The Territory of the Kyrgyz in the 18th to Early 20th Century

During the period under consideration, the Kyrgyz population occupied approximately the same part of the territory that now constitutes the Kyrgyz Republic.

Kyrgyzstan was not immediately part of the Kokand Khanate. The overwhelming majority of Kyrgyz in the early 18th century lived in both the lowland and foothill and mountainous parts of the Fergana Valley, with some being semi-nomadic or even settled. With the emergence of the Kokand domain in 1711 around Margilan and the region of Kukhkend (where the city of Kokand was established in the 1730s as the capital of the new state formation), alongside the Sart (settled Uzbeks and Tajiks living in cities and villages), there were also representatives of the "ilatyyia" (partly settled by that time and mainly semi-nomadic Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Kipchaks, and Turks), whose villages and winter pastures were located in these areas. In the 1720s-50s, the Kokand domain expanded by incorporating the territories of the vilayets of Andijan, Namangan, Khojent, and others. Naturally, the Kyrgyz living in these areas became part of the khanate. The unifying trend intensified during the invasion of the Fergana Valley by the Dzungar-Oirat troops, when an influential Kyrgyz bey from the Kuchu tribe, Kubat (Kovad-myrza), successfully fought against foreign invaders at the head of Kyrgyz militias with the support of Kokand soldiers. By the 1760s, the unification of all Kyrgyz tribes in the Fergana Valley and partially in the Talas Valley under the Kokand Khanate was completed. From this time, many Kyrgyz leaders began to participate closely in the governance of the khanate. In the 1820s-30s, the Kyrgyz of the northern territories (Toguz-Toro, Atbashy, Naryn, the Tien Shan mountains, Chui, Kochkor, Jumgalsky, Kemin, and Susamyr valleys, and the Issyk-Kul basin) became part of the Kokand Khanate.

However, the Issyk-Kul Kyrgyz (in the 1850s) and the Kyrgyz of the Chui and Talas valleys and the modern Naryn region (in the 1860s) left the khanate. The southern part of Kyrgyzstan (the modern territories of Jalal-Abad, Osh, and Batken regions) remained part of the Kokand Khanate until 1876, i.e., until the final conquest of the khanate by Russia.

The administrative-territorial structure of the Kokand Khanate was unstable. The Kyrgyz people did not have their clearly defined territorial unit within the khanate; they lived in almost all the vilayets of the Kokand Khanate. The territories inhabited by the Kyrgyz during the khanate can be defined as follows: the modern Batken region of the Kyrgyz Republic — the foothill and mountainous parts of the Khojent, Kokand, and Margilan vilayets of the khanate; the modern Osh region — the territories of the Osh vilayet itself, the foothill and mountainous parts of the Andijan vilayet; the modern Jalal-Abad region — the foothill and mountainous areas of the Namangan vilayet of the khanate.

As for the territory of the modern northern regions of Kyrgyzstan during the Kokand period, they were mainly nominally independent territories of the Kyrgyz. The Issyk-Kul basin, Chui and Talas valleys, and the Tien Shan mountains remained the ancestral lands of the Kyrgyz people.

In the 1850s, the Kyrgyz of the Issyk-Kul basin were the first to be conquered by Russia. In the early 1860s, the tsarist troops, having eliminated the Kokand fortresses of Pishpek and Tokmak, conquered the Chui Kyrgyz. In the mid-1860s, as a result of several expeditions, the Naryn Kyrgyz recognized Russian sovereignty. During the military campaigns of General Chernyaev against Oluy-Ata (modern Taraz, RK), Chymkent, and Tashkent from 1863 to 1865, the Kyrgyz of the Talas Valley were also conquered. In 1868, a peace treaty was concluded between Russia and the Kokand Khanate. However, taking advantage of the popular uprising of the Kyrgyz in 1873-1876, Russia introduced colonial troops into the territory of the khanate. During the conquests of 1875-1876, Russian troops crushed the resistance of the last khan of the Kyrgyz state, Pulat-khan, and his associate Abdyldabek (the son of the famous Kurmanjan datka) in blood and completed the conquest of all of Kyrgyzstan in the first half of 1876. Thus, the Kyrgyz became part of the Turkestan General Governorship of Russia.

The territory of northern Kyrgyzstan — the modern Chui, Issyk-Kul, and Naryn regions — entered the Semirechensk region as county administrative units under the names of Tokmak (later Pishpek) and Karakol (later Przhevalsk with the Naryn district). The modern Talas region of Kyrgyzstan ended up in the Auliye-Ata district of the Syrdarya region. With the liquidation of the Kokand Khanate and the establishment of the Fergana region in its place in 1876, the entire territory of Kyrgyzstan was administratively colonized, and its structure looked as follows. The northern part of Kyrgyzstan — the modern Chui, Issyk-Kul, Naryn, and Talas regions, as mentioned above, were part of the Semirechensk and Syrdarya regions. The territory of the Jalal-Abad region of modern KR was assigned to the Namangan and Andijan districts, the territory of the Osh region — to the Osh, Andijan, and Margilan districts, and the territory of the Batken region — to the Margilan and Kokand districts of the Fergana region. A small part of the modern Batken region (the Laylak district) was assigned to the Khojent district of the Samarkand region. Thus, the territory of Kyrgyzstan was dispersed almost throughout the Turkestan General Governorship.

The internal organization of the territory was carried out in the spirit of imperial administrative traditions and was based solely on the interests of the military command and the royal treasury. By incorporating into the state territories inhabited by peoples lagging behind in the pace of socio-economic development from the "Great Russian" center, the tsarist regime primarily sought to create a cheap and effective system of governance and colonial exploitation. Consequently, when creating administrative units, the ethnic and economic characteristics of the population living in them were absolutely not taken into account.