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                             History From Silk to Oil: Cross Cultural Connections along the Silk Roads
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Uzbekistan is one of the five Central Asian republics which gained their independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the bigger republics, it has the largest population at around 25 million and growing. The only Central Asian Republic bordering all the other 4, it sees itself as the leader and unifier of the region. It is home to parts of the ancient Silk Road between China and the West and contains three of its most prominent trading cities: Bukhara, Khiva, and Samarkand. While it has a booming economy, based on agriculture and natural resources, especially gold and natural gas, it shares with Kazakhstan the problems of the drying up of the Aral Sea with its attendant health and environmental difficulties. It has a stable government and the most foreign investment of any of the republics. For more information on Uzbekistan, please click on the above buttons.