The Kyrgyz are descendants of the nomadic Mongol herders who first settled the area. -The Kyrgyz settled in today's Kyrgyzstan by the sixteenth century. -By 1876, the Russian empire had annexed and colonized the region. -After 1936 an autonomous region of Turkestan Republic became the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic. -In August 1991, it declared independence in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt in Moscow.