dzungaria]] in the 1750s. This prompted an increase in the Russian authorities' attention to their borderland; in 1756, the [[Orenburg]] Governor [[Ivan Neplyuyev]] even proposed the annexation of the [[Lake Zaysan]] region, but this project was forestalled by Chinese successes.<ref>{{harvnb|Abramof|1865|p=65}}</ref> Concerns were raised in Russia (1759) about the (theoretical) possibility of a Chinese fleet sailing from Lake Zaysan down the Irtysh and into Western Siberia. A Russian expedition visited Lake Zaysan in 1764, and concluded that such a riverine invasion would not be likely. Nonetheless, a chain of Russian pickets was established on the [[Bukhtarma River]], north of Lake Zaysan.<ref>{{harvnb|Abramof|1865|p=66}}</ref> Thus the border between the two empires in the Irtysh basin became roughly delineated, with a (sparse) chain of guard posts on both sides. In the summer of 1828, the Prussian explorer [[Alexander von Humboldt]] visited the Irtysh region on his journey through Russia and Central Asia; he came face-to-face with Chinese and Mongol border guards.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Daum | first=Andreas W.|author-link=Andreas Daum | year=2024 | title=Alexander von Humboldt: A Concise Biography | location=Trans. Robert Savage. Princeton, N.J. | publisher=Princeton University Press |page=122 | isbn=978-0-691-24736-6 }}</ref>

The situation in the borderlands in the mid-19th century is described in a report by A. Abramof ([[:ru:Абрамов, Николай Алексеевич|ru]]; 1865). Even though the Zaysan region was recognized by both parties as part of the [[Qing dynasty|Qing empire]], it had been annually used, by fishing expeditions sent by the [[Siberian Cossacks|Siberian Cossack Host]]. The summer expeditions started in 1803, and in 1822–25 their range was expanded through the entire Lake Zaysan and to the mouth of the Black Irtysh. Through the mid-19th century, the Qing presence on the upper Irtysh was mostly limited to the annual visit of the Qing ''[[amban]]'' from [[Chuguchak]] to one of the Cossacks' fishing stations (''Batavski Piket'').<ref>{{harvnb|Abramof|1865|pp=62–63}}; see also the border shown on the map before p. 65.</ref>

The border between the Russian and the Qing empires in the Irtysh basin was established along the line fairly similar to China's modern border with Russia and Kazakhstan by the [[Convention of Peking]] of 1860.<ref>Articles 2 and 3 in the [[:ru:s:Пекинский договор (1860)|Russian text of the treaty]]</ref> The actual border line pursuant to the convention was drawn by the Protocol of Chuguchak (1864), leaving Lake Zaysan on the Russian side.<ref>(See [[:File:China-Russia border - protocol of Chuguchak 1864.jpg|the map]])</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh98/frontier/en2.html|title=The Lost Frontier&nbsp;– Treaty Maps that Changed Qing's Northwestern Boundaries_The Changing Borders|work=npm.gov.tw}}</ref> The Qing empire's military presence in the Irtysh basin crumbled during the 1862–77 [[Dungan Revolt (1862–77)|Dungan Revolt]]. After the fall of the rebellion and the reconquest of Xinjiang by [[Zuo Zongtang]], the border between the Russian and the Qing empires in the Irtysh basin was further slightly readjusted, in Russia's favor, by the [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)]].