Sayyid Muhammad Rahim Bahadur II (c. 1847–1910) was Khan of Khiva from 1864 to 1910, succeeding his father Sayyid Muhammad Khan. Khiva was turned into a Russian protectorate during his rule, in 1873. The reign of Muhammad Rahim II marked the peak of a cultural revival, during which "more than a hundred works were translated, mostly from Persian into Chagatai Turkic." Muhammad Rahim II introduced printing to Khiva in 1874. He was also "a munificent patron" and wrote poetry under the pen name Feruz. In 1864, after the death of his father, Said Muhammad Khan, Muhammad Rahim Khan II came to power. He was an educated ruler; in his youth he studied at the Arab Muhammad Khan madrasah in Khiva. One of his teachers was the outstanding Uzbek poet and historian Agahi. During the reign of Muhammad Rahim Khan II, diplomatic relations were maintained with Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Iran, and Afghanistan. Muhammad Rahim Khan II was the last independent khan of Khorezm. In 1873, despite resistance, the Khanate found itself under Russian protectorate. From 1896 lieutenant general, from 1904 cavalry general. Emperor Nicholas II in 1902 bestowed the title of “Serenemy” on the khan.

The Khiva army always consisted of one cavalry - mounted militias of the Uzbek and Turkmen tribes. This nuance deprived the Khiva army of the opportunity to conduct military operations using methods other than a clash in an open field. Only sometimes dismounted cavalry could set up ambushes, but the Khivans were not capable of storming enemy fortifications. However, in horse battles, the Turkmen cavalry of the Khiva khans showed itself to be very effective. Turkmen horsemen, as noted by the authors of that time, moved very quickly, being excellent riders and shooters. In addition to the Turkmen and Uzbek cavalry, the Khiva Khanate also had its own artillery, although very small in number. In the khan's capital, Khiva, there were seven artillery pieces, which, according to the description of contemporaries, were in unsatisfactory condition. The Khiva Khan was assigned to the Orenburg Cossack troops. However, despite the fact that some representatives of the Khiva nobility were listed as officers of the Russian imperial army, the situation with the organization of the armed forces in the Khanate was much worse than in the neighboring Bukhara Emirate. Unlike the Bukhara Emirate, a regular army was never created in Khiva. This was explained, among other things, by the fact that the nomadic tribes that formed the basis of the Khiva army were extremely alien to conscription and permanent military service. The Turkmen horsemen, distinguished by their great personal courage and individual skills as excellent horsemen and shooters, were not suited for the everyday rigors of military service. It was not possible to create regular military units from them.

The Khanate of Khiva was a Central Asian polity that existed in the historical region of Khwarezm in Central Asia from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Afsharid occupation by Nader Shah between 1740 and 1746. Centred in the irrigated plains of the lower Amu Darya, south of the Aral Sea, with the capital in the city of Khiva. It covered present-day western Uzbekistan, southwestern Kazakhstan and much of Turkmenistan before the Russian arrival at the second half of the 19th century. In 1873, the Khanate of Khiva was greatly reduced in size and became a Russian protectorate. The other regional protectorate that lasted until the Revolution was the Emirate of Bukhara. A permanent Russian presence on the Aral Sea began in 1848 with the building of Fort Aralsk at the mouth of the Syr Darya. The Empire's military superiority was such that Khiva and the other Central Asian principalities, Bukhara and Kokand, had no chance of repelling the Russian advance, despite years of fighting. In 1873, after Russia conquered the great cities of Tashkent and Samarkand, General Von Kaufman launched an attack on Khiva consisting 

of 13,000 infantry and cavalry. The city of Khiva fell on 10 June 1873 and, on 12 August 1873, a peace treaty was signed that established Khiva as a quasi-independent Russian protectorate. After the conquest of what is now Turkmenistan (1884) the protectorates of Khiva and Bukhara were surrounded by Russian territory.