Tartary

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Tartary, also called Tartaria or Tatary, was an old European name for a huge part of Asia. Europeans used the word from about the 13th to the 19th century to describe lands north of the Caspian Sea, east to the Pacific, and up toward the northern edges of China, India, and Persia. It did not refer to real kingdoms or peoples.

In European maps and writings, Tartary was a catch‑all name for Central Asia. The people living there were called Tartars. As explorers learned more about the world, historians began to divide Tartary into regions like Great Tartary (Siberia), Little Tartary (the Crimean Khanate), Chinese Tartary (Manchuria), and Independent Tartary (parts of western Central Asia). By the 17th century, the term started to shift, and “Tartar” came to refer more to the Manchu people and their lands.

Over time, as geography improved, Europeans started using more precise names such as Siberia, Central Asia, and Inner Asia. The word Tartary faded, though it influenced some writings and place‑name choices for a while. Today, the area is understood as Central Asia and Siberia, a region with mostly dry plains and a long history of nomadic herding.

Some modern conspiracy theories claim Tartary was a lost, advanced “Tartarian Empire.” These ideas mix up the old name with myths and ignore well‑documented history. Tartary was simply an old European label for a large part of Asia, not a separate empire.