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Kasim (or Qasym Khan) ruled the Kazakh Khanate from around 1511-1523 (I've seen varying dates, part of the confusion seems to come from the fact that he was the main power behind the throne for about a decade prior to becoming Khan), and under his reign the Khanate reached it peak. The Kazakhs broke from the Uzbeks in the mid fifteenth century, the Uzbeks at that time being a mixed group of Turkic-Mongolian peoples who emerged out of the collapse of the Golden Horde. Under Kasim, the Khanate reached its peak of military and diplomatic influence, controlling much of modern Kazakhstan and very much a counterweight to the Uzbek Shaybanids to its south. It was during Kasim's reign however that the three Kazakh Hordes would emerge -the Great, Middle and Small Hordes,- which while origianlly geographic-military divisions, increasingly took on greater autonomy over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, weakening the internal unity of the Kazakhs while new threats rose from the east -the Oirats- and from the west -the Russian Empire. Over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Kazakhs lost their independence to the Russian Empire, but successfully maintained much of their nomadic heritage, and memories of their Khanate.

To learn more about the origins of the Kazakhs from the ruin of the Golden Horde, check out my video on the topic: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mXVju…

Description
Kasim (or Qasym Khan) ruled the Kazakh Khanate from around 1511-1523 (I've seen varying dates, part of the confusion seems to come from the fact that he was the main power behind the throne for about a decade prior to becoming Khan), and under his reign the Khanate reached it peak. The Kazakhs broke from the Uzbeks in the mid fifteenth century, the Uzbeks at that time being a mixed group of Turkic-Mongolian peoples who emerged out of the collapse of the Golden Horde. Under Kasim, the Khanate reached its peak of military and diplomatic influence, controlling much of modern Kazakhstan and very much a counterweight to the Uzbek Shaybanids to its south. It was during Kasim's reign however that the three Kazakh Hordes would emerge -the Great, Middle and Small Hordes,- which while origianlly geographic-military divisions, increasingly took on greater autonomy over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, weakening the internal unity of the Kazakhs while new threats rose from the east -the Oirats- and from the west -the Russian Empire. Over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Kazakhs lost their independence to the Russian Empire, but successfully maintained much of their nomadic heritage, and memories of their Khanate.

To learn more about the origins of the Kazakhs from the ruin of the Golden Horde, check out my video on the topic: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mXVju…