Golden Horde
In Eurasia in the 13th century, Mongolia was invincible and invincible. After the first Western Expedition of Mongolia, Genghis Khan personally planned the "Uluth" of his four sons, and the four major Mongol Khanates began to take shape. Among them, the primogeniture has a vast territory from the Irtysh River in the east, the Danube River in the west, the Caucasus Mountains in the south, and the Arctic Circle in the north.
In 1236, Batu, the son of Shuchi, commanded the "Eldest Son Army" for the Second Western Expedition. In just a few years, the Mongol army conquered the Kingdom of Bulgar in the Caspian Sea, the Chincha Steppe, the Crimea and volga rivers to the vast areas of the Dnieper River, and all the Slavic tribes of the Eastern European Plain, including Kievan Rus', were wiped out.
In 1242, Batu returned to the Volga River after the western expedition and established the Khanate of Chincha on the territory he had laid, because the great tent of Batu used a golden roof, also known as the Golden Horde, which was the most extensive of the four khanates. Of course, the Rus' principalities became vassals of the Khanate of Chincha, and the Muscovite principality had not yet emerged.
By the end of the 14th century, the Chincha Khanate began to decline, and Khwarazm, Crimea, and others were separated one after another, and at the same time they were invaded by the Timurid Empire that rose up in Central Asia. In the 15th century, the Chincha Khanate was divided into independent states such as the Siberian Khanate, the Kazan Khanate, the Crimean Khanate, and the Astrakhan Khanate.
Principality of Moscow
The vast Khanate of Chincha was fragmented, and on its remaining territory, the newly formed Great Horde claimed to succeed the Golden Horde as the orthodox Khan.
At that time, the Muscovite Principality to the north of it was quietly rising, and the Crimean Khanate to the south was eyeing the tiger, and the "orthodox" Great Horde did not expect that it was about to be destroyed by these two former subordinates.
In 1478, Ivan III announced that he would stop paying tribute to the Golden Horde, and Ahmad Khan immediately sent troops to attack the Muscovite Principality to force his tribute. Ivan III, who was adept at maneuvering, formed an alliance with the Crimean Khanate, and the Grand Duke knew that behind the Crimean Khanate was the mighty Ottoman Empire.
In 1480, Akhma Khan retreated from the confrontation on the Ugra River, Ivan III was victorious, and the Muscovite Principality was finally freed from Mongol control. Although independent, the hundred-legged worm died but did not stiffen, and on the ruins of the Golden Horde rose a crimean khanate, the "Whip of the Ottoman Empire" that later brought countless nightmares to the Russians.
The Crimean Khanate eventually conquered Sarai and sent the Golden Horde to the grave of history. However, for Russia, the threat is still there, how to completely get out of the shadows and develop independently into an Eastern European power? Whether it was the later Grand Duke of Muscovy or the Tsar of the Russian Empire, this would be the goal of their struggle.
After the fall of the Chincha Khanate, the Muscovite Principality occupied the banks of the Kama River and the Ural region in the early 16th century, and Ivan the Terrible appeared at this important historical turning point for the Russian nation.
Ivan the Terrible
Because his mother was a descendant of the Great Khan of the Golden Horde, Ivan IV inherited the Mongol nature of territorial expansion, and this cruel and ruthless Grand Duke aspired to establish the "Third Rome" dominated by the Russian nation.
Whether it was because of lightning and thunder at birth, or because of the scepter that killed his own son and carried out a brutal purge, the first Tsar received the resounding title of Ivan the Terrible.
In terms of territorial expansion, Ivan IV laid a solid foundation for the vast Russian Empire, and its exploits were not inferior to those of the later Peter the Great and Catherine the Great.
Kazan Khanate
The Kazan Khanate was destroyed during an expedition of 1547-1552, and russia surpassed the Mongols militarily from then on. The capture of Kazan was an important turning point in Russia's history, not only did the territory push eastward, but the Mongols no longer became a threat.
Khanate of Astrakhan
In 1556, the annexation of the Astrakhan Khanate, and then the Annexation of the Great Nogai Khanate and Bashkirya, brought many peoples of the North Caucasus to Russia, and Russia began to become a multi-ethnic state during the reign of Ivan IV.
Siberian Khanate
After the destruction of the Kazan Khanate, Russia crossed the Ural Mountains into the vast territory of Siberia. By 1557, the Siberian Khanate was also subordinate to Ivan IV, and in 1579 it was completely occupied.
Crimean Khanate
In 1572, Ivan IV's army defeated the Crimean Khanate at the Battle of Molody. As the supporter of the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, which spanned the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, was at its peak.
The battle not only dealt a head-on blow to the Crimean Khanate, but also foiled the Ottoman Empire's attempt to rule Russia and even all of Eastern Europe.
Compared with the West, the southeast direction has never been the main direction of Russian expansion, and ivan the Terrible launched the Livornian War in 1558 in order to compete with Poland and Sweden for the mouth of the Baltic Sea.
The war cost Ivan IV much of his life, and Russia eventually failed because of its isolation, a long-cherished wish that would be fulfilled by Peter the Great more than 100 years later.
The Crimean Khanate was originally a dependency of the Golden Horde, one of the four major Mongol khanates. In 1430, a descendant of Battus founded a state here, the family was devout Muslims, so the Crimean Khanate had a strong Islamic color.
During this period, ottoman Turkey rose to prominence, and the Crimean Khanate, which was also Muslim, was naturally close to it.
The young Crimean Khanate was full of vitality, and in order to expand the power of Islam and jointly fight against the Slavs of the Eastern European Plains, the Crimean Khanate continued to invade Eastern Europe with the support of the Ottoman Empire:
They stole gold and textiles from Poland, livestock and honey from Ukraine, fur and amber from Russia, wives and children from all Slavs, and for a time they made people angry.
As a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate's ambition to establish a powerful Muslim empire along the Volga Inevitably clashed with Russia. During Vasily III, Russia was busy expanding its territory in the West, taking passive defensive measures against the aggressive expansion of the Crimean Khanate.
To this end, Russia not only sent tens of thousands of troops to the border every year, but also paid the Crimean Khanate in coins for self-preservation. The Crimean Khanate effectively became the ottoman empire's agent on the Crimean peninsula, with the boss behind it, and the "Whip of the Ottoman Empire" whipped Russia from time to time.
Burning Moscow
Between 1558 and 1596, the Crimean Khanate invaded Russia as many as 30 times. In 1571, when Ivan the Terrible was engaged in the Livonian War, the Crimean Khan received a bribe from Lithuania and led an army of 120,000 men with the support of the Ottoman Empire to Russia.
The Crimean army, unimpeded through the steppes of Eastern Europe, invaded Moscow in May 1571, an invasion that was more humiliating than the Poles' siege of Moscow decades later.
When the soldiers approached the city, Ivan IV still sternly refused to return Kazan and Astrakhan, and luckily escaped from the clutches of the Tatars under the desperate protection of his subordinates.
Moscow has become a paradise for the Tatars, magnificent palaces have been destroyed, and lives have been destroyed. On May 24, before the Tatars left, they set fire to Moscow, and the wooden buildings and palaces in the city were completely burned down. It was the worst fire in Moscow's history, with estimated casualties of up to 100,000.
It was not until two hundred years later, during the time of Catherine, that Russia won the war against the Ottoman Turks, and the Crimean Khanate broke away from the Ottoman Empire and annexed Russia. In 1783, Russia could not wait any longer, swallowing this small country that had brought them countless nightmares.