evidence: The Fergana Valley is an important corner of the world, located on the trade routes between empires. The Naryn and Kara Darya Rivers join in the center of the Fergana Valley to form the Syr Darya, which irrigates the valley and supports farming and agriculture. Transportation can be difficult throughout the region because of the intersecting borders and enclaves of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which sometimes bisect roads and routes. [...] The Fergana Valley became part of Russian Turkestan in 1876, at which time intensive cotton farming was started in the region. In the 1920s, Turkestan was divided into the five republics that exist in Central Asia today, and Fergana Valley was divided between Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Being an ethnically diverse region, lots of populations were left outside their titular republics (such as Uzbeks who ended up on the Kyrgyzstan side of the border), though this wasn’t a big deal as long as all the republics were part of the Soviet Union. People and goods could easily move across the borders, and transportation through the valley and around mountains was relatively simple.