central asia

Turning the graveyard into a backyard. Is there any possibility, after 1800, that Afghanistan could have been partitioned between Iran, the Russian Empire, and a power based in northwestern India (likely the BEIC, but also possibly the Sikh Empire)? Basically, no Durand Line, either. Based on...

As the title says, what happens if the Soviets decided to make a Jewish SSR in Central Asia with an idea similar to Jewish Autonomous Oblast, a Soviet Socialist Republic for Jews? Where exactly in Central Asia you reckoned the Jewish SSR will be placed in? Will this Jewish SSR break-away from...

With a POD after 431 CE, what is the largest Nestorianism could have gotten? Could Nestorianism have become the dominant religion of Central Asia and Persia? What is the impact of Nestorianism becoming the religion of the Silk Road? How far could Nestorianism spread into India and China?

Tibet, IOTL, is often seen as the world's main cultural "hub" of Buddhism and Buddhist monasticism. What people tend to forget, however, is that, before around the 12th century, Tibet was a very plural country that practiced a range of religions also including (but not limited to) Islam...

Is it possible for Iran and Afghanistan to be part of one country after WWII? How can this be possible? Can it stick together? And how does that affect things?

In a scenario whereas the Soviet Union occupies and formally annexes Xinjiang/East Turkestan/Uyghurstan after WW2, and also one where China is politically divided between a communist, CCP-controlled north and a Kuomintang-controlled south (to ensure that neither of the two Chinas can properly...

IOTL, after the defeat of the Dungan Revolt in the late 1860's, Qing China was in the process of reoccupying Xinjiang. One surprisingly stretched incident (lasting 9 to 10 years) was the Russian occupation of the Ili River region in western Xinjiang, serving to secure Russia's foothold in...

When I was reading Guests of the Ayatollah: The Iran Hostage Crisis: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam, the book said that there were alternate plans to seize the Soviet embassy instead of the American one, owing to the USSR’s state ideology of godless Communism. This made...

Based on this post by David T, and the thought of Russian Germans suddenly popping into my mind. Basically, what if Soviet authorities had, contrary to local Khazak interests, managed to create a German autonomous republic in northern Kazakhstan in the 1970's, as a compensatory measure for...

The Question for you is what does the board think is more plausible and has the greatest potential, between the varied Central Asian Empires which had at least a settled movement among itself. First allow me to clarify terms. By survival, we refer to the particular empire surviving its initial...

Let's say a different US leadership decides to partition Afghanistan after 2001. My idea is that the war is worse than IOTL and by 2010 the US decides that partitioning is the best course of action. A partition of Afghanistan means that it is pretty much a given that the northern areas of...

Like the title says, what could possible be the alternate borders of Post-Soviet Central Asia for better or worse? The whole borders set-up is arranged by Stalin in his divide and rule policies of the Soviet Union, basing on their nationalities/ethnicity of these mostly nomadic people...

Like the title says, what happens if Russia managed to keep Central Asia (namely Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan) under Moscow's rule? This sets after the dissolution of Soviet Union. How would it turned out and impact on the region?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Game https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_conquest_of_Central_Asia Speaking of The Great Game, i recommend to watch this awesome documentary: https://youtu.be/6a7bP49ehKQ , https://youtu.be/3Re4x0dizlM Assuming if the Russians were aware of...

How far west could the Tang have expanded into Central Asia? Could Transoxiana have been secured and controlled for a long time, or was it just too far away?

How can the Afghan Empire be able survive until modern-day? Will it be inevitable become a rump state like IRL?

Alright, the backstory is that Kazakh Khanate was one of the successor states to the Mongol Empire. It was founded in the mid 1400's and was a powerful nomadic empire in Eurasia. Unfortunately, it had a rival in the east that was also part of former Mongol Empire which was called the Dzungar...

Is it possible for China to permanently hold onto Mongolia, Korea, Siberia, Central Asia, and Tibet for centuries? Can China be able to find ways to hold them down permanently like settler colonization and whatnot? And through that is it possible for them to take control of other areas in...

Today, Turkic languages are spoken by 170 million people natively among a very fragmented area stretching from Turkey to eastern Siberia, with the largest language being Turkish itself. Could there have been a very large Turkic empire, not the Ottoman Empire or Seljuk Empire, surviving to the...

What it says on the tin. Post 1995 to make it hard.