History of Kazakhstan: Timeline, Rulers & Map

500,000 BCE – 701 BCE

Prehistory & Bronze Age

Botai hunters of the northern steppe are credited with early horse use around 3600-3100 BCE, although domestication claims remain debated, and Bronze Age Andronovo herders later spread across the region. Mobile pastoralism and kurgan burial traditions preceded the first written accounts of the Saka.

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c. 500,000 BCE or earlier Early Palaeolithic Toolmakers of the Karatau In the foothills of the Karatau range in southern Kazakhstan, early hominins left some of the oldest traces of human presence in the country.
c. 5500–3500 BCE Kelteminar Fishers and Hunters of the Aral Region The Kelteminar culture was a Neolithic society of fishers, hunters and gatherers in the semi-desert and desert belts of the Karakum and Kyzylkum and along the Amu Darya and Zeravshan deltas.
c. 2200–1750 BCE Sintashta–Petrovka Fortified Settlements and Chariots The Sintashta culture, with its sister Petrovka culture in northern Kazakhstan, emerged around 2200 BCE across the southern Urals.
c. 1000 BCE Tamgaly Petroglyphs Begin Bronze Age herders started engraving rocks in the Tamgaly gorge in the Chu-Ili mountains of south-eastern Kazakhstan.
c. 800 BCE Steppe Geoglyphs of the Turgay Plateau Across the Turgay plateau of northern Kazakhstan, at least 260 large earthworks have been identified, including squares, rings and cross-shaped or triradial figures between about 90 and over 400 metres across.

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700 BCE – 201 BCE

Saka & Early Nomads

Saka and Massagetae nomads left rich kurgans at Shilikty, Berel and Issyk, and Persian rulers Cyrus and Darius fought them near the Syr Darya. Alexander's army met Scythians on the Jaxartes in 329 BCE, while the Xiongnu empire arose to the east.

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c. 700 BCE Saka Nomads Dominate the Kazakh Steppe The Saka were nomadic Eastern Iranian peoples who lived across the Eurasian steppe and the Tarim Basin from roughly the ninth century BCE to the fifth century CE. In the early first millennium BCE they became the main power of the Kazakh steppe and the Semirechye, closely related to the Scythians but usually named Saka in Persian and Chinese sources.
c. 520 BCE Behistun Inscription Lists the Saka Among Persian Lands The Behistun Inscription is a huge trilingual relief and text carved on a limestone cliff at Mount Behistun in Kermanshah Province, Iran, about 100 metres above an ancient road between Babylon and Ecbatana.
c. 4th–3rd century BCE Issyk Kurgan and the Golden Man A Saka burial mound at Issyk on the left bank of the Issyk river, about 50 kilometres east of Almaty, held a young person of 16 to 18 years whose clothing was covered in gold.
c. 4th–3rd century BCE Berel Kurgans: Frozen Horse Burials of the Altai The Berel cemetery lies in Katonkaragay District of East Kazakhstan, on a plateau between the Bukhtarma and Kandysu rivers, about seven kilometres from the village of Berel.
203 BCE Xiongnu Defeat the Yuezhi, Starting a Westward Chain Reaction Wikipedia's Yuezhi article records Xiongnu raids against the Yuezhi from 207 BCE and a second war in 203 BCE, when the Xiongnu took a large area of their territory.

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200 BCE – 551

Wusun, Kangju & Huns

The Wusun settled the Ili valley around 133 BCE and Kangju held the middle Syr Darya, with Han sources giving each hundreds of thousands of people. The Xiongnu left remnants on the steppe after 91 CE, and Hun-related groups moved west.

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c. 165 BCE Yuezhi Migration into the Ili Valley Chinese sources record that after the Xiongnu crushed the Yuezhi in Gansu, the larger Yuezhi branch trekked northwest and settled in the Ili Valley of present-day south-eastern Kazakhstan.
c. 128 BCE Kangju, Power of the Syr Darya Kangju appears in Chinese records around 128 BCE as a kingdom centred on the middle Syr Darya, including today's southern Kazakhstan.
104–101 BCE War of the Heavenly Horses Between 104 and 101 BCE Han armies marched to Ferghana, also called Dayuan, to seize its prized horses.
89–91 CE Northern Xiongnu Retreat West In 89 CE a Han army defeated the Northern Xiongnu at the Altai Mountains, and in 91 CE another assault sent their chanyu fleeing north-west.
402 CE (or 330 CE) Rouran Khaganate Established In 402 CE a leader united the Rouran, called Juan-juan in older books, and took the title khagan.

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552 – 839

Turkic Khaganates

Bumin and Istami founded the First Turkic Khaganate in 552, and its western wing became the Western Turkic Khaganate in 603 with a reported peak area of about 3,500,000 square kilometres. The Turgesh and Karluks followed, and the Battle of Talas in 751 shaped the region's Muslim future.

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552 CE Foundation of the First Turkic Khaganate In 552 CE the Ashina clan of Türk, who had worked iron for the Rouran in the Altai, rose against their overlords, defeated them and proclaimed a khaganate.
618–630 CE Western Turkic Khaganate at Its Height Between 618 and about 630 CE the Western Turkic Khaganate reached its greatest extent, from the Tarim Basin to the Caspian Sea and over about 3.5 million square kilometres.
682 CE Second Turkic Khaganate Restored In 682 CE a Turkic leader of the Ashina clan restored the Turkic state at Ötüken in the Orkhon valley, after earlier revolts against Tang rule had failed.
744 CE Uyghur Khaganate Founded In 744 CE a Uyghur and Karluk alliance defeated the Basmyl, who had seized Ötüken, and the Uyghur leader became the first khagan.
c. 780–823 CE Church of the East among the Turks In the late eighth and early ninth centuries CE the Church of the East, often called Nestorian, gained converts among Turks and Sogdians in Central Asia.

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840 – 1217

Oghuz, Kimek & Karakhanids

The Oghuz Yabgu State held the lower Syr Darya, the Kimek-Kipchak confederation ruled the northern steppe, and the Muslim Karakhanids governed Zhetysu from Balasagun. Kara-Khitai defeated the Seljuks at Qatwan in 1141, and Khwarazm ended the Karakhanids in 1212.

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c. 840 CE Karakhanid confederation emerges in the Tian Shan and Talas lands In the decades after the Uyghur Khaganate collapsed in 840, a confederation of Turkic tribes, usually linked with the Karluks and neighbouring groups, began to gather power in the Chu and Talas valleys and the foothills of the Tian Shan.
c. 934 CE (dates vary 932-955) Karakhanid prince converts to Islam, opening a Turkic Muslim age Tradition holds that a young Karakhanid prince adopted Islam around 934 after meeting a Samanid merchant from Bukhara, who was allowed to build a mosque at Artush near Kashgar.
c. 1050 CE Kipchaks dominate the steppe from the Irtysh to the Black Sea By the middle of the eleventh century the Kipchaks had risen from a tribe inside the Kimek union to the dominant power of the steppe.
c. 1134 CE Khitan refugees take Balasagun and found Qara Khitai After the Jurchen Jin dynasty destroyed the Liao state in 1125, a Khitan elite led by a Liao prince moved west.
1211-1218 A Naiman fugitive seizes Qara Khitai; Mongols then absorb Zhetysu After his people were beaten by the Mongols in 1204, a Naiman prince fled west and, defeated again in Zhetysu in 1208, sought refuge at Balasagun.

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1218 – 1399

Mongol Empire & Golden Horde

The seizure of a Mongol trade party at Otrar preceded Genghis Khan's invasion of Khwarazm in 1219, and the steppe passed to Jochi's ulus, later the White Horde and Golden Horde. Uzbek Khan adopted Islam, and Timur's wars broke Tokhtamysh's power by the 1390s.

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1218 Otrar incident In 1218 a Mongol trade caravan of about 450 men, which included an envoy of the Mongol ruler, reached Otrar on the Syr Darya.
1236-1242 Western campaign launched from the Jochid lands In 1236 the Mongol ruler's successor ordered a conquest of the western lands, and an army drawn largely from the Jochid appanage, possibly 130,000 strong according to a figure Wikipedia flags as unsourced, invaded Volga Bulgaria.
11 July 1303 Codex Cumanicus: a Kipchak phrasebook for missionaries and merchants The Codex Cumanicus, now in the Library of St Mark in Venice, is a language manual built to help Catholic missionaries communicate with the Cumans.
1376-1379 Timur-backed Tokhtamysh wrests the White Horde from its rulers A Jochid exile whose father had been killed on the Mangyshlak peninsula took refuge with the conqueror of Samarkand, who backed his campaigns against the rulers of the eastern Horde.
August 1399 (5 or 12 August) Battle of the Vorskla River and the rise of the Manghit emir In August 1399, Tatar forces of the Golden Horde defeated a coalition on the Vorskla River near Poltava.

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1400 – 1599

Rise of The Kazakh Khanate

Abu'l-Khayr's Uzbek Khanate collapsed in 1468, and Kerey and Janibek founded the Kazakh Khanate, conventionally dated to 1465. Under Kasym Khan the realm reached from the southeast to the Urals and is said to have held a million people, but this figure is a claim.

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c. 15th century (dating debated) Book of Dede Korkut and the legacy of Korkyt Ata The Book of Dede Korkut is a cycle of twelve heroic tales linked by a wise bard whom Kazakhs call Korkyt Ata.
1468 (or 1469–1470) Death of Abu'l-Khayr Khan and the end of his khanate The founder of the nomadic Uzbek state died in 1468 according to the main text of the English Wikipedia's article on him, though other sources say 1469 or 1470.
1521 Kazakh pressure drives the Nogais west In 1521, according to the article on the Nogai Horde, Kazakh pressure drove the Nogais westward.
1568–1577 (dates vary) Kazakh–Nogai wars on the Emba and the fall of Saraychik In the 1570s the Kazakhs struck the Nogai Horde on the western steppe.
c. 1599 Turkistan becomes the Kazakh capital From about 1599 the city of Turkistan, historically called Yasi or Shavgar, served as the capital of the Kazakh Khanate; one article lists the period as 1599 to 1781, while another says only that this role lasted from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.

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1600 – 1729

Zhuzes & Dzungar Wars

Yesim Khan made Turkistan his capital in 1599, and the Senior, Middle and Junior zhuzes took shape in the seventeenth century. Dzungar invasions culminated in the Kazakh-Dzungar War of 1723-1730, remembered as the Great Calamity, with mass flight and loss of the south.

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early 17th century (undated) Esim's Old Road legal code The Kazakh ruler is credited with the legal code Yesim Salghan Eski Zhol, or Esim's Old Road, which the English article describes as his legal achievement.
1645–1646 Dzungars seize Sayram and Turkistan In 1645 and 1646 the Dzungar commander returned to the Kazakh borderlands and, according to the English article on the Orbulaq battle, took Sayram and Turkistan and forced their submission.
1692–1694 Kazakh embassies to Russia Wikipedia records that in 1692 the Kazakh khan made contact with the Russian tsar, and the English article on the khanate says Russian envoys were received in 1694.
c. 1718 Abul Khair becomes khan of the Junior Horde Around 1718 a noble born in 1693 in Turkistan became khan of the Kazakhs of the Junior Jüz, covering western and central Kazakhstan.
1729 or April 1730 (disputed) Battle of Anyrakay The Battle of Anyrakay, or Anyraqai, is traditionally set in the Anyraqai gorge between Lake Balkhash and Lake Alakol.

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1730 – 1864

Russian Protectorate

Abu'l Khayr's oath to Empress Anna in 1731 began a contested relationship that Russian sources call accession and others call conquest, and Orenburg became the base for southern expansion. Russian statutes abolished the khans' authority from 1822, and Kenesary Kasymuly led a revolt from 1837 to 1847.

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1731 (exact day debated) The Junior Zhuz Swears Allegiance to Russia In 1731 the khan of the Junior Zhuz, whose herds ranged between the Ural River and the Aral Sea, sent envoys to St Petersburg and accepted Russian protection.
1783–1797 Syrym Datuly's Uprising in the Junior Zhuz In 1783 the Bayuly clan leader Syrym Datuly led an uprising in the Junior Zhuz in western Kazakhstan.
1837–1847 Revolt Against Russian Expansion (Kenesary's Rebellion) Between 1837 and 1847 a grandson of the great eighteenth-century khan led the largest Kazakh revolt against Russian expansion.
1853 Russia Captures Ak-Mechet and Founds Fort Perovsky In 1853 Russian troops took Ak-Mechet, the Kokand fortress on the middle Syr Darya, in the Russian conquest of Turkestan.
1864 Russia Takes Turkestan City and Closes the Syr Darya Line In June 1864 Russian forces took the city of Hazrat-i Turkestan (Turkistan) from Kokand, bombarding the Yasawi mausoleum to hasten its surrender.

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1865 – 1916

Colonial Russian Rule

Russia took Tashkent in 1865 and organised the Turkestan Governor-Generalship in 1867 and the Steppe Governorate-General in 1882, with over 800,000 Russian settlers receiving pastures. The 1897 census counted 3,454,000 people in the Steppe region, and the 1916 revolt followed wartime conscription.

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1867 Semirechye Cossack Host Formed In 1867 the Semirechye Cossack Host was formed from part of the Siberian Cossack Host, with its centre at Verny (Almaty) in the Semirechye Oblast.
1882 Steppe Governorate-General Established In 1882 Russia established the Steppe Governorate-General with its capital at Omsk.
1904–1907 Ascension Cathedral Built in Verny The Ascension Cathedral in Verny (today Almaty) was built between 1904 and 1907; its foundation was consecrated on 26 September 1903 and the belfry was raised on 14 September 1906.
3 January 1911 (UTC; local date 4 January) Kebin Earthquake Destroys Verny On 3 January 1911 (UTC; 4 January local time at 05:25) the Kebin, or Chon-Kemin, earthquake struck the Zailiysky Alatau region.
July 1916 – 1917 Imanov Leads the Turgay Insurgents The Turgay uprising of 1916 was led by Amangeldy Imanov (born 3 April 1873).

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1917 – 1929

Revolution & Alash Orda

Alikhan Bukeikhanov led the Alash Autonomy proclaimed on 13 December 1917, but Bolshevik forces ended it, and the Kirghiz ASSR followed on 26 August 1920. Renamed the Kazak ASSR in 1925, it lost Orenburg, briefly held Karakalpakstan and recorded 6,198,469 people in 1926.

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27 November 1917 – 22 February 1918 Turkestan Autonomy Proclaimed at Kokand On 27 November 1917 the Fourth Extraordinary All-Muslim Regional Congress in Kokand proclaimed the Turkestan Autonomy, a government claiming self-rule for Central Asia's Muslims.
1919–1922 Kazakh Famine of 1919–1922 Between 1919 and 1922 famine struck the territory of the Kirghiz ASSR and the Turkestan ASSR, in present-day Kazakhstan.
19 February 1925 Kazakh ASSR Renamed; Kzyl-Orda Becomes Capital In June 1925 the Kirghiz ASSR was renamed the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, finally distinguishing the Kazakhs from the Kyrgyz in official usage.
c. 1928–1929 Discovery of the Jezkazgan Copper Province Around 1928 the geologist Kanysh Satpayev found a previously unknown copper-rich ore layer more than ten metres thick near Karsakpay in central Kazakhstan.
1929 Switch to the Latin-Based Yañalif Alphabet In 1929 Soviet authorities replaced the Arabic script then used for Kazakh with a Latin-based alphabet known as Yañalif.

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1930 – 1953

Collectivisation, Gulag & War

Forced settlement and collectivisation brought the famine of 1930-1933, with an attributed range of 1.3 to 2.3 million deaths and the loss of roughly 38 to 42 percent of Kazakhs. Deportees, Gulag camps, wartime evacuation and the first Soviet nuclear test at Semipalatinsk in 1949 followed.

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1930–1933 Asharshylyq: The Kazakh Famine of 1930–1933 The Kazakh famine, called Asharshylyq in Kazakh, began in late 1930 and lasted until 1933.
1936 Kazakh SSR Becomes a Union Republic On 5 December 1936 the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic left the Russian SFSR and became the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, a constituent republic of the USSR. Alma-Ata remained the capital.
1940 Soviet Deportation of Polish Citizens to Kazakhstan After the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in 1939, the authorities carried out four mass deportations in 1940–41.
April 1943 Eisenstein Films Ivan the Terrible in Alma-Ata In April 1943 principal photography began on Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, most of it shot in Alma-Ata.
29 August 1949 First Soviet Atomic Test (RDS-1) at Semipalatinsk At 7:00 a.m. on 29 August 1949 the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb, RDS-1, at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in the Kazakh SSR. Its yield was about 22 kilotons.

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1954 – 1990

Virgin Lands & Late Soviet

Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign brought settlers, and the Kazakh share of the republic fell to 30.0 percent in 1959 before rising to about 40 percent by 1989. Baikonur launched Sputnik in 1957, Zheltoqsan protests erupted in 1986, and sovereignty was declared on 25 October 1990.

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1954–1960 Virgin Lands Campaign In 1954 the Soviet Union launched a mass campaign to plough the semi-arid steppe of northern Kazakhstan and southern Siberia and turn it into grain land.
From c. 1960 Shrinking of the Aral Sea From about 1960 the Soviet Union diverted growing volumes of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, the two rivers feeding the Aral Sea, into cotton and other irrigated crops.
21 October 1966 Medeu Mudflow Dam Built by Directed Explosion On 21 October 1966 engineers created a protective dam in the Medeu gorge above Almaty by directed blasting, using four preliminary explosions of 1,800 tonnes in all and a final ammonium-nitrate charge of 3,600 tonnes.
1979 Discovery of the Tengiz Oil Field In 1979 an exploratory well in the Atyrau region on the north-eastern shore of the Caspian Sea struck a significant flow of oil at Tengiz.
24 April 1990 Declaration of State Sovereignty of Kazakhstan On 25 October 1990 the Supreme Council of the Kazakh SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty.

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1991 – 2018

Independence & Nazarbayev

Kazakhstan became independent on 16 December 1991 and closed the Semipalatinsk test site, and Nursultan Nazarbayev presided over oil-based growth, border treaties and the capital's move to Astana in 1997. Mass emigration cut the population to 14,953,126 in 1999 before the 2009 census counted 16,009,597.

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29 August 1991 Closure of the Semipalatinsk Test Site On 29 August 1991 the government of the Kazakh Soviet republic signed a decree closing the Semipalatinsk Test Site in the north-east of the republic, the main Soviet nuclear proving ground.
1994 Independent Kazakhstan at the Lillehammer Winter Olympics At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, Kazakhstan competed for the first time as an independent nation, having appeared with the Unified Team in 1992.
18 January 2005 Russia–Kazakhstan border treaty On 18 January 2005 the presidents of Russia and Kazakhstan approved in Moscow the final treaty on their shared border after talks that had begun in 1999.
February 2014 Astana wins the Tour de France On 27 July 2014 the Italian rider Vincenzo Nibali won the Tour de France for the Kazakhstan-backed Astana team, finishing in 89 hours, 59 minutes and 6 seconds.
12 August 2018 Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea On 12 August 2018 the presidents of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan signed the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea at the Fifth Caspian Summit in Aktau, on the Kazakh shore.

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2019 – present

Tokayev Era

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev succeeded Nazarbayev in 2019, the January 2022 unrest brought a CSTO deployment, and Astana's name was restored in September 2022. The 2021 census counted 19,186,015 people, and the statistics bureau reported 20,532,240 on 1 March 2026.

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19 March 2019 Resignation of the first president and Nur-Sultan renaming On 19 March 2019 Kazakhstan's first president announced in a televised address that he was stepping down, after nearly three decades in power, calling for 'a new generation of leaders'.
2–11 January 2022 January 2022 unrest (Qandy Qantar) The unrest began on 2 January 2022 in Zhanaozen, where residents blocked roads after the lifting of a price cap on liquefied petroleum gas, which nearly doubled the price.
2–11 January 2022 Presidential election of November 2022 On 20 November 2022 Kazakhstan held a snap presidential election, the seventh since independence.
6 November 2025 Kazakhstan announces accession to the Abraham Accords On 6 November 2025, during a White House meeting between the US president and five Central Asian leaders, officials announced that Kazakhstan would join the Abraham Accords, the US-brokered framework for normalising relations between Israel and Arab states.
12 February 2026 First Kurultai election On 23 August 2026 Kazakhstan elected all 145 deputies of the new unicameral Kurultai, the first vote under the 2026 constitution.

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Prehistory & Bronze Age

Saka & Early Nomads

Wusun, Kangju & Huns

Turkic Khaganates

Oghuz, Kimek & Karakhanids

Mongol Empire & Golden Horde

Rise of The Kazakh Khanate

Zhuzes & Dzungar Wars

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