Peter the Great's 1717 Khivan expedition succeeds

CaliGuy

Banned
What if Peter the Great's 1717 Khivan expedition would have succeeded?

Would it have been followed by further Russian conquests in this region, and if so, where exactly?

Also, how much more Russian would Central Asia and other territories have been right now if this expedition would have succeeded?

In addition to this, what other consequences of this expedition would there have been?

Finally, how would other countries have reacted to this expedition?
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
Russians and Chinese have a longer common border earlier.

The Chinese basically conquered Xinjiang in the 1750s and 1760s.

Russia will have a two-front war if it does not handle encounters with the Qing in Central Asia carefully. When the Qing do decline, Russians with a head-startt in Central Asia might be more prone to support an East Turkestan buffer state in Xinjiang, kind of like OTL's Outer Mongolia. The Russians can contest the British more vigorously in Tibet, Afghanistan and maybe even Punjab. Maybe they become allies/patrons of the Sikhs?

Russia could find itself a dominating power over Persia, and Russia could have as much cultural influence over Persia as France does over North Africa and Britain does over India.
 
How would Russia having posession of the Amu Darya gold fields as well as access to India affect the future development of the state (both Khiva and Russia)? (sorry, I'm basing this on what I can find on wikipedia) But it seems like a really interesting (and maybe underused/unknown POD)
 
I personally don't think that Russia would be able to keep Khiva for long, by the 18th century it's way too far from the Russian heartland, it'd be hell to keep supply lines to the middle of the Central Asian desert. IMHO the smartest move is to make Khiva pay a regular tributary to the Tsar and, if that would be the case, I don't think it would be much different from OTL.
 
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