The First East Turkestan Republic
Amid warlord rule and revolt, Turkic Muslim rebels in Kashgar proclaim the Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan, crushed within months by Hui and Soviet-backed forces.
- Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949 — Andrew D. W. Forbes, Cambridge University Press (1986)
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
- Uyghur Nation: Reform and Revolution on the Russia–China Frontier — David Brophy, Harvard University Press (2016)
- The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land — Gardner Bovingdon, Columbia University Press (2010)
After the Qing fell in 1912, Xinjiang was ruled by a succession of Han warlords nominally loyal to the Republic of China. In 1931 a revolt in Hami against the governor Jin Shuren spread across the region, drawing in the Hui general Ma Zhongying and many local Turkic leaders.
- Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949 — Andrew D. W. Forbes, Cambridge University Press (1986)
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
On 12 November 1933, rebels in Kashgar, led by religious reformers and local notables including Sabit Damolla and with Khoja Niyaz as president, proclaimed the Turkish Islamic Republic of East Turkestan. It was poor, divided and unrecognised. Within months it was overrun by Hui troops, while the new warlord in Ürümqi, Sheng Shicai, consolidated control with Soviet military help.
- Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949 — Andrew D. W. Forbes, Cambridge University Press (1986)
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
Sheng’s government, following Soviet nationality policy, officially recognised the settled Turkic Muslims of the oases as “Uyghurs” in 1934–35, reviving the old name, which Turkic intellectuals had begun using in Soviet Central Asia.
- Uyghur Nation: Reform and Revolution on the Russia–China Frontier — David Brophy, Harvard University Press (2016)
- Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang — James A. Millward, Columbia University Press (2007)
The first modern independent state of the Turkic Muslims of East Turkestan, proof of a will to self-government, destroyed by Chinese warlords and Soviet intervention.
- Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911–1949 — Andrew D. W. Forbes, Cambridge University Press (1986)
- The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land — Gardner Bovingdon, Columbia University Press (2010)
A short-lived separatist regime inspired by pan-Turkism and pan-Islamism and encouraged by foreign imperialists, of the kind whose "East Turkestan" ideology Beijing regards as the root of later terrorism.
- The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land — Gardner Bovingdon, Columbia University Press (2010)
- The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority — Sean R. Roberts, Princeton University Press (2020)
Why it matters today
The blue flag with a white crescent and star raised in Kashgar in 1933 is still the flag of the Uyghur cause abroad, carried at protests from Istanbul to Washington. In China it is a banned symbol of separatism. The republic's short life is a source of both pride and grief.