Kazakh Khanate

The Kazakh Khanate was a nomadic state in Central Asia that existed from around 1465 to the early nineteenth century, emerging from the breakup of the Golden Horde. Historians widely regard the reign of Kasym Khan as the beginning of genuine Kazakh independence, when Kazakh authority extended from what is now southeastern Kazakhstan to the Ural Mountains, and at its height the khanate's territory stretched between the Caspian and Aral Seas toward the Altai Mountains and Lake Balkhash. Centralized authority weakened sharply during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and after the death of Khan Tauke the unified khanate split into three separate divisions; it survived in this fragmented form longer than other successor states of the Golden Horde, until Russian imperial expansion absorbed its territory and its last significant ruler, Kenesary Khan, died fighting Russian forces in 1847.