 In the 17th century the Dzungar Khanate, formed by the Mongol Oirat people, became Russia's southern neighbor, and controlled the upper Irtysh.As a result of Russia's confrontation with the Dzungars in the Peter the Great's era, the Russians founded the cities of Omsk in 1716, Semipalatinsk in 1718, Ust-Kamenogorsk in 1720, and Petropavlovsk in 1752.The Chinese Qing Empire conquered Dzungaria in the 1750s.