RUSSIAN OCCUPATION OF TURKMENISTAN

Since the second half of the ninth century, the interests of developing capitalism in Russia required the expansion of sales markets, the seizure of new sources of raw materials. The demand of the Russian textile industry for cotton has gradually increased. During this period, the influence of Russia on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea intensified day by day. Tsarist Russia, defeated in the Crimean War of 1853-1856, had its eyes on Central Asia after realizing that it could not advance in Europe and the Middle East. Between 1858 and 1860, the Russians reformed their army again, neglecting international relations, and under various pretexts occupied the Turkmen khanates one by one between 1864 and 1873. In 1869, Russian troops built a fortification on the eastern coast of the Caspian and founded the city of Krasnovodsk. By 1885, the entire territory of Turkmenistan was occupied by the Russians.