This eastern region was occupied in the 17th century by the Annamese, who in the 18th century absorbed the western provinces.
To meet the invader the great king had in Asia Minor an army slightly larger, it would seem, than Alexander's, gathered under the satraps of the western provinces at Zeleia.
It is heard of first as the residence of Asoka (afterwards emperor), when viceroy of, the western provinces.
The only good highways of any considerable length in 1908 were in the two western provinces and in the vicinity of Santiago.
Again war all but broke out; but, through the intervention of France, a treaty of partition was signed at Constantinople on the 23rd of June 1724, whereby the shores of the Caspian from the junction of the Kur and the Arras (Araxes) northwards should belong to Russia, while the western provinces of Persia should fall to the share of Turkey.
