Louzang Shono: Some External Relations Issues of the Kalmyk Khanate Revisited

Abstract

Introduction. The article examines a significant early-to-mid 18th-century episode of Kalmyk-Chinese and Kalmyk-Dzungar relations to have been controlled by the Russian Government. This very period was witnessing deepest processes across Central Asia that would subsequently result in dramatic ethnic and political transformations in the region. Goals. The work aims at revealing plans and intentions of the involved governments and groups, outlining the actual sequence of events under the observed conditions, showing efforts of certain individuals had been initially determined by their personal wishes that made them seek for opportunities to orchestrate the events towards their own benefits. However, the latter had to finally accept the real state of affairs as they were. Results. So, the Kalmyk rulers were involved in China-Dzungar relations, both the sides having been eager to take advantage of Kalmyk military power. But it became evident that external policies of the Kalmyk Khanate were largely dependent on Russia’s foreign affairs strategy which implied no interest in the participation of Kalmyks in Chinese-Dzungar struggle. This resulted in that Kalmyks never joined the confrontation between the Qing Empire and Dzungar Khanate to have ended up with a defeat and collapse of the latter.