The Western Turkic Khaganate was subjugated by the Tang dynasty in 657 and continued as its vassal, until it finally collapsed in 742.

The first Turkic Khaganate was founded by Bumin in 552 on the Mongolian Plateau and quickly spread west toward the Caspian Sea.

They took Semirechye and by 555 had reached the Aral Sea, probably on a line from the lower Oxus, across the Jaxartes, north of Tashkent to the western tip of the Tian Shan.

[13] These seem to have merged into the Avars whom the Gokturks drove across the Volga River in 558, and who crossed the western steppe and reached Hungary by 567.

At this time the Hephthalites held the Tarim Basin , Fergana, Sogdia, Bactria and Merv, with the Persians at approximately their present border.

In 565, the Hephthalites were defeated at Qarshi and withdrew to Bactria, where fragments of this people remained until the Arab conquest.

In 571 a border was drawn along the Oxus,[15] the Persians expanding east to Afghanistan, and the Turks gaining the Sogdian merchant cities and their control of the Silk Road.

Heshana Khagan (603–611) was driven out of Dzungaria and then defeated by Sheguy (610–617), Tardush's grandson, who conquered the Altai, reconquered Tashkent and raided Ishfahan.

His brother Tong Yabghu Qaghan (618–630) ruled from the Tarim basin to the Caspian Sea, and met Xuanzang.

However, Nushibi quickly rebelled against Sy and enthroned Ashina Nishu as Duolu Khan (633–34), followed by his brother Ishbara Tolis (634–38).

Irbis was overthrown by (Ashina Helu) Ishbara Qaghan (651–58) who, after about six years of war, was defeated at Battle of Irtysh River and captured by the Tang.

Early military conflicts were a result of the Tang interventions in the rivalry between the Western and Eastern Turks in order to weaken both.

The wars against the Western Turks continued under Emperor Gaozong, and the khaganate was annexed after General Su Dingfang's defeat of Qaghan Ashina Helu in 657.

In 679, the Tang general Pei Xingjian led an army as far as Tokharistan, as he was also escorting back to Persia the last Sasanian pretender to the throne, Narsieh.

The imperial court rewarded him the posthumous name Xian (獻) which means "Dedication", as well as the supreme military honorary title Taiwei (太尉).

Indo-European prevalence in Central Asia declined as the expeditions accelerated Turkic migration into what is now Xinjiang.

A Sogdian merchant named Maniakh [de] led a Turco-Sogdian legation to Constantinople in 568, pursuing trade and an alliance against the Avars and Persians.

A Byzantine official named Zemarchus accompanied Maniakh on his return journey; and later left a pioneering account of the Turks.

If trade on this route later increased (uncertain) it would have benefited Khorezm and the Black Sea cities and might have had something to do with the later rise of the Khazars and Rus' people.

A related fact is that the Eastern Turks extracted a large amount of silk as booty from the Chinese, which had to be marketed westward.

The Turks stormed the great fortress of Derbent on the Caspian coast, entered Azerbaijan and Georgia, did a good bit of looting and met Heraclius who was besieging Tiflis.

For the origin of the Onoq two contradicting accounts are given:[30][31] In the beginning [after 552], Shidianmi [Istämi] followed the Shanyu [Qaghan] and commanded the ten great chiefs.

The left (east) faction consisted of five Duoliu tribes, headed by five churs (啜 chuo) separately.

The second statement attributes it to Dielishi, who took over the throne in 635 and began to strengthen the state by further affirming the initial ten tribes and two tribal wings, in contrast with the rotation of rule between the Tumen (through Apa) and Istämi (through Tardu) lineages in the Western Qaghanate.

Syriac and Greek sources (John of Ephesus, Menander Protector) also confirmed that initially, the Western Turkic Khaganate were divided into eight tribes during Istämi's lifetime and at his death.

[40] The ruling elites were divided into two groups and the relationship between the two groups were tense: the more aristocratic Duolu shads held the title churs,[41] and the lower-ranking Nushibi in west were probably initially made up of Tiele conscripts and their shads held the title irkins.

The Chinese delegates (left in the mural) form an embassy to the king of Samarkand, carrying silk and a string of silkworm cocoons.

[50] On Western Turkic coins, "the faces of the governor and governess are clearly mongoloid (a roundish face, narrow eyes), and the portrait have definite old Türk features (long hair, absence of headdress of the governor, a tricorn headdress of the governess)".

: 'earth and water'), which was ruled by our ancestors, not to be left without a ruler, we organized Az people and put them into the order... was Barys bek.

Erected stone inscriptions…[8]Tonyukuk inscription, main side, 19:[56] I reached my army to Shantung towns and the seas.