HISTORY
Azerbaijan
combines the heritage of two venerable civilizations--the Seljuk
Turks of the 11th century and the ancient Persians. Its name is
thought to be derived from the Persian phrase "Land of Fire,"
referring both to its petroleum deposits, known since ancient
times, and to its status as a former center of the Zoroastrian
faith. The Azerbaijani Republic borders the Iranian provinces
of east and west Azerbaijan, although they have not been united
into a single state in modern times.
Little
is known about Azerbaijan's history until its conquest and conversion
to Islam by the Arabs in 642 AD. Centuries of prosperity as a
province of the Muslim caliphate followed. After the decline of
the Arab Empire, Azerbaijan was ravaged during the Mongol invasions
but regained prosperity in the 13th-15th centuries under the Mongol
II-Khans, the native Shirvan Shahs, and under Persia's Safavid
Dynasty.
Due
to its location astride the trade routes connecting Europe to
central Asia and the Near East and on the shore of the Caspian
Sea, Azerbaijan was fought over by Russia, Persia, and the Ottomans
for several centuries. Finally the Russians split Azerbaijan's
territory with Persia in 1828 by the Treaty of Turkmenchay, establishing
the present frontiers and extinguishing the last native dynasties
of local Azerbaijani khans. The beginning of modern exploitation
of the oil fields in the 1870s led to a period of unprecedented
prosperity and growth in the years before World War I.
At
the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, an independent republic
was proclaimed in 1918 following an abortive attempt to establish
a Transcaucasian Republic with Armenia and Georgia. Azerbaijan
received de facto recognition by the Allies as an independent
nation in January 1920, an independence terminated by the arrival
of the Red Army in April. Incorporated into the Transcaucasian
Federated Soviet Socialist Republic in 1922, Azerbaijan became
a union republic of the U.S.S.R. in 1936. The late 1980s were
characterized by increasing unrest, eventually leading to a violent
confrontation when Soviet troops killed 190 nationalist demonstrators
in Baku in January 1990. Azerbaijan declared its independence
from the U.S.S.R. on August 30, 1991.
