Kazakhstan

Where the name comes from

Kazakhstan combines Turkic qazaq, linked to a free wanderer or independent person, with Persian -stan, “land”.

First people

Nomadic peoples herded on these steppes for thousands of years, and horses may have been tamed here first, at Botai, about 5,500 years ago.¹

Known for

Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country, and its Baikonur Cosmodrome launched the first satellite and first human into space.²

Outside rule

Russian protection agreements began in 1731 and grew into colonial rule; Soviet republic status followed in 1936.³

The modern country

Kazakh statehood goes back to a khanate formed by Kerey and Zhanibek around 1465, and Kazakhstan became independent in 1991.^4,5