Khanate of Khiva

The Khanate of Khiva was an Uzbek monarchy centered in the historical region of Khorezm, in the irrigated lowlands along the lower Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea, that existed from 1511 to 1920 with the exception of a period of occupation by the Afsharid ruler Nader Shah of Persia between 1740 and 1746. Ruled from its capital at Khiva, the khanate at its height controlled territory covering much of present-day western Uzbekistan, southwestern Kazakhstan and large parts of Turkmenistan. Khiva was contemporaneous with, and periodically rivaled, the neighboring Khanate of Kokand to the east and the Khanate and later Emirate of Bukhara to the southeast, and its economy depended on irrigated agriculture along the Amu Darya delta together with caravan trade across the surrounding desert. The khanate's independence ended in the second half of the nineteenth century when the expanding Russian Empire reduced it to a protectorate, and it was finally abolished in 1920 following the Russian Revolution.