Page | 28the 1680s, the Oirat tribes in the west, under the leadership of Galdan Khan, attacked the
weakened Khalkha. The Khalkha leaders turned to the Manchus for military assistance.
Using artillery, the Manchu forces quickly beat back the Oirat attack. A subsequent 1691
treaty signed by the Khalkha nobles formalized the Manchus’ overlordship of the
Khalkha lands.^142 The Oirat tribes continued to resist, but by 1759 all of modern-day
Mongolia was part of the Qing Dynasty (the Chinese dynastical name for the Manchu
Empire).^143
The Manchu rulers treated southern Mongolia and northern Mongolia differently.
Southern (Inner) Mongolia virtually became a part of China. Northern (Outer) Mongolia,
essentially equivalent to the modern-day country of Mongolia, received much less
administrative attention. This situation changed to some extent in the 19th century, when
Russian expansionist actions caused the Qing emperor to take a more active role in the
social and economic development of the northern Mongolian region. Chinese settlers
soon began to pour into Outer Mongolia as part of a colonization policy.
(^144) Meanwhile,
Mongol tribes known collectively as the Buryats continued to reside on the northern
Mongolian border in lands under Russian control. Thus, Outer Mongolia became a buffer
region lodged between two great imperial powers, a state of affairs that loomed large in
the coming history.^145
(^142) Robert L. Worden, “Chapter 1: Historical Setting: Mongolia in Transition, 1368–1911: End of
Independence,” in Mongolia: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1991), 33.
(^143) Encyclopædia Britannica Online, “Mongolia: History: The Ascendancy of the Manchu,” Owen
Lattimore, 2011, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/389335/Mongolia/27423/Internecine-strife
(^144) Larry Moses and Stephen A. Halkovic, Jr., “Chapter 7: Twentieth Century Mongolia,” in Introduction to
Mongolian History and Culture (Bloomington, IN: Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, Indiana
University, 1985), 143.
(^145) Robert L. Worden, “Chapter 1: Historical Setting: Mongolia in Transition, 1368–1911: End of
Independence,” in Mongolia: A Country Study, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1991), 37.