Timeline: Uzbekistan

A chronology of key events

1st century BC - Central Asia, including present-day Uzbekistan, forms an important part of the overland trade routes known as the Great Silk Road linking China with the Middle East and imperial Rome.

Bukhara: Centre of Islamic culture on the Silk Road 2000: UN plans 'virtual Silk Road'

7th-8th centuries - Arabs conquer Uzbekistan and introduce Islam.

9th-10th centuries - Persian Samanid dynasty becomes dominant and develops Bukhara as important centre of Islamic culture. As it declines, Turkic hordes compete to fill the vacuum.

13th-14th centuries - Uzbekistan and the rest of Central Asia conquered by Genghis Khan and becomes part of Mongol empire.

14th century - Uzbekistan part of Turkic ruler Tamerlane's empire with Samarkand as its capital.

18th-19th centuries Uzbekistan comes under independent emirates and khanates of Bukhara, Kokand and Samarkand.

Russian influence

1865-76 - Russians take Tashkent and make it capital of Turkestan, incorporating vast areas of Central Asia. They also annex emirate of Bukhara and khanates of Samarkand, Khiva and Kokand.

1917 - Tashkent soviet established following Bolshevik revolution in Russia.

1920 - Tashkent soviet ousts emir of Bukhara and other khans.

1918-22 - New communist rulers close down mosques and persecute Muslim clergy as part of secularization campaign.

1921 - Uzbekistan becomes part of Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR).

1924 - Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) formed from territories of the Turkestan ASSR, the Bukharan People's Soviet Republic and the Khorezmian People's Soviet Republic; Uzbekistan becomes part of the USSR.

Resettlement of minorities

1930s - Uzbek capital transferred from Samarkand to Tashkent.

Market in Samarkand, resting place of Tamerlane the Great 2000: Uzbekistan restores Timurid legacy

1944 - Some 160,000 Meskhetian Turks deported from Georgia to Uzbekistan by Joseph Stalin.

1950s-80s - Cotton production boosted by major irrigation projects which, however, contribute to the drying up of the Aral Sea.

Late 1980s - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or openness, opens the way to increased Islamic consciousness.

1989 - Islam Karimov becomes leader of Uzbek Communist Party.

Violent attacks take place against Meskhetian Turks and other minorities in the Fergana Valley. Nationalist movement Birlik founded.

Independence

1990 - Communist Party of Uzbekistan declares economic and political sovereignty. Islam Karimov becomes president.

Tashkent was rebuilt after an earthquake in 1966 Tashkent population: 2.1 million Conquered by Arabs in 8th century Captured by Russians in 1865 Capital of Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic from 1930

1991 - Karimov initially supports the attempted anti-Gorbachev coup by conservatives in Moscow. Uzbekistan declares itself independent and, following the collapse of the USSR, joins the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Karimov returned as president in direct elections in which few opposition groups are allowed to field candidates.

1992 - President Karimov bans the Birlik (Unity) and Erk (Freedom) parties. Members of the opposition are arrested in large numbers for alleged anti-state activities.

1994 - Uzbekistan signs an economic integration treaty with Russia, and an economic, military and social cooperation treaty with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1995 - Activists from the outlawed opposition party Erk are jailed for allegedly conspiring to oust the government.

Ruling People's Democratic Party - formerly the Communist Party of Uzbekistan - wins general election.

Referendum extends Karimov's term of office for another five years.

Cotton, sheep farming, oil and gas are mainstays of the economy

1996 - Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan agree to create a single economic market.

1999 - Bombs in Tashkent kill more than a dozen people. President blames "fanatics" from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

IMU declares "jihad" and demands the resignation of the Uzbek leadership.

Operating from mountain hideouts, IMU fighters launch first in several-year series of summer skirmishes with government forces.

2000 - Karimov re-elected president in election deemed by Western observers to be neither free nor fair.

US-based Human Rights Watch accuses Uzbekistan of widespread use of torture.

2001 June - Some 70 people are jailed for terrorism following cross-border incursions in the south by Islamic militants in 2000.

Media outlets are tightly controlled; self-censorship is common

Uzbekistan, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan launch Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), formed to tackle ethnic and religious militancy and to promote trade, investment.

2001 October - Uzbekistan allows US to use its air bases for action in Afghanistan.

2002 January - President Karimov wins support for extending the presidential term from five to seven years in a referendum criticised as a ploy to hang on to power.

2002 March - President Karimov visits US. Strategic partnership agreement signed.

2002 August - IMU military leader Juma Namangoniy reported killed.

2002 September - Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan settle a long-standing border dispute.

2003 May - Tashkent hosts annual meeting of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development which expresses disappointment at President Karimov's failure to condemn torture.

Banned Birlik movement hold congress openly for first time in a decade.

2003 June - Erk opposition party holds first formal meeting since it was banned 11 years previously.

2003 December - President Karimov sacks long-standing prime minister Otkir Sultanov, citing country's poorest-ever cotton harvest. Shavkat Mirziyayev replaces him.

Civil unrest

2004 March - At least 47 people killed in shootings and bombings. Authorities blame Islamic extremists. Several dozen people are given lengthy jail sentences.

Rights groups say hundreds were killed by troops in Andijan 2006: Outlook bleak in wake of Andijan How the Andijan killings unfolded Analysis: Uzbekistan's "Islamists"

2004 April - European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says it is to slash aid because of Uzbekistan's poor record on economic reform and human rights.

2004 July - Suicide bombers target US and Israeli embassies in Tashkent; third blast hits general prosecutor's office.

2004 November - Restrictions on trading practices spark civil disorder in eastern city of Kokand. Thousands of people are reported to have taken part in street protests.

Turkmen and Uzbek presidents sign friendship declaration, agreement on water resources.

2004 December - Parliamentary elections: Opposition parties are barred from taking part.

Andijan killings

2005 May - Eastern city of Andijan is gripped by unrest. Gunmen storm prison and release inmates, some of whom had been accused of Islamic militancy. Troops open fire on demonstrators. Eyewitnesses report deaths of hundreds of protesters. Government puts overall toll at more than 180.

2005 August - Upper house of parliament votes to evict US forces from air base at Khanabad used for the campaign in Afghanistan.

Outside observers say the Andijan trial was stage-managed 2005: 'Show trial' fails to convince 2005: US condemns trial verdicts

2005 November - Supreme Court convicts 15 men of having organised Andijan unrest and jails them for 14-20 years.

Agreement signed on closer military cooperation with Russia.

2006 March - Sanjar Umarov, head of the Sunshine Uzbekistan opposition movement, is jailed for 11 years - later reduced to eight - for economic crimes. The group had criticised the Andijan crackdown and had urged economic reform.

Rights activist Mukhtabar Tojibayeva, a critic of the Andijan crackdown, is jailed for eight years for economic crimes.

2007 January - President Karimov's seven-year term expires.

2007 August - EU eases the sanctions imposed following the crushing of the Andijan unrest, but emphasises its concerns about Uzbek human rights.

2007 December - Islam Karimov gains another term following presidential elections condemned as a sham by opponents.

2008 March - Uzbekistan allows US limited use of its southern Termez air base for operations in Afghanistan, partially reversing its decision to expel US forces from the Khanabad base in 2005.

2008 July - Representative of Human Rights Watch organisation Igor Vorontsov expelled.

2008 October - EU further eases sanctions imposed in response to the 2005 Andijan violence.

2009 February - Court sentences five contributors to an Islamic religious newspaper to jail on charges of inciting religious extremism. Paper closed in 2008 on suspicion of involvement with Turkish Islamic Nurcular movement.

President Karimov confirms that the US will be allowed to transport supplies through Uzbekistan to troops in Afghanistan.

2009 August - Uzbekistan criticises Russian plans to set up a base in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, saying it could destabilise the region.