Between 1600 and 1800 Great Qing and Muscovy transformed the map of Inner Asia and ended the millennial dominance of the mounted archer. Qing statecraft, on this frontier almost entirely Manchu and not Han, was as well-informed, aggressive, and effective in Inner Asia as it was defensive and clueless on the coast. The emergence of a self-conscious society of Hui (Chinese Muslims) and the very important roles of Tibetan Buddhism were other key features of this world.
Pamela Crossley, Orphan Warriors: Three Manchu Generations and the End of the Qing World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.
Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1999.
Mark Elliott, The Manchu Way
Evelyn Rawski,The Last Emperors
James Millward, Beyond the Pass
Mark Mancall, Russia and China
Joseph Fletcher, "Ch'ing Inner Asia c. 1800", Cambridge Hist. of China, Vol. 10.
Eric Widmer, The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission
Dru Gladney, Chinese Muslims
Jonathan Lipman, Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.
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