Dayuan - The Greeks of Central Asia

for many centuries in the ghana valley of central asia there existed a thriving community of ionian greeks the question must be asked how did these people come to be so far from their historic homelands of asia minor and the aegean sea in 499 bce the ionian colonies of asia minor staged a revolt against their rulers the akhmanid persian empire the revolt was rooted in resentment for the persian ruling class that control their city-states while the revolt was quickly thwarted by the persians the consequences would be felt for generations most notably as punishment for their support of the revolt the persian empire declared a war against the greeks the persians still had to deal with their dissenters and revolting populaces they decided to deport some of the ionians to the furthest corners of the empire tearing these people away from both their culture and potential allies in a future rebellion over the vast territory of the empire the persians deported several greek populations to the fergana valley creating a new greek culture in the region that would grow on its own forging a new identity while the greeks in fergana were far away from their homeland they were never truly isolated evidence in the form of imitation athenian coins discovered by archaeologists would suggest that there was still some contact with the homeland during his conquest of the akhmanid empire alexander of macedon placed the northeastern borders of his empire in the thagana valley during his conquest he had discovered for exiled communities or wyonians he sought to increase the greek influence and presence in the land he had only just conquered and as such he founded a number of new cities most famously alexandria escate or alexandria the furthest alexander moved as many as 30 000 people into the valley many of these settlers were veterans of alexander's army and these would come to become the ruling elite of the future kingdom of batria after alexander's death and the collapse of his empire the the ghana population came under the rule of the seleucid empire administered by the satrap of batria during his reign the empire's power had begun to weaken deodotus the satrap decided to defect and claimed independence for his people this was the beginning of the greco-bactrian kingdom and over several generations it would expand into the indus valley claiming lands once claimed by the previous celiacid rulers the yueji and nomadic people were expelled from their homeland by the zhongnu confederacy as they were migrating they began a feud with the wusson people which expelled them from the lille river valley they finally settled in bactria cutting off contact between the different regions of the greco-bactrian kingdom eventually conquering and ruling over the whole of bactria by 125 bce the greeks of the ghana eventually became vassals of the uag when ambassadors of han dynasty travelled to fagana they were confused by the culture of a valley they referred for fergana people as the daiwan translating to great ionians they like their greek ancestors loved wine a delicacy unavailable to the chinese the horses of the fagana valley were a persian origin bigger and stronger than the horses native to china in his work the records of the grand historian of china details an account of the daiwan as seen through the eyes of a han envoy the region around daiyawan makes wine out of grapes for wealthier inhabitants keeping as much as 10 000 or more picuoles stored away it can be kept for as long as 20 or 30 years without spoiling the people love their wine and the horses love their alfalfa this report made emperor wu of the han very interested in both the ghana and the nearby regions of parthia he saw the goods that were made in the valley as unlike anything else he had ever seen the horses of the ghana would give him an advantage against the zhong new menace the emperor gave her horses special attention and decided that his empire must have them in order to defeat the zhongnu the son of heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus for ghana and the possessions of bactria and parthia are large countries full of rare things with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the chinese people but with weak armies and placing great value on the rich produce of china emperor wu commissioned embassies to acquire more horses these embassies would reach as far as syria still under celiacid control this wood in effect found the first silk road connecting trade across eurasia for centuries the han however were unsuccessful in acquiring the daewan horses a series of mutual disagreements led to the death of a han ambassador followed by the confiscation of his payment for the horses this news soon reached emperor wu he was furious that a state like the daiwan which he perceived as weak would not give him the goods he wanted he felt that the only way to acquire what he wanted would be by force in 104 bce wu sent an army of thirty thousand soldiers and six thousand horsemen towards the dayawan kingdom this effort would be led by lee guang li a general favored by emperor wu however the expedition was futile and after two years the mission to conquer the daewan had proven unsuccessful lee in fact never made it as far as the daiwan capital urshi as his army constantly entered petty fights with local leaders emperor wu however refused to accept defeat immediately he sent lee back to the daiyuan kingdom this time with double the soldiers and up to thirty thousand horsemen the previous conquest had been mired by supply shortages ultimately contributing to their defeat this time wu made sure they were accompanied by as many as and twenty thousand oxen donkeys and camels lee's emboldened army began a seagent heir she in just 40 days lee's army had destroyed part of the outer wall damaging ereshi's water supply the ursine ability knew that further resistance would only end in certain death they decided the king of daiwan wugua was to be killed wulgowa was decapited by a group of nobles and his head was sent to lee as a gesture of good will all the fergana horses the empire could have wanted were finally handed to the han lee appointed a noble that was not only part of the group that killed but had shown kindness towards the han in more peaceful times he appointed maikai as the new king of daewan but the rest of the local nobility resented lee's choice maikai was soon assassinated by the nobles who helped him kill wugura wulgur's brothers chiang feng was chosen to be the next dayawan king despite his close relation to the war-mongering king he had no interest in displeasing emperor wu notably changfeng sent his own son as hostage to bahan court emperor responded positively sending daiwan gifts of his own this would mark the end of the daiwan conflict finally this led to the reconnection of chinese contact to the west this connection would now be permanent and would have an impact on civilizations both west and east for generations to come a new era of trade and commerce had begun the silk road was now open as always thank you for watching if you enjoyed this episode please be sure to like and subscribe for more great content every subscriber really does help if you're feeling extra generous feel free to check out the patreon link in the description below

Channel: Know History

Views: 130,229

Keywords: know how, know, how, history, ancient history, ancient, greeks, central asia, han chinese, heavenly horses, han, chinese, bactria, seleucid empire, india, ferghana, yuezhi, saka, dayuan, da, yuan, seleukid empire, alexander the great, macedonia, ioania, persia, achaemenid empire

Id: sWdOzfU-Mig

Length: 9min 5sec (545 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 27 2020