Kazakhstan, the largest country fully within the Eurasian Steppe, has been a historical crossroads and home to numerous different peoples, states and empires throughout history. Throughout history, peoples on the territory of modern Kazakhstan had nomadic lifestyle, which developed and influenced Kazakh culture.

Human activity in the region began with the extinct Homo erectus one million–800,000 years ago in the Karatau Mountains and the Caspian and Balkhash areas. Neanderthals were present from 140,000 to 40,000 years ago in the Karatau Mountains and central Kazakhstan. Modern Homo sapiens appeared from 40,000 to 12,000 years ago in southern, central and eastern Kazakhstan. After the end of the last glacial period (12,500 to 5,000 years ago) human settlement spread across the country and led to the extinction of the mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros. Hunter-gatherer communes invented bows and boats and used domesticated wolves and traps for hunting.^{[citation needed]}

The Neolithic Revolution was marked by the appearance of animal husbandry and agriculture, giving rise to the Atbasar, Kelteminar, Botai, and Ust-Narym cultures. The Botai culture (3600–3100 BC) is credited with the first domestication of horses, and ceramics and polished-stone tools also appeared during this period. The fourth and third millennia witnessed the beginning of metal production, the manufacture of copper tools and the use of casting molds. In the second millennium BC ore mining developed in central Kazakhstan.

The change in climate forced the massive relocation of populations in and out of the steppe belt. The dry period that lasted from the end of the second millennium to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC caused the depopulation of the arid belts and river-valley oasis areas, the populations moving north to the forest steppe.

After the end of the arid period at the beginning of the first millennium BC nomadic populations migrated into Kazakhstan from the west and the east, repopulating abandoned areas. They included several Indo-Iranians, often known collectively as the Saka.

In the 13th century, the region of modern-day Kazakhstan was part of the Mongol Empire and later controlled by the Golden Horde. After the Horde's decline, the region became part of the Uzbek Khanate, whose nomads were collectively known as Uzbeks due to their conversion to Islam under Uzbeg Khan (1313–1341). This group, including the founders of the Kazakh Khanate, arose from the merging of Mongols and Turkic peoples in the Kipchak Steppe. In the 1450s, Zhanibek Khan and Kerey Khan, two Jochid princes, broke away from the Uzbek Khanate and established the Kazakh Khanate. The Kazakh identity emerged when the eastern nomads of the Kipchak Steppe split into Kazakhs and Shibanid Uzbeks in the early 16th century. The Kazakhs, like other Chinggisid peoples such as the Shibanid Uzbeks, Crimean Tatars, and Mangyt/Nogais, shared a common Turkic language, Mongol traditions, Chinggisid royal lineage, and Sunni Islam. By the 16th century, the Kazakhs had asserted their independence and expanded their territory, transforming their khanate into a nomadic empire. The Kazakh Khanate reached its peak in the 16th century, controlling vast parts of the Qipchaq steppe and was the last remaining Chinggisid state.

During the reign of the three sons of Kasym Khan, the authority of the khan weakened somewhat, leading to the eventual fragmentation of the Kazakh Khanate into three distinct "hordes": the Great Horde in southeastern Kazakhstan north of the Tien Shan, the Middle Horde in the central steppe near the Aral Sea, and the Little Horde between the Aral Sea and the Ural River. In these regions, the khan’s power was often constrained by tribal leaders, known as sultans, and even more so by the beys and batyrs, heads of the clan-based communities. Although the khans nominally commanded a formidable military, their authority relied heavily on the loyalty of these local leaders.

The final son of Kasym Khan to rule, Haqnazar, overcame these challenges, reunited the three hordes, and expanded his power beyond the steppes. He brought under his control not only the Kazakh hordes but also the Bashkirs, Kyrgyzes and Nogais, as well as territories such as the Kazan, Siberian, and Astrakhan khanates, and cities like Bukhara, Khiva, and Tashkent. According to Rychkov, Haqnazar’s reign was marked by a brutal consolidation of power, where he exploited the instability of neighboring peoples, imposed heavy tributes, and severely restricted their movements and resources. He limited them to a single cooking pot per three households, confiscated livestock, goods, and even children, and prohibited land ownership and movement across certain rivers. These actions rendered these peoples impoverished and submissive, but they also strengthened his dominion across the region.