Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a landlocked Central Asian country, which was once part of the USSR.

HISTORY

What is now Uzbekistan was incorporated into the Persian Empire in ancient times. For many centuries the region of Uzbekistan was ruled by the Persian empires, including the Parthian and Sassanid Empires, apart from a period of Macedonian Greek rule.

As China began to develop its silk trade with the West, Persian cities took advantage of this commerce by becoming centres of trade. Cities in what is now Uzbekistan such as Samarkand, Khiva and Bukhara began to grow rich from the Silk Road.

During the eighth century invading Muslim Arab forces conquered Transoxiana, the territory between the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers. The majority of the population, including the local ruling classes, were converted into adherents of Islam.

The area along with Central Asia as a whole, was decimated by Genghis Khan's Mongol invasion in the 13th century.

The area was conquered by Uzbek Shaybanids in the 16th century, moving the centre of power from Samarkand to Bukhara. The Uzbeks merged with the other inhabitants of the territory, breaking it into the separate principalities of the khanates (city-states) Khiva, Kokand and Bukhara.

The city-states were conquered by the Russian expansion into the area between 1865-76, with Tashkent becoming the political center of Russian Turkestan.

Russian troops taking Samarkand in 1868, by Nikolay Karazin.

The Tashkent Soviet was a public organization set up in Tashkent during the Russian Revolution. It was established on March 2, 1917 at an inaugural meeting that consisted of thirty five workers from the Central Asian Railway. It was headed by a technician named I. I. Bel'kov. The following day, there was a meeting in the local Duma which set up an Executive Committee of Public Organisations to manage the "sociopolitical and economic life of the city".

The Tashkent Soviet gradually extended its power after the First World War. In 1924, the Soviet Union was reorganized, and the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was established. Uzbekistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union on May 12, 1925.

The Tashkent Soviet played an important role in the history of Uzbekistan. It was instrumental in the establishment of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, and it helped to shape the development of the country in the years that followed.

Uzbekistan declared independence from the Soviet Union following the failed August 19-21 coup in Moscow on August 31, 1991 and became a constitutional republic.

Uzbekistan was one of the last Soviet republics to declare independence. The government of Uzbekistan had been hesitant to declare independence, but the coup convinced them that it was time to break away from the Soviet Union.

The declaration of independence was met with widespread celebrations in Uzbekistan. People took to the streets to celebrate their new-found freedom. The government of Uzbekistan quickly set about establishing its own institutions and laws.

The current flag of Uzbekistan was adopted on November 18, 1991, making the country the first newly independent republic in Central Asia to choose a new flag.

The crescent on the flag of Uzbekistan represents Islam, while the twelve stars symbolize the months of the Islamic calendar and the zodiac constellations.

Islam Karimov became the leader of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1989. He subsequently won Uzbekistan's first presidential election on December 29, 1991, with 86% of the vote. Foreign observers and the opposition party cited voting irregularities.

President Islam Karimov was widely held to be responsible for severe breaches of basic human rights including tortures and executions. His first presidential term was extended to 2000 by way of a referendum, and he was re-elected in 2000, 2007 and 2015, each time receiving over 90% of the vote. Karimov died in office at the age of 78 on September 2, 2016.

FUN UZBEKISTAN FACTS

Uzbekistan is bordered by five landlocked countries: Kazakhstan to the north; Kyrgyzstan to the northeast; Tajikistan to the southeast; Afghanistan to the south; and Turkmenistan to the southwest. It is with Liechtenstein, one of only two doubly landlocked countries. This means that it is landlocked by a landlocked country.

Uzbekistan is entirely surrounded by countries ending in -stan.

Uzbekistan is Central Asia’s most populous country with a 2017 estimated population of 32,979,000.

Tashkent is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. With a population in 2018 of 2,485,900, it is the most populated city in ex-Soviet Central Asia.

Uzbek, a Turkic language written in the Latin alphabet, is the country's first major language. It is spoken natively by approximately 85% of the population.

Sunni Muslims make up 88.5 percent of the population though they are secular and not religious Muslims. 9.4% of the population are Christians (mainly adherents of Russian Orthodox Christianity).

Palov is the Uzbek national dish. A main course typically made with rice, pieces of meat, and grated carrots and onions, legend has it that it was invented by the cooks of Alexander the Great.

Palov By Utilisateur:Atilin Wikipedia

The country is a major producer and exporter of cotton. Uzbekistan is the world’s second-largest cotton exporter and fifth largest producer.

Uzbekistan maintains the world's second-highest rate of modern slavery, with 3.97% of the country's population working as modern slaves. Most work in the cotton industry.

The Aral Sea was once the Earth’s fourth largest inland sea. However the Soviets depleted its water supply to irrigate the cotton fields in the 1960s - the crop requiring a large amount of water to grow. They also extensively used chemical pesticides and fertilizers, meaning it has shrunk to about 10% of its former area.

Source Thefactfile