The movements and activities of nomadic cultures have exerted a profound effect upon the course of history in the Old World. In particular, the nomads of Central Asia played a key role in the spread of ideas, goods, and innovations between East and West.

Nomads have lived on the steppes of Eurasia, from the northern shores of the Black Sea eastward to Mongolia, for the past 3,000 years. Since the early first millennium BCE, many of the nomadic groups of Central Asia were dependent upon the raising and herding of various types of animals, such as horses, sheep, camels, and, to a lesser extent, cattle. Because of the drier climatic conditions in Central Asia, these peoples had to move from place to place in order to provide adequate grazing and water resources for their animals. These migrations were often seasonal in character, as the herds were moved from summer to winter pastures, and vice versa.

Archaeology has shown that this pattern of migratory herding is not, in fact, humankind’s oldest occupation. It appears that this style of nomadism was preceded by a more complex way of life based on a combination of livestock raising and agriculture. This resulted in a more sedentary form of society. But starting in the third millennium BCE, the climate became increasingly arid. This brought about an increase in both grassy steppe land and semi desert territory throughout Central Asia. These regions could not be used as effectively for agriculture. For the most part, they could only support the grazing of livestock. Thus, the peoples of Central Asia learned to adapt as their environment changed over time. Except in lusher oasis areas, they gradually turned from a sedentary existence to a nomadic one, leading their herds to pasture and water.

These nomadic groups, such as the earlier Scythians and the later Turks and Mongols, tended to possess a strong social order founded on the idea of kinship. The individual existed as part of a group of blood relations, or a "clan." The clan, in turn, was part of a group of more distantly related communities, which made up a tribe. The larger tribal group provided a reasonably reliable basis of defence against the predations of enemies. Two major classes existed within the nomadic social order: the aristocracy and the common people. The aristocracy did not necessarily possess any real constituted power; but its ranks did often give rise to charismatic leaders who managed to exert themselves over fellow tribesmen, neighbouring tribes, and neighbouring peoples. A good example is provided by the rise of the Mongol warrior, Timujin, during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries CE. Timujin eventually forged an empire stretching across Central Asia, which he ruled under the title of Genghis Khan.

Virtues which were commonly prized among Central Asian nomads included hospitality, respect for elders, care for children, generosity to kinsmen, and skill in battle. Nomadic groups often produced exceptional warriors, since the skills of riding horses and wielding weapons were taught from childhood. Such equestrian skill and martial prowess, when managed under a system of strict discipline imposed by military leaders, produced forces of truly formidable cavalry. This military power allowed nomads to supplement their pastoral way of life with the plundered or extorted goods of more sedentary and less militant neighbours. As the power of a nomadic group increased, expansion through conquest became an increasingly viable option. Groups such as the Huns and the Mongols became powerful enough to pose a serious threat to the stability of China. The attacks of the Huns prompted Chinese Emperor Chin-Shi-Hwang-Ti to begin construction of the Great Wall during the third century BCE. The Mongols would enjoy greater success, as they managed to subdue most of China by the 1270s CE. In the West during the Middle Ages, the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks conquered much of the Middle East, Asia Minor, and parts of southeastern Europe.

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It is not surprising, therefore, that many sedentary peoples in cities, villages, and oases saw the nomads as barbarians who were capable of little except inducing terror and spreading destruction. But peaceful relations between nomads and sedentary peoples were, in actuality, quite frequent. Trading relationships developed between the two groups ever since the advent of nomadism. Nomads would frequently exchange livestock and animal products such as leather, for the grain and manufactured products of settled people. Sometimes powerful settled groups were able to exert power over their nomadic neighbours and sometimes the reverse was the case. When a nomadic group did manage to establish hegemony over a wide region, its leaders often quickly recognised the value of sedentary settlement in order to consolidate their rule. So the nomads, too, had their towns and cities that served as administrative and commercial centres. Nomadic and sedentary lifestyles became progressively intermingled in such communities. But if their administrative system and centre of military power began to break down, the nomads would frequently abandon the towns and cities that they had conquered or constructed themselves, and return to their pastoral traditions. On the other hand, some nomadic groups mixed with indigenous sedentary populations and became settled themselves. Such was the case with the Ottomans.

The Middle Ages saw the last great flowering of nomadic power, and of nomadic life in general, throughout Central Asia. The nomadic groups of Central Asia became increasingly weakened by internal dissension and predatory warfare. By the end of the seventeenth century, the Manchu rulers of China had established dominion over the nomad-state of Mongolia, and during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, sedentary societies in the West had advanced to a technological state that far outstripped the capabilities of nomadic tribes to compete. By the twentieth century, nomadism came to exist more as a cultural identity than as an alternative socio-economic way of life.

The contributions of nomadic societies to the development of the Old World cannot be ignored. Because of their close ties with their animals and the mobile nature of their lifestyle, Asian nomads furthered the development of horse harnessing and produced improved rigid saddles. The stirrup, a vital item of equipment for achieving stability when riding a horse, is also thought by some scholars to have been developed by the nomads of Central Asia. While others trace the origins of the stirrup to India or even China, it seems reasonably clear that the movements of nomadic groups aided greatly in the spread of its use, particularly to Europe. Central Asian nomads developed improved weapons such as the curved saber and the compound bow. They invented various kinds of moveable dwellings, such as collapsible yurts or frame houses on wheels. Trousers, as an item of clothing, were a nomadic innovation and their invention of the bowed string musical instrument represents a major contribution to music, which in the West led to the development of the fiddle. In their discovery of new ways to process milk products, nomadic groups came up with yogurt. The movements of nomads also helped spread ideas and religious thought over wide areas. Buddhism and Islam are two faiths whose diffusion throughout parts of the Old World owed much to their adoption by certain nomadic groups. Nomadic societies became a dynamic link between widely separated sedentary civilisations, and they played a great part in drawing together the different regions of the Old World.