Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, History

This dissertation explores the economic and political history of the Khivan Khanate during the period of the Qungrat Dynasty (1770-1920) and the impact of global capitalism on the economy of the Khanate. The early Qungrat rulers established a highly centralized state, rapidly expanded its irrigated agriculture, and strengthened the Khanate's military power. The formation of a strong military expanded the political influence of the Khanate over the regional trade routes that connected Central Asia to Astrakhan and Orenburg starting from the early 1810s. Mastering the trade opportunities offered by the expansion of Khivan authority and global industrial capitalism, Khivans benefited from a growing demand for cash crops. By the 1850s, Khivan merchants became the largest exporters of the highly coveted madder root (rubia tinctorum) to Russia, which drove a high volume of monetary transactions in the Khivan economy. At the turn of the 20th century, Khiva had one of the most diversified and monetized economies in Central Asia. However, the mainstream literature on Central Asian history often portrays the Khivan Khanate as the most isolated and least civilized state in the Central Asian region. Refuting the notion of ‘isolation', my dissertation explains how global commodity exchanges and capitalism shaped statecraft and military strategies of the early Qungrats by encouraging the expansion of irrigation and monetary transformation during the 19th-century. Drawing on an analysis of a wide array of archival documents including judicial records, financial deeds, slave reports, and diplomatic correspondence, I argue that environmental factors and the irrigation potential of the Khanate were crucial in the state building process of the early Qungrat rulers. The geographical location of the Khanate bestowed the Qungrat rulers with a comparative advantage in producing and controlling strategic cash crops including wheat. Drawing on this potential, the Qungrats were able to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Scott Levi (Advisor); Thomas McDow (Committee Member); Jane Hathaway (Committee Member) Subjects: Economic History; History; Islamic Studies; World History