Formed in 1928 to give Soviet Jews a home territory and to increase settlement along the vulnerable borders of the Soviet Far East, the area was raised to the status of an autonomous region in 1934. The Jewish population peaked in 1948 at about 30,000 (one fourth of the total population). Despite some remaining Yiddish influences—including a Yiddish newspaper—Jewish cultural activity in the region has declined enormously since Stalin's anticosmopolitanism campaigns and since the liberalization of Jewish emigration in the 1970s. Jews now make up less than 2% of the region's population.

Land and People

Inner Mongolia is largely steppe country that becomes increasingly arid toward the Gobi Desert in the west. The climate is continental with cold dry winters and hot summers. Stockraising, mainly of sheep, goats, horses, and camels, is a major occupation; wool, hides, and skins are important exports. Rainfall is scanty, but irrigation makes agriculture possible, and much grazing land has been converted to raising spring wheat. The main farming areas are in the bend of the Huang He (Yellow River) and in the Hohhot plains.

The Mongols of China are concentrated in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, but there has been much Chinese immigration and the Mongols now comprise less than 20% of the population. The Chinese live mostly in the farming areas. Many of the traditionally nomadic Mongols have settled in permanent homes as their pastoral economy was collectivized. Inner Mongolian Univ. is in Hohhot.

Economy

Principal crops are wheat, sorghum, millet, oats, corn, linseed, soybeans, sugar beets, and rice. There are valuable mineral deposits (coal, lignite, iron ore, lead, zinc, and gold), as yet only partially exploited. The region's industries, centered at Baotou, include iron and steel mills and plants producing fertilizer, cement, textiles, and machinery. A railway built in 1958, linking Russia (through Mongolia) with Lanzhou in Gansu prov., passes through Hohhot and Baotou. The Beijing-Ulaanbaatar road traverses the region. Considerable additional road and rail improvements have been made with the vigorous industrialization of Baotou.

History

Originally the southern part of Mongolia, Inner Mongolia was settled chiefly by the Tumet and Chahar tribes. From 1530 to 1583, Inner Mongolia was held by Anda (Altan Khan), chief of the Tumets, who harried N China and once besieged Beijing. After his death, Likdan Khan of the Chahars became (c.1605) ruler, but in 1635 he was defeated by the Manchus, who soon annexed Inner Mongolia. Under Manchu rule S Mongolia became known as Inner Mongolia; N Mongolia, conquered by the Manchus at the end of the 17th cent., became known as Outer Mongolia.

Until 1911, Inner Mongolia was only under nominal Chinese rule; however, Chinese settlers in the region soon forced the Mongol tribes into the steppe and arid parts of the region. After the Revolution of 1911, Inner Mongolia became an integral part of the Chinese Republic. In 1928 it was divided among the Chinese provinces of Ningxia, Suiyuan, and Chahar. After the outbreak (1937) of the Sino-Japanese War, the Mongols of Suiyuan and Chahar established the Japanese-controlled state of Mengkiang or Mengjiang, with its capital at Guihua.

The Chinese Communists, after their conquest of Inner Mongolia in 1945, supported the traditional aspirations of the Mongols for autonomy, and in May, 1947, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region—with limited powers of self-government within the Communist state—was formally proclaimed. It was the first autonomous region established by the Communist government.

From 1949 to 1956 the area of the region was expanded through the incorporation of the former province of Suiyuan and parts of the provinces of Liaobei, Rehe, Chahar, and Gansu. Extensive boundary changes in 1969, however, considerably reduced the size of the province. The W Ala Shan desert region was given to Gansu and Ningxia Autonomous Region, and the northeast corner, which bordered on Russia, was divided between the Manchurian provinces. Hebei prov. also received a section of Inner Mongolia. These border changes were reversed in 1979, and the region was restored to its former size. Hohhot has been the capital since 1952; from 1947 to 1950 the capital was at Ulanhot (Ulan Hoto), and from 1950 to 1952 it was at Zhangjiakou (Kalgan; now in Hebei prov.).

The Evenki are a Tungus-Manchurian-speaking people of Mongol origin; they are scattered throughout Siberia and number about 24,000. Their religion intermingles Russian Orthodox and Lamaist Buddhist rites with indigenous shamanism. In prehistoric times, the Evenki lived around Lake Baykal. They were mostly conquered by Russia in the 17th cent. Under the Soviet government, the Evenki largely abandoned their nomadic existence for a more sedentary life.

Colonized by Greek merchants in the 5th and 4th cent. B.C., the region later came under Roman rule and after the 9th cent. A.D. was part of Georgia. The Turks conquered the area in the late 17th and early 18th cent. and introduced Islam. Acquired by Russia in 1878, the region became an autonomous republic of Georgia in 1921. In 1991 it became an autonomous republic of the newly independent state of Georgia. Subsequently, the region became increasingly independent of the Georgian central government, leading to a crisis (2004) in which Georgia reasserted its supremacy and forced Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze into exile.

Mexican government-financed university in Mexico City, founded in 1551. The original university building, dating from 1584, was demolished in 1910, and the university was moved to a new campus in 1954. Between 1553 and 1867 the university was controlled by the Roman Catholic church. After 1867, independent professional schools of law, medicine, engineering, and architecture were established by the government. The university was given administrative autonomy in 1929. It offers a broad range of programs in all major academic and professional subjects.

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