The ancient Silk Road(s) from China passed through this region en route to Europe and the Mediterranean. This whole region, home to a mixed population of settled farmers and nomadic pastoralists, was first colonised by Imperial Russia and then absorbed into the Soviet Union during the early years of the 20th century. After the break up of the USSR in the 1990s the fledgling republics of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan emerged. These were partially defined by ethnic makeup but, in reality, came about more as a result of whimsical territorial boundaries drawn up by Lenin, Stalin and other empire carvers.
In Central Asia the clash of ancient and modern cultures, and that of Islam and former-Soviet communism, is sometimes startling; the Golden Road to Samarkand is actually a dual-carriageway these days.