How did China lose Central Asia? ⚔️ Battle of Talas, 751 AD - ALL PARTS - Abbasid Caliphate vs China

🚩 The pivotal Battle of Talas pitted the rapidly expanding Muslim armies against the forces of the Chinese Tang Dynasty. The outcome of the battle changed Central Asia for millennia to come.

📢 Narrated by David McCallion

🎼 Music:

📝 Sources:
Bartold, Vasily (1928). Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion (Trans. T. Minorsky & C.E. Bosworth)
Chen, Sanping (2012). Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages
Golden, Peter B. (1990). “The Kharakhanids and early Islam” in The Cambridge
History of Early Inner Asia, vol. 1 (ed. Denis Sinor)
Hoberman, Barry (Sept/Oct. 1982). “The Battle of Talas” in Aramco World, vol. 33 no. 5
Ibn al-Athir, Ali (ca. 1231) The Complete History
Sima, Guang (1084). Zizhi Tongjian.
Soucek, Svak (2000). A History of Inner Asia
Starr, S. Frederick (2004). Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland

#china #abbasid #historymarche

[HistoryMarche]

After many requests from you guys, I merged all parts of the Battle of Talas mini-series for easier viewing. I hope you'll enjoy the video and thank you so much for watching!

[TheGeneralGrievous]

Arabs in 8th century: "Caliph, are we going to fight the Wisigoths, the Eastern Romans, the Franks or the Chinese now?"
Caliph: *Yes.*

[cavalier]

Extent of caliphate was really magnificent, same empire fought against Franks and Chinese in same century.

[klaudioabazi]

Very few people know about this battle, but it changed the course of history.

[levinb]

The first three days of battle is basically a game of chess (first version of the battle). Both armies about equal, both flanked by a river and a mountain forcing a frontal confrontation, and both well commanded and led by smart generals.

[kyrgyzsanjar]

I'm so grateful to you for covering this battle. Talas is located in modern day Kyrgyzstan, where I am from. We have so many folkloric and epic tales which include Talas one way or another.

[ProtectorOfDemocracy]

@HistoryMarche I Have no words for this video. Simply amazing and interesting animations. I am sure a lot of people learn something from this. Those battles we don't know are extra interesting. Love your content and keep on making content about battles in our history. I will thank you in the name of all your viewers that you indeed make amazing content. Oh and by the way you EARNED AN ACTIVE SUBSCRIBER.

[kata]

Comment for the algorithm!
This is my favorite history channel on youtube for both it's consistently exciting scripting and (though this is more subjective) it's stellar narration. Keep up the great work!

[Frenchylikeshikes]

Those videos are just incredible. So well narrated, and well illustrated. It is so helpful to see the maps of where everything took place, and the battle unfold in real time. Gives a much better understanding of everything.

[danielsantiagourtado]

Yes! Love your compilations! They are incredible!🎉🎉🎉

[LOL-zuzr]

You guys should definitely do the Mongol invasion of Jin and the Song. The Jin almost destroyed 50, 000mongols in an encirclement but got double encircled. There song defence of diaoyu city was also textbook siege defense.

[nenenindonu]

Islamic & Sinitic cultural competition over the region reemerged four centuries after this battle between the muslim Turkic dynasties and the Western Liao

[samwisegamgee]

I'm loving the more spherical map style you use on this channel - the shift at 7:45 from central asia back to the mid-east really made me feel like I was moving along a globe.

[ahzamrasheed]

I loved how you coloured their region, matching the colour of their banner. They were Abbadassids!

[unifieddynasty]

It's great that you detail the different accounts. A very responsible approach to history.

[calvanoni]

Great vid on a very important War, & the effects!

[rdf]

This was a great video since I never heard anything about this battle, you should do a video on the Tibetan empire since I haven't seen too many YouTube channels cover them .

[ZxZ]

It was widely recored right after Talas Chinese influence in Central Asia didn't really diminishes, China truely lost Central Asia afterwards from the An Lushan Rebellion, after that they were too weak to do any power projection and the whole menality of China changed from that point.

[heartzm]

AS ALWAYS WHAT A GREAT CONTENT THANK YOU!

[Warmaker]

As with any of the large empires of the ancient and medieval world, there comes a point where just can't push any further. The Romans dealt with that. The logistics, distances involved were too much an issue. There was also the question of stability. The Romans had their own revolts and civil wars. Not to mention threats from foreign attack. China in its long history has had many civil wars or prolonged periods where it wasn't under a single unified power. Tang Dynasty was one of China's great dynasties and even they had limits on how far they could reach. That they were able to send an army this far out into Central Asia is an accomplishment, but it's just too far to truly bring the weight of the empire to bear.