The Kazakh–Dzungar Wars were a series of military conflicts between the Kazakh jüzes (three tribal confederations of the Kazakh Khanate) and the Dzungar Khanate lasting from the 17th to the mid-18th century. The conflict between the Kazakhs and the Oirats (Soon the Dzungars) started from the first half of the 16th-century, all the way down to the later half of the 18th-century. Both nations later fought against the Qing dynasty, particularly in the First Sino–Kazakh War of the Ten Great Campaigns.
Background
During the 13th and 14th centuries, the Inner Asian nomadic peoples incorporated into the Mongol Empire gradually coalesced into various uluses under the rule of Chinggisid dynasties, such as the Ulus of Chagatai (Moghuls and Timurids), the Ulus of Jochi (Uzbeks, Kazakhs, and Tatars), and the Mongols of the Northern Yuan (Modern Khalkha Mongols). The Oirats, however, were a notable exception. They formed an independent political community and a major non-Chinggisid ulus, Dörben Oirat.
Rise of the Oirats and Uz Timur's Campaign
The late 14th and first half of the 15th centuries marked a period of Oirat ascendancy. Following the expulsion of the Mongols from China, internecine conflicts intensified, and central authority lost its prestige and influence. During this period, the western Mongolian steppes were controlled by the Oirats, while the eastern steppes were dominated by the Mongols of the Northern Yuan. The rise of the Oirats is associated with Togon Taishi, under whom Oirat foreign policy became more active. They fought the eastern Mongols, conducted campaigns into China and Moghulistan, and sought to establish a unified centralized state. From the 15th century onward, the Oirats increasingly challenged the Mongols ruled by Chinggisid rulers.
In the mid-15th century, the Oirats were led by the energetic ruler Esen Taishi, who united the Oirat tribes into a single nomadic empire and extended his authority over the eastern Mongols. The military strength of the nomadic state established by the Oirats was demonstrated by their crushing defeat of the Chinese Ming dynasty and the capture of the emperor, an unprecedented event in nearly three millennia of Chinese history. Subsequently, the Ming dynasty undertook an extensive program of construction and fortification of the Great Wall of China, much of which dates to this period. The Chinese dynastic chronicle Ming Shi states:
The Oirats are powerful barbarians and … commit evil deeds.
The Oirats moved westward from their ancestral homeland in search of fertile lands, which they found in the territories north of the Tian Shan. Gradually, they conquered lands belonging to the Moghuls, the inhabitants of Moghulistan, which had once been a fragment of the Chagatai Khanate. Esen decisively defeated the Moghul khan Wais Khan. Wais repeatedly suffered defeats at the hands of the Oirats and was captured by them twice. Esen's forces repeatedly advanced toward Issyk-Kul and even reached the Syr Darya. However, following Esen's fall, the Oirats were no longer able to maintain their position in Mongolia and henceforth confined their activities to their own territories.
Kazakh–Oirat Relations in the 16th–17th Centuries, the Russian State and the Kalmyk Khanate
The rapid consolidation of the Kazakh Khanate, population growth, and the efforts of the early Kazakh khans to expand their territory inevitably led to clashes between the Kazakhs and the Oirats. One of the earliest accounts of relations between Kazakh sultans and Oirat taishis was provided by Seyfi Çelebi: "Beyond the land of Kashgar lives a people called the Kazakhs. They have neither cities nor villages. They are a nomadic people. They number two hundred thousand tents. Their khan is called Tevekkel. They once raided a certain area in the land of the Kalmaks and then returned." Vasily Bartold believed that Taukel Sultan's raid on Oirat encampments took place in 1552. During this period, Oirat pressure on the Kazakh Khanate intensified. According to Kalmyk historians, this was caused by their defeat at the hands of the Mongols under Altan Khan and their subsequent forced retreat westward.
According to Soviet historiography, in the late 16th century, Kazakh rulers inflicted several defeats on the Oirats and established political control over part of them. Russian sources referred to Taukel Khan as the "tsar of the Kazakhs and Kalmaks." Ilya Zlatkin argued that the Kazakhs had managed to subjugate some Oirats living near the borders of Kazakh territory. However, following Taukel's death in 1598, the Oirats refused to recognize the authority of his successors. Nevertheless, some modern researchers — specifically I. I. Dremov and Zh. M. Sabitov — reject the identification of the Kalmaks who submitted to the Kazakh Khan with the Oirats. The historian Dremov writes that historical sources do not confirm the subjugation of the Oirats by the Kazakhs in the second half of the 16th century. It appears that the reference here is not to the Oirat-Kalmyks, but rather to the Kalmaks (turkic people) who inhabited the steppes of the Kazakh region. According to the Kazakhstani historian Sabitov, the Kalmaks—against whom Tauke Khan fought, and whom he and his brother Shah-Muhammad subsequently ruled—were Karakalpaks.
At the beginning of the 17th century, a portion of the Kazakh population fell under the sway of the Oirats. During the 17th century, the Kazakhs lacked a centralized state and lived in a condition of economic and political fragmentation. Consequently, they suffered defeats at the hands of powerful, aggressive neighbors—the Oirats being one such group.
During this period, significant changes took place in Oirat society. Divided among themselves, the Oirats faced pressure from all sides. Khara Khula's attempts to unite them led to the secession of one group, the Torghuts. In the 1620s, under the leadership of Khan Kho Orluk, approximately 200,000–250,000 Torghuts migrated from the Dzungarian Basin to the Ural River and subsequently to the steppes of the Caspian Lowland. Moving northward to bypass Kazakh territories, they fought successfully against the Nogai Horde and the Khanate of Sibir. These western Oirats became known as the Kalmyks. In the 1650s, the Oirats continued moving westward and settled in the Lower Volga region despite rivalry and pressure from the eastern Oirats. This contributed to the emergence of the Kalmyk Khanate, a Buddhist state on the banks of the Volga River. In subsequent raids, the Kalmyks drove the Nogais into the Ciscaucasian steppes.
In the mid-1630s, the Oirats, who had been migrating across the vast expanses of Southern and Western Siberia, started to unite under the leadership of Kharkhul from the Choros clan. This group among the Oirat tribes was called "Zün hār" (left wing, or more accurately, the left arm) — the Dzungars. In 1634, after the death of Kharkhul, his son Erdeni took over the leadership of the union. In 1638, the Dalai Lama granted him the title Baghatur Khong Tayiji. The year 1635 is considered the first year the new and powerful state of Mongol-speaking nomads, the Dzungar Khanate, appeared on the ethno-political map of Central Asia. It was considered as the "last great nomadic empire in Central Asia," by Russian historian, Vasily Bartold.
The internal fragmentation of the Kazakh Khanate in the late 16th and early 17th centuries weakened its position and contributed to the rise of a new regional power—the Dzungar Khanate, established in the early 17th century. The first phase of clashes between the Kazakhs and the Dzungars began in 1635, shortly after the formation of the Dzungar state.
Overview
Kazakh–Dzungar War (1635–1636)
In the spring of 1635, Jangir Sultan, in alliance with a Dörbet-Khoshut group led by Khundelen Taisha, launched a preemptive campaign against the Torghut leader Kho Orluk. This offensive effectively pushed the Torghuts west of the Yaik and Emba rivers. However, the Dzungars launched a swift counter-invasion later that year. Led by Batur Khongtayiji and defecting Oirat chiefs, the Dzungar forces engaged the Kazakhs in a massive battle during the winter of 1635. Although the Kazakhs initially held their ground, they were eventually defeated; many were killed, and Jangir Sultan was captured alive. During this campaign, Dzungar forces also pushed nomadic Naimans from the Ulytau region toward the northwest. The war continued into 1636 with further Dzungar offensives targeting the groups of Janybek Khan beyond the Irtysh River. Despite these setbacks, the Kazakhs launched successful counter-attacks in the following years, eventually securing the release of Jangir Sultan from captivity. This early war set the stage for decades of prolonged military confrontation, prompting Jangir Khan to strengthen defensive alliances with the Khanate of Kashgar, Khanate of Bukhara and Khanate of Khiva.
Kazakh–Dzungar War (1643–1647)
He soon launched a second Dzungar campaign into Kazakh lands in 1640. This time it was also successful for the Dzungar feudal lords, capturing 16,000 Kazakh-Kyrgyz Tokmaks between the Issyk-Kul Lake and the Chu River.
According to Tursun Sultanov, Jangir's humiliating captivity made him an irreconcilable enemy of the Dzungars, and he devoted the rest of his life to fighting them. In this struggle, Jangir demonstrated personal bravery and military talent, and his name became famous. For his bravery and military successes, people nicknamed him “Salqam Jangir Khan”.
In 1643, an army led by Erdeni Batur invaded Jetisu. The Battle of Orbulaq took place in the Orbulaq River gorge on the Ili River. A detachment of 600 Kazakh warriors led by Jangir Khan held back a 50,000 Dzungar army in a narrow mountain pass for some time. After the Dzungars reached the plain, they engaged a 20,000-strong relief army brought by the Emir of Samarkand, Yalangto'sh Bakhodir. The Dzungar army was stopped, and Erdeni Batur turned back to Dzungaria. This failure led Erdeni to punish those who had not joined the campaign, causing internal unrest in the Dzungar Khanate. He also attempted to organize a joint campaign with the Volga Kalmyks against the Kazakhs, but failed.
In 1645–1646, Erdeni Batur launched a new campaign against the Kazakhs, inflicting heavy casualties and devastation on the Kazakh Khanate. Russian ambassador D. Arshinsky reported that before his arrival at the Dzungar headquarters in May 1646:
“Kontaysha waged war on the Cossack horde of Yangir Tsarevich and killed many people, and took Yangir's brother, his wife, children, and many people captive.”
However, the Oirat-Kazakh War of the 1640s and 1650s ultimately brought victory to the Oirats. In the 1650s, the eastern part of Semirechye, as well as the territory between the upper reaches of the Irtysh and Lake Balkhash, was dependent on the Dzungar Khanate. The headquarters of the Khuntaiji was located on the upper reaches of the Irtysh. Thus, Erdeni Batur significantly expanded the borders of his state.
Jangir Khan fought the Dzungars with varying success and fought three major battles with Dzungar troops in 1635, 1643, and 1652, but he was killed in the last battle. According to the Oirat chronicle “Moonlight: The History of Rabjam Zaya-Pandita”, he was killed by the 17-year-old Khoshut tayiji Galdamba, which is also supported by Altangerel's biography of Galdamba. He later defeated a Bukharan relief force on the Chu and Talas River, killing Abushukher Noyan in 1658. The border was consolidated from the Ayagöz River to the Talas River. During the war, Onchon Taisha contracted smallpox and was captured by the Kazakhs.
After the death of Erdeni Batur, a succession war began in the Dzungar Khanate, which Sengge won. Sengge made friendly relations with the Kazakhs. However, after Sengge was killed in a coup by Zotov Batur and Chechen tayiji, Tauke Khan led an 80,000-strong army against the Dzungar Khanate. He gained fame as a military expert and a brave man in battle, and for this he was awarded the honorary title of “batyr” (“hero; brave man”) by his subjects. He took Jetisu while taking advantage of the succession war.