Map of Central Asia during the Russian Empire

Map of Central Asia (Turkestan) : Polish map from 1903 showing the Russian Empire proper in green, Khiva (Chiwa) in brown, and Bukhara (Buchara) in orange. The two tributary states were nearly entirely surrounded by the General Government of Turkestan. After the revolution in 1917 the boundaries were redrawm along broadly ethnic lines and in time 5 Central Asian Republics and two autonomous regions (Parmir and Karakalpakstan)emerged.

Most of Kazakhstan and Karakalpakstan fell under the protection of the Russian Empire under the reign of Peter the Great in the early 1700s (to protect against Djungar Mongol incusions). In the 1860s Russia took control of areas that are now parts of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The Khanate of Khiva and the Emirate of Bukhara both became  protectorates in 1873 and the Tsarist Russia gained control of the Transcaspian region (now Turkmenistan) between 1879 and 1885.