After independence, Kyrgyzstan was officially a unitary presidential republic. Following the Tulip Revolution it became a unitary parliamentary republic; however, it gradually developed an executive president and was governed as a semi-presidential republic before reverting to a presidential system in 2021. Throughout its existence, the country has continued to endure ethnic conflicts,[14][15] revolts,[16] economic troubles,[17] transitional governments[18] and political conflict.[19] Kyrgyzstan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Eurasian Economic Union, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organization of Turkic States, the Türksoy community, and the United Nations. It is a developing country ranked 117th in the Human Development Index, and is the second poorest country in Central Asia after neighbouring Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan's transition economy relies mainly on re-exporting Chinese goods and gold production. The country balances its international trade commitments as a World Trade Organization (WTO) member since 1998 with regional integration through the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which it joined in 2015. Etymology[edit] Statue of Manas in Bishkek Kyrgyz is derived from the Turkic word for "We are forty", believed to refer to the forty clans of Manas, a legendary hero who united forty regional clans. The Persian suffix -Stan means "place of".[20] The 40-ray sun on the flag of Kyrgyzstan is a reference to those same forty tribes and the graphical element in the sun's center depicts the wooden crown, called tunduk, of a yurt—a portable dwelling traditionally used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. The country's official name is Kyrgyz Republic, used in international arenas and foreign relations.[21][22] In the English-speaking world, the spelling Kyrgyzstan is commonly used, while its former name Kirghizia[c] is rarely used.[23] History[edit] Main article: History of Kyrgyzstan Early history[edit] Petroglyphs of local sheep, Sary Kamysh The Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 AD.[24] From the tenth century, the Kyrgyz migrated as far as the Tian Shan range and maintained their dominance over this territory for about 200 years. There is a storytelling tradition of the Epic of Manas, which involves a warrior who unified all of the scattered tribes into a single nation in the 9th century. The trilogy, an element of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List, expresses the memory of the nomadic peoples.[25] In the 12th century, the Kyrgyz dominion had shrunk to the Altay Range and Sayan Mountains as a result of the Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth century, the Kyrgyz migrated south. The Kyrgyz peacefully became a part of the Mongol Empire in 1207. Silk road caravansarai used during the Islamic Golden Age Issyk Kul Lake was a stopover on the Silk Road, a land route for traders, merchants, and other travelers from the Far East to Europe. Kyrgyz tribes were overrun in the 17th century by the Mongols, in the mid-18th century by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China, and in the early 19th century by the Uzbek Khanate of Kokand.[26] In 1842, the Kyrgyz tribes broke away from Kokand and united into the Kara-Kyrgyz Khanate [ky], led by Ormon Khan. Following Ormon's death in 1854, the khanate disintegrated.[27] Russian conquest[edit] In the late nineteenth century, the eastern part of what is today Kyrgyzstan, mainly the Issyk-Kul Region, was ceded to the Russian Empire by Qing China through the Treaty of Tarbagatai.[28] The territory, then known in Russian as "Kirghizia", was formally incorporated into the Empire in 1876. The Russian takeover was met with numerous revolts, and many of the Kyrgyz opted to relocate to the Pamir Mountains and Afghanistan. In addition, the suppression of the 1916 rebellion against Russian rule in Central Asia caused many Kyrgyz later to migrate to China.[29] Since many ethnic groups in the region were, and still are, split between neighboring states at a time when borders were more porous and less regulated, it was common to move back and forth over the mountains, depending on where life was perceived as better; this might mean better rains for pasture or better government during oppression. Soviet Kyrgyzstan[edit] Soviet power was initially established in the region in 1919, and the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was created within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR). The phrase Kara-Kirghiz was used until the mid-1920s by the Russians to distinguish them from the Kazakhs, who were also referred to as Kirghiz. On 5 December 1936, the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic was established as a constituent Union Republic of the Soviet Union.[d] After the Russian Civil War, the period of the New Economic Policy (NEP), began, which lasted roughly to 1928.[31] The Bolsheviks made an effort to establish a standardized tax system, with higher taxes for nomads to discourage the wandering livelihood and they divided the Central Asia region into five nation-states.[31][32][33] Kyrgyzstan developed considerably in cultural, educational, and social life, literacy was greatly improved. Economic and social development also was notable.[34] Under Stalin a great focus was put on Kyrgyz national identity. The Soviet state was fighting tribalism: its social organization based on patrilineal kinship contradicted the concept of the modern nation state.[32][34] In a region that did not previously know national institutions or consciousness, the process of nation-building was, from the indigenous perspective, a difficult and ambivalent one.[33] By the end of the 1920s, the Soviet Union developed a series of five-year plans, centered around industrialization and the collectivization of agriculture, including the creation of huge "kolkhoz" collective farming systems, needed to feed the new workers in the industries.[35] Because of the plan's reliance on rapidity, major economic and cultural changes had to occur, which led to conflicts. In Kyrgyzstan, Russian settlers acquired the best pasture land, creating much hardship for most of its original inhabitants, Kazakh,