From Colonial Periphery to New Eurasian Crossroads

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Central Asia's (CA) modern economic history from the 1880s to the 2020s. It is a sequel to the author’s previous book, “Central Asia and the Silk Road,” which covers the region’s pre-modern economic history up to the 1880s and was published by Springer in 2017. Through an analysis of numerous sources, materials, and data, the book explains how the region, which had just seen the end of the Old Silk Road in the first half of the nineteenth century, was largely conquered and colonized by Russia and integrated into the European-led capitalist world economy as a supplier of raw materials. The book also presents developments from World War I through Soviet state-driven modernization and centrally planned transformation efforts, as well as partial industrialization during and after World War II. The book then examines the return to liberalization and reintegration into the global economy in the 1980s and 1990s for the now-independent former Soviet republics, or the "Stans," as well as Xinjiang-Uighur, which benefited from Chinese economic reform policies. In that context, it offers an insight into the growing Chinese influence in the region. Finally, the book presents the most recent development: Central Asia (CA) is profiting from its strategic location at the crossroads of the reemerging and strengthening overland links between East Asia and Europe, as embodied by China’s New Silk Road endeavor (Belt and Road Initiative).