Tools from the Stone-Age have been discovered along the Caspian Sea  shore and near the modern port of Turkmenbashi, establishing the  pre-historic presence of humans in the area that is today known as  Turkmenistan. The remains of farming settlements in the Kopet-Dag  Mountains date back 8,000 years. The ancient cultivators in this region  used the mountain streams to irrigate their crops. They also survived by  herding livestock and by hunting wild game.

As early societies learned to make pottery and metal tools, they began to  trade with other peoples of central Asia. This profitable trade however,  also attracted foreign invaders. By the 6th century B.C., the powerful  Persian Empire had established the provinces of Parthia and Margiana, in  what is now Turkmenistan. From their base south of the Kopet-Dag  range, the Persians controlled trade through central Asia and subdued the  many nomadic peoples who lived on Turkmenistan's arid plains.

Early Rulers

In the 4th century B.C., the Persian Empire was defeated by the army of  Alexander the Great. In 330 B.C., Alexander marched northward into  central Asia and founded the city of Alexandria near the Murgab River.  Located on an important trade route, Alexandria later became the city of  Merv (modern Mary). The ruins of Alexander's ancient city are still visible  along the banks of the Murgab River.

After Alexander's death in 323 B.C., his generals fought for control of his  empire, which quickly fell apart. The Scythians—fierce, nomadic warriors  from the north—then established the kingdom of Parthia, which covered  present-day Turkmenistan and Iran. The Parthian kings ruled their domain  from the ancient city of Nisa. At its height, Parthia extended south and  west as far as the Indus River in modern India.

Parthia fell in A.D. 224 to the Sasanian rulers of Persia. At the same time,  several groups—including the Alans and the Huns—were moving into  Turkmenistan from the east and north. A branch of the Huns wrested  control of southern Turkmenistan from the Sasanian Empire in the 5th  century A.D.

The Arrival of the Oguz

Although Turkmenistan was still populated mostly by nomadic herders,  permanent settlements were prospering in the fertile river valleys. Farmers  raised grains, vegetables, and fruits along the Amu Darya River, and Merv and Nisa became centers of sericulture (the raising of silkworms). A busy caravan route, connecting China and the city of Baghdad (in modern Iraq), passed through Merv. In addition, merchants, traders, and  missionaries introduced the religions of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism to  the region.

Central Asia came under Arab control after a series of invasions in the late 7th and early 8th centuries. Meanwhile, the Oguz—the ancestors of the Turkmen—were migrating from eastern Asia into central Asia, the Middle East, and Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The Arab conquest brought the Islamic religion to the Oguz and to the other peoples of central Asia.

By the 11th century, the Oguz were pushing to the south and west, and  the Arabs were retreating from Turkmenistan. In 1040, the Seljuk clan of  the Oguz tribe established the Seljuk Empire, with its capital at Merv. At  one time, the Seljuk realm stretched all the way to Baghdad. Other Oguz  groups moved west across the Caspian Sea, settling in Azerbaijan and in  Asia Minor, where they joined the Seljuk Turks in establishing the  Ottoman Empire. After mixing with the settled peoples in Turkmenistan,  the Oguz living north of the Kopet-Dag Mountains gradually became
known as the Turkmen.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the main centers of Turkmen culture were  at Khiva in the north (now in Uzbekistan) and at Merv in the south. Khiva  controlled the cities and farming estates of the lower Amu Darya Valley.  Merv became a crossroads of trade in silks and spices between Asia and  the Middle East. This business created vast wealth in the ancient city,  where the Seljuk rulers built fabulous mosques and palaces. At the same  time, a growing class of wealthy traders and landowners was challenging  the Seljuks for control of Turkmenistan.

Mongol Invasions

In 1157, during a revolt of powerful landowners, the Seljuk Empire  collapsed. The leaders of Khiva took control of Turkmenistan, but their  reign was brief. In 1221, central Asia suffered a disastrous invasion by  Mongol warriors who were sweeping across the region from their base in  eastern Asia.

Under their commander Genghis Khan, the Mongols conquered Khiva  and burned the city of Merv to the ground. The Mongol leader ordered  the massacre of Merv's inhabitants as well as the destruction of  Turkmenistan's farms and irrigation works. The Turkmen who survived the invasion retreated northward to the plains of Kazakhstan or eastward to the shores of the Caspian Sea.

After Genghis Khan's death in 1227, the Mongols lost control of  Turkmenistan. Small, semi-independent states arose under the rule of the  region's landowners. In the 1370’s, the Mongol leader Timur (known as  Tamerlane in Europe), a descendant of Genghis Khan, conquered these  states once more and established the Timurid Empire. But after Timur's  death in 1405, the realm weakened and soon disintegrated.

The Mongol invasions had divided the Turkmen into small clans and had  pushed them into the desert. Later, as the Mongols retreated from  Turkmenistan, the Turkmen fell under the control of Muslim khans (rulers)  who established khanates in Bukhara (in modern Uzbekistan) and Khiva.

The rivalry between the khans and the rulers of Persia touched off  centuries of war in Turkmenistan. Persians, Turkmen, and the khans  fought for the scattered oases in southern Turkmenistan. From the 14th  through the 17th century, Turkmenistan was in decline. To escape the
conflicts, most Turkmen moved to the remote deserts along the borders of Persia and Afghanistan.

Russia and Turkmenistan

In the 18th century, after centuries of poverty and isolation, the Turkmen  began to rebuild their way of life. The poet Magtymguly created a literary  language for the Turkmen and laid the foundations for their modern culture and traditions. Keimir-Ker, a Turkmen from the Tekke clan, led a  rebellion of the Turkmen against the Persians, who were occupying most  of Turkmenistan. Popular ballads and folk legends still recount the deeds  of Keimir-Ker.

At this time, the Russian Empire was expanding into central Asia from the  plains and forests of eastern Europe. The Russian czar, Peter the Great  sent the first Russian expeditions into Turkmenistan. Peter was seeking a  route for Russian trade with southern Asia and the Middle East. In 1716,  however, members of a Turkmen clan murdered the czar's representatives near Khiva. Russia waited for more than a century before sending another mission into Turkmenistan.

Nevertheless, trade between Turkmen merchants and Russia continued  and was helped by the building of a port on the Caspian Sea at  Krasnovodsk, (modern Turkmenbashi). In 1802, members of several  Turkmen clans officially became Russian subjects. During the 19th  century, the Turkmen also asked for Russia's help during their frequent  rebellions against the khans and against the shahs of Persia. The Russians  were seeking new markets for their goods, fertile land for the growing of  cotton, and access to Turkmenistan's natural resources. As a first step in  the conquest of the region, the Russians agreed to provide arms and food  to the Turkmen rebels.

Russia began sending military expeditions into Turkmenistan in the second  half of the 19th century. From 1863 through 1868, Russian armies  defeated and annexed the khanates of Bukhara and Khiva. The people of  western Turkmenistan, who were seeking independence from the khans,  willingly joined the Russian Empire.

But the Turkmen of eastern and southern Turkmenistan fiercely resisted  Russian annexation. In 1879, at Geok-Tepe near Ashkhabad (modern  Ashgabat) Turkmen warriors of the Tekke den stopped a large Russian  force. Two years later, the Russians besieged Geok-Tepe, eventually  capturing it as well as Ashkhabad.

By 1885, all of the Turkmen clans had submitted to Russian control. The  Russians annexed Mary and pushed across Turkmenistan to the borders  of Persia and Afghanistan. The building of the Transcaspian Railroad,  which connected Krasnovodsk (modern Turkmenbashi), Mary, and  trading centers to the east, opened up the region for economic  development.

From 1890 to 1917, Turkmenistan was part of Russian Turkestan, a  province that included central Asia and its Muslim nationalities—the  Kazakhs, the Uzbeks, the Kyrgyz, the Taliks, and the Turkmen. Within  Turkestan, however, the Turkmen had a lesser status. Their lands were  defined as the Transcaspian Region and were ruled as a military colony.  This neglect by Russia's government allowed the Turkmen to maintain their culture, language, and nomadic way of life with little interference. 
War and Revolution

In the early 20th century, discontent with strict czarist rule spread among  the people of the Russian Empire. At the same time, the empire was being  drawn into a bloody international conflict. During World War I (  1914-1918), the Turkmen and other peoples of central Asia moved to  reclaim their homelands. A violent uprising broke out in 1916, when the  Turkmen, led by Dzhunaid Khan, defeated the Russians at Khiva. The
Turkmen established a national government that lasted until 1918. 
In October 1917, the Communist leader Vladimir Ilich Lenin overthrew  the Russian government. The Communists succeeded in taking control of  Ashkhabad in the summer of 1918. In response, Dzhunaid Khan and  forces loyal to the old Russian regime joined together to drive out the  Communists. In July of 1919, these anti-Communist allies established the  independent state of Transcaspia.

Soviet Victory and Stalin's Rule

By the fall of 1920, however, the Communist Red Army was advancing  from Tashkent (in modern Uzbekistan) and from Bukhara. The  Communists gradually subdued Turkmenistan by military occupation and  by putting Communist politicians in control of local governments. In 1922,  the Communists founded the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Two years later, they established the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) as a full member of the USSR.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin made  harsh and sweeping changes throughout the USSR. Private property was  seized, and the Soviet government used brutal methods to punish  opposition. These policies sparked a rebellion in Turkmenistan, and in  1927 the Soviets lost control of the republic to a national resistance  movement called the Turkmen Freedom.

After reclaiming the Turkmen SSR in 1932, Stalin executed thousands of  Turkmenistan's Communist leaders—including the president and the  premier—whom he accused of helping the nationalists. After the terror of  the 1930s, the Communist regime in Ashkhabad became completely  obedient to the central Soviet government in Moscow.

Meanwhile, another international conflict was brewing in Europe. The  western Soviet Union was devastated by World War II (1939-1945),  when Germany invaded with a huge military force. Fierce fighting  destroyed factories, farms, and cities throughout western Russia and  Ukraine. After the war, the Soviets built new plants in central Asian cities,  including Ashkhabad and Chardzhou (modern Turkmenabat). A work  force made up of ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians emigrated to the  Turkmen SSR to take advantage of new jobs in the republic.

Most Turkmen, however, remained rural and nomadic. Despite the  immigration of factory workers, the Turkmen SSR remained one of the  Soviet Union's most isolated republics. Foreigners, and even Soviet  citizens, were forbidden to visit most of the region, and the Soviet  government also would not allow most Turkmen to travel out side the  republic.

In spite of the republic's isolation, economic development continued in the  region. New irrigation projects diverted water from rivers to collective  farms, many of which began growing fruits and vegetables instead of  cotton. During the 1970s, the Soviet government also developed the  region's energy resources, including oil and natural gas.

The Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev instituted several new policies after  coming to power in 1985. Glasnost allowed more open criticism of the  Communist party and of the country's economic system. Perestroika  eased government control over many small businesses, which could now  set their own wages, prices, and production schedules. Turkmen  Communist leaders, however, were slow to adopt these reforms.  Annamurad Khodzhamuradov, who became the Turkmen SSR's leader in 1986, remained loyal to the Soviet government but never accepted  Gorbachev's reforms.

In the late 1980s, many Soviet republics attempted to gain their  independence from Moscow. In 1990, the Turkmen SSR declared that it  would take greater control over local politics and economic policy. The  government established the office of president and named Saparmurat  Niyazov to the post.

On October 27, 1991 Turkmenistan proclaimed its independence from  the United Soviet Socialist Republic.

© History of Turkmenistan