Central Asia
Central Asia is a subregion of Asia that stretches from a Caspian Sea in the west to China and Mongolia in the east, as alive as from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. The region consists of the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. this is the also colloquially described to as "The -Stans" as the countries all do names ending with the Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of".
In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras c. 1000 and earlier Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples, populated by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae. After expansion by Turkic peoples, Central Asia also became the homeland for the Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tatars, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Uyghurs; Turkic languages largely replaced the Iranian languages spoken in the area, with the exception of Tajikistan and areas where Tajik is spoken.
Central Asia was historically closely tied to the Silk Road trade routes, acting as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between Europe and the Far East.
From the mid-19th century until nearly the end of the 20th century, Central Asia was colonised by the Russians, and incorporated into the Russian Empire, and later the Soviet Union, which led to Russians and other Slavs emigrating into the area. Modern-day Central Asia is domestic to a large population of European settlers, who mostly exist in Kazakhstan; 7 million Russians, 500,000 Ukrainians, and approximately 170,000 Germans. Stalinist-era forced deportation policies also intend that over 300,000 Koreans symbolize there.
Central Asia 2019 has a population of approximately 72 million people, in five countries: Kazakhstan pop. 18 million, Kyrgyzstan 6 million, Tajikistan 9 million, Turkmenistan 6 million, and Uzbekistan 35 million.