What to do in Uzbekistan

If you want to learn more about the historical-cultural context of Uzbekistan without spending weeks on history and political economy manuals, here are the essential coordinates to understand the roots of the country you are about to visit.

For a more complete insight, I suggest you read 

“USEFUL HISTORY BACKGROUND FOR A TRIP TO UZBEKISTAN”

Uzbekistan is one of the oldest human-inhabited territories, and here was born Zoroastrianism, the oldest monotheistic religion in the world. Based on the teachings of the prophet Zarathustra and dating back to the 6th century B.C., this creed will dominate unchallenged throughout Central Asia until the 7th century A.D., when it will be supplanted by Islam.
In the 4th century B.C. the area was disrupted by the passage of Alexander the Great, who easily conquered Sogdiana and Bactria, captured Samarkand and Tashkent, and then continued his conquest campaign towards India.
Upon his death, the area finds a moment of stability under the Kushan empire, founded by the Yuezhi tribe. Thanks to them, between the first and the third century AD, Asia Minor became a crossroads of intense trade and cultural exchanges between East and West, with a dense network of land and sea routes. The heart of this trade was the cosmopolitan cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. They reached a resounding wealth. Merchants, pilgrims and diplomats arrived here, exchanging goods, ideas and technologies. Between 1200 and 1300, Marco Polo wrote Il Milione, a true encyclopedia of all the geographical knowledge available at the time.

In 1220, led by Genghis Khan, the Mongols invaded present-day Uzbekistan, razing Samarkand, Tashkent, and Bukhara to the ground. His soldiers were left free to rape and plunder, his horses trampled the holy books of Islam, and Genghis Khan climbed the pulpit of the main mosque and shouted, to a terrified crowd: ‘I am God’s punishment for your sins’. In just 15 years of war he managed to occupy all of China, Russia and all of Central Asia. Upon his death, his empire was divided between his heirs and the area remained fragmented until the arrival of Timur, who claimed to be Genghis Khan’s descendant. Through a series of rapid war campaigns, Tamerlane managed to conquer Iran, Mesopotamia, India, parts of Russia and China; he reunified the states of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Kyrgyzstan).

Even today, the name of Timur is praised by the Turko-Mongols and is recognized a similar importance to that which we Westerners give to Alexander the Great.
His remains are kept in the mausoleum of Gur-e Amir, in Samarkand.

In the second half of the 1800s, the Russians became interested in the territories of present-day Uzbekistan and reunited them under the flag of Turkestan. They urged the introduction of the Russian language and the intensive cultivation of cotton. Infrastructure and railroads were built to facilitate trade, industries developed, and schools were built, greatly improving the socio-economic conditions of the area.

In 1924, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Uzbekistan was founded. Between 1932 and 1938, Stalin promoted a fierce anti-religious campaign, called the “Atheist Movement”. Places of worship were seized and turned into museums, ballrooms, warehouses and factories. As a result of this forced secularization, in 1960 almost no Uzbek woman wore the chador and all girls achieved the same level of education as boys.

In 1991, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan became a fully independent state. Ruled until 2016 by authoritarian President Karimov, it struggled to find its own democratic identity. Karimov has destroyed any possibility of political opposition and exercised total control over the media.

Upon Karimov’s death in 2016, president Mirziyoyev was elected. He loosened his predecessor’s authoritarian methods, opening up the market economy and giving more space to Islamic parties.