Göktürk Khaganate
the first people to call themselves Turk
The Steppe Inheritance
an ironworking vassal clan in the Altai Mountains revolts against the Rouran
350–552
Bumin Qaghan and the Founding
two brothers, the Orkhon heartland, and the largest empire yet built
552–582
The Sogdian Connection
the merchant network that ran the Silk Road on the khaganate's behalf
552–620
Diplomatic Acrobatics
Maniakh's embassy to Byzantium, Zemarchus at the Türk court, and the first East-West diplomatic axis
558–615
The East-West Split
civil war fractures the empire and Tang Taizong takes both halves
582–630
Under the Tang
fifty years of Tang protectorate rule that almost worked
630–682
The Second Khaganate and Bilge Kagan
Ilterish revives the empire, Tonyukuk warns against Sinicization, and Bilge speaks for himself in the Orkhon Inscriptions
682–744
The Uyghur Take-Over and the Turkic Diaspora
the Uyghurs replace the Ashina, the Türk peoples scatter across Eurasia, and the name they invented becomes the master ethnonym for two hundred million
744–1300