Qing Conquest of Xinjiang — Destruction of the Dzungar Khanate
The Dzungar Khanate was the last major nomadic empire of the Eurasian steppe. At its height in the late 17th century, it controlled an area from western Mongolia to Balkhash Lake, including much of what is now Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and parts of Siberia. The Dzungars — Oirat Mongols who had converted to Tibetan Buddhism — represented the final iteration of the steppe-nomadic political tradition that had produced the Mongol Empire. The Kangxi Emperor had fought the Dzungars in the 1690s (Battle of Jao Modo, 1696, which broke Galdan Khan's power), but the Khanate survived and recovered. Under Galdan Boshugtu Khan's successors, it remained a major power capable of threatening Qing control of Tibet (Dzungar invasion of Tibet, 1717) and demanding tribute from Qing border regions. The Qianlong Emperor launched the decisive campaign in 1755, exploiting a succession crisis within the Dzungar leadership. The first campaign (1755) captured the Dzungar capital Ili with relatively little resistance. A Dzungar revolt the following year required a second campaign (1756–57) which was more brutal. The Qianlong Emperor's instructions were unambiguous: 'Wipe them out entirely'; 'Show no mercy.' The death toll was catastrophic. Peter Perdue estimates that 480,000–600,000 Dzungars died — approximately 80% of the total population — through direct massacre, smallpox epidemic (possibly worsened by deliberate introduction), and famine caused by the destruction of the pastoral economy. The survivors were enslaved or absorbed. The Dzungar ethnic identity effectively ceased to exist. The subsequent Xinjiang campaign (1758–59) consolidated Qing control over the eastern Tarim Basin, defeating the local Muslim rulers (Khojas). The region was renamed Xinjiang in 1768. Han Chinese and Hui Muslims were settled in garrison towns; the Uyghur population was resettled from their original territories. The territory thus acquired approximates China's current Xinjiang Autonomous Region — the Qing conquest established the western border that the PRC inherited and claims as a historical territorial entitlement.
- Year: 1755 CE
- Category: Military
