Abstract:
Since the mid-18th century, a geographical scenery characteristic of farming community and oasis agriculture was taking shape at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains with coming of agricultural immigrants and continuous exploitation of land. Between the mid-18th and the mid-19th century, through unfailing efforts on the part of the Qing government, farming oases expanded rapidly and agricultural communities increased at a great rate. Between the 1760's and the 1770's, under the influence of warfare, farming oases and agricultural communities shrank and declined. Since the 1880's, as the area renewed an age of peaceful development, farming oases and agricultural communities recovered gradually. Up till 1949, a zone of oases scattered parallel horizontally to the Tianshan Mountains lay at the northern foot of the mountains, which laid the foundation for the later development of oasis agriculture.
