(Redirected from Eurasian steppe)The 'Eurasian Steppe' (sometimes referred to collectively as ''The Steppes'' or ''The Steppe'') is the term often used to describe the vast
steppe ecoregion of
Eurasia stretching from the western borders of the steppes of
Hungary to the eastern border of the steppes of
Mongolia. Most of the Euro-Asian Steppe is included within the region of
Central Asia while only a small part of it is included within
Eastern Europe. The term
Asian Steppe usually describes the Euro-Asian Steppe without its most western parts,
i.e. the steppes of western
Russia,
Ukraine and
Hungary.
The Eurasian Steppe was the place from where
nomadic horse archers, such as the
Great Horde of
Genghis Khan, invaded the civilizations of
China, the
Middle East,
South Asia and
Europe.
Ecoregions
The
World Wildlife Fund divides the Euro-Asian Steppe into a number of
ecoregions, distinguished by elevation, climate, rainfall, and other characteristics, and home to distinct communities of plants and animals.
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Alai-Western Tian Shan steppe (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan)
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Altai steppe and semi-desert (Kazakhstan)
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Daurian forest steppe (China, Mongolia, Russia)
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Emin Valley steppe (China, Kazakhstan)
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Kazakh forest steppe (Kazakhstan, Russia)
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Kazakh steppe (Kazakhstan, Russia)
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Kazakh upland (Kazakhstan)
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Mongolian-Manchurian grassland (China, Mongolia, Russia)
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Pontic steppe (Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine)
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Sayan Intermontane steppe (Russia)
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Selenge-Orkhon forest steppe (Mongolia, Russia)
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South Siberian forest steppe (Russia)
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Tian Shan foothill arid steppe (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan)
See also
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Steppe
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Grassland
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Puszta
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Great Alföld
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Little Alföld
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Central Asia
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Pontic steppe
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Turkmenistan
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Uzbekistan
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Kazakhstan
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Siberia
Bibliography
★ Plano Carpini, John of, "History of the Mongols," in Christopher Dawson, (ed.), Mission to Asia, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005, pp. 3-76.
★ Barthold, W., Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion, T. Minorsky, (tr.), New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1992.
★ Fletcher, Joseph F., Studies on Chinese and Islamic Inner Asia, Beatrice Forbes Manz, (ed.), Aldershot, Hampshire: Variorum, 1995, IX.
★ Grousset, Rene, The Empire of the Steppes: a History of Central Asia, Naomi Walford, (tr.), New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970.
★ Krader, Lawrence, "Ecology of Central Asian Pastoralism," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 11, No. 4, (1955), pp. 301-326.
★ Lattimore, Owen, "The Geographical Factor in Mongol History," in Owen Lattimore, (ed.), Studies in Frontier History: Collected Papers 1928-1958, London: Oxford University Press, 1962, pp. 241-258.
★ Sinor, Denis, "The Inner Asian Warrior," in Denis Sinor, (Collected Studies Series), Studies in Medieval Inner Asia, Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, Variorum, 1997, XIII.
★ Sinor, Denis, "Horse and Pasture in Inner Asian History," in Denis Sinor, (Collected Studies Series), Inner Asia and its Contacts with Medieval Europe, London: Variorum, 1977, II.