In the past, the Buryats were linked and related to the Mongols. It is because of the close distance and trade with each other. They also share a similar culture. Because of this the Buryats were ruled by the Mongols many times. The Xiongnu Empire (209 BC-93 CE), Kublai Khan's Mongol Empire (1206-1368) and the Northern Yuan Empire (1368-1691), were examples when the Buryats were ruled by the Mongols. Other Mongol tribes also lived in Buryatia during that time too. The Russians, who were Europeans, first arrived in the area of the present-day Buryatia during the 17th century. They came because they were looking for furs and gold. Later during the 1920s, the area was affected by the violence of the Russian Civil War. In 1923, the Buryat-Mongolian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed at the end of the civil war to put in place a proper rule. The area changed size and name many times while it was in the Soviet Union. The Buryat ASSR started controlling itself in 1990. This was when the Soviet Union collapsed and Buryatia took on the name Republic of Buryatia in 1992. However, it continued to be a republic in Russia.