Oirat Confederation

[7] The Western Mongols had Delbeg Khan—a descendant of Ariq Böke, whose family had been relegated to the Mongolian Plateau during the Yuan dynasty—crowned.

However, the Eastern Mongols of the Northern Yuan under Arugtai of the Asud refused to accept the new khan and they were in constant war with each other.

During his reign, the Oirat power base was centered on northwestern Mongolian Plateau and Barkol and the Irtysh were the western limits of their settlement.

Esen relied on Muslim merchants from Samarkand, Hami and Turpan and his own royal house: Choros was related to Moghulistan according to a myth.

However, the Khalkhas and some princes of southwest Inner Mongolia repeatedly launched massive attacks on the Oirats and looted their properties in the Irtysh, Barkol and Altai from 1552 to 1628.

The collapse of the confederation of the Oirats began with Torghuds, along with the Dorbets and a few Khoshud clansmen, seceding from the union.

Güshi Khan protected the 5th Dalai Lama and his Yellow Church from the old red clergy of the Tibetan Buddhism.

[11] The Khoshut Khanate defeated the enemy of the Dalai Lama and Güshi Khan appointed his son ruler of Tibet.

But the majority of the Choros with the Dorbeds and the Khoids settled in the region of the Black Irtysh, the Urungu, the Imil, and the Ili, forming the Dzungar Khanate.

In the 17th century, the Dzungar pioneered the local manifestation of the ‘Military Revolution’ in Central Eurasia after perfecting a process of manufacturing indigenously created gunpowder weapons.

The Zunghar managed to enact an empire-wide system of laws and policies to boost the use of the Oirat language in the region.

[14] Despite their geographical distribution, the Oirats maintained strong ties with each other and remained powerful players of Inner Asian politics until 1771.

The location of the Four Oirats, Oirat Confederation
Tayiji (台吉, prince) of the Torghuts , one of the Four Oirats tribes, and his wife (土爾扈特台吉). Huang Qing Zhigong Tu , 1769
The Choros Oirat leader Dawachi surrendering to Qing general Zhaohui at Ili in 1755. Painting by Jesuit painter at the Qing court, Ignatius Sichelbart , 1764