In the vast and fertile western part of Siberia, the long-flowing Ob and Yenisei rivers flow from south to north into the Arctic Ocean. Between the lower reaches of these two great rivers, there are also two smaller rivers, the Poole and Taz rivers, and the vast area in which these two rivers are located, collectively known as Mangajaya.
The Mangaia region, formerly rich in furs, is now the region with the richest natural gas reserves in the world. It was so rich that Europeans have long said that it was like a "land of boiling gold." At the end of the 16th century, Russia sent Cossacks to annex the Siberian Khanate, but also extended its grip to the Mangajaya region.
01 Pomorians
In the early 16th century, in almost all of Europe, especially in business circles, a novel name circulated——— Mangaia. It was rich in mink, blue fox and silver fox skins, along with countless precious items such as sea ivory, which were sold well on the European market, so much so that it was believed that whoever found it would get the code to the door of wealth.
Since Mangaea is in the Far North, many people have only heard of its name and have no idea where it is? The first to arrive there were the Pomorians off the northern coast of Russia.
The Pomeranians, meaning "sea people" in Old Russian, belonged to the Grand Duchy of Novgorod established by the Rus' at that time. In the late 14th century, they came from the Grand Duchy of Novgorod to the shores of the White Sea. They make a living as fishermen and hunt, chasing seals from the white sea coast into the Arctic Ocean coastal area.
In their struggle with nature, they invented a small boat suitable for traveling in an ice floes environment, the Little Gogqi. This small boat is very light, a sloop, single-deck, flat-bottomed, oar-paddle boat. It can sail both in shallow waters along the coast, in shallow estuarine deltas, and, if necessary, on land and water by human tugboat.
With the help of this boat, the Pomoricans traveled along the coast of the Arctic Ocean towards the "place where the sun rises" until they reached the lower Ob river region. They drove the Little Gochi from Ob Bay into Taz Bay and down the Taz River to the Mangajaya region.
Surrounded by jungle, the area is rich in prey and fish species, and is ideal for sheltering from the wind and rain and repairing boats, as well as spending the winter here during the early freezing period. Even more attractive to them are the wealthy fur beasts of the region, who are unaware of the true value of these precious furs and often trade "a handful of salt" for "a dozen fine furs." The Pomorians saw an opportunity to make huge profits, saw it as an ideal place to stay, and built up warehouses.
In order to grab precious furs, sea routes to Mangajaya were opened. From Arkhangelsk on the White Sea, eastward through the Barents Sea, through the mouth of the North Dvina River and the mouth of the Boljra River, bypassing the Yamal Peninsula, you enter the Gulf of Ob and Taz, and finally reach Mangajaya, the whole journey takes 2-3 months.
02 Included in the territory
After the muscovite principality became strong, it annexed the Principality of Novgorod. Ivan IV later proclaimed himself Tsar, and Russian history entered the period of Tsarist Russia. Ivan IV was ambitious and tried to build a vast Russian Empire. To this end, the Kazan Khanate and the Astalakhan Khanate were eliminated successively, and in 1581 Yermak was sent to lead the Cossacks across the Ural Mountains and eliminate the Siberian Khanate.
Yermak was later killed in battle with the Tatars, and many of the areas he occupied were retaken by the Tatars, and the Cossack conquest was somewhat frustrated.
In the spring of 1585, the new Tsar Ivanovich sent a new group of men, this time with a completely new tactic: the Cossacks first relied on the superiority of muskets to defeat the indigenous population, then built a strong fortress, then Russian immigrants moved in, and finally the Russian government sent tax collectors, inspectors, overseers, governors and other colonial institutions to securely take the conquered areas into their pockets. As a result, this steady and steady strategy worked very well, and by 1598, Kuchum Khan died in exile, and the Siberian Khanate was completely destroyed.
At this time, Russia had established a series of cities in the middle and lower reaches of the Ob River: Tyumen, Tobolsk, Lozvinsky Fort, Perem, Berezov, Surgut, Narem, Tulinsk, Tomsk... This already heralded the complete conquest of the middle and lower reaches of the Ob River by Russia.
After the establishment of beretsov and Opodolsk (now Sarekhard), the Russians were very close to the fur-rich mangaya region. Since Russian merchants and industrialists were frequent in the area, information about the area reached the Tsar one after another. In order to ascertain the situation in the region and to prepare for its seizure, Russia carried out a series of expeditions and invasions.
In 1598, Tsar Ivanovich sent Tiakov to scout the Mangajaya region, and from Tobolsk they sailed down the river to Ob Bay, but they did not break into the Taz River.
At the end of the 16th century, the colonial authorities in berezov also sent troops to reconnoiter along the Purr, Taz and Yenisei rivers. The Cossacks found a branch of the Samoyeds on the Taz River, the Nenets. They were small, flattened, and had small noses, which were obviously different from the Russians.
In the summer of 1600, the Tsar sent Duke Shrapunov, Duke of Shakhovsky and clerical officer, to lead more than 100 Cossacks out of Tobolsk and to the city of Berezov. There they added 50 Cossacks and some merchants.
They built 4 Gochi and 2 river boats in berezov, and then the expedition marched downstream down the Ob River. In Ob Bay, two river boats were in distress, and all the grain and salt they carried fell into the water. After the crash, the expedition slid snow to Mangadia.
When the expedition reached the Poole, it was attacked by the Samoyeds, killing 30 people, and the wounded Duke Shakhovsky led the rest back to the city of Berezov on a deer ride in August of that year.
Here we have to admire the tenacity of the Cossacks. In the late autumn of that year, Shakhovsky and his gang rode a deer to the Taz River. About 200 versts from the mouth of the river, they found the settlements that the former Pomeranians had established and began to build the Mangaia Castle.
In April 1601, the Russian government transferred 100 military personnel from Tobolsk, 70 from beretsov and 30 soldiers from Surgut to form a 200-man army, headed by the Overseer Duke Mosarski and the Overseer Pushkin, to Mangaya.
In Verkhouturier, they built 9 gochi, 2 large sea boats and 2 flat-bottomed wooden boats. After arriving in Tobolsk, a number of musketeers and freedmen were replenished, and the number increased to 300. Here they received 1 rapid-fire arquebusier and 200 round rounds, 3 fortress arquebusiers, 400 kg of gunpowder, 160 kg of lead bullets, and 410 g of lead bullets per Cossack.
In berezov, the troops were resupplyed. Mosarski and Pushkin then led a mighty army to Mangaia. But when they arrived there, they found that Shakhovsky and his gang had built a castle. They entered the Tuluhan River, a tributary on the left side of the Yenisei River, and in 1607 built the Tuluhansk Castle at the mouth of the river, also known as The New Mangaea.
03 Gold boiling land
By the beginning of the 17th century, Russia had occupied the mangaia region adjacent to the Yenisei River. Russia held the Mangajaya Castle and firmly controlled the Taz, Poole and Tuluhan rivers. Russia's absorption of newly conquered lands was astonishingly fast, and after the establishment of mangajaya castles, the Russian government immediately set up a county system and sent overseers to administer them. Taxes in kind were immediately levied on the indigenous people of the area, requiring each person to pay five to six mink skins per year.
The European market is recognized as the best quality fur produced in Mangadia, and now Russia has occupied this "hereditary territory of boiling gold", just as Alibaba opened the door to the vault.
In the first half of the 17th century, 100,000-150,000 skins were exported from here every year. You know, in the 17th century, the cheapest skin in Moscow was also worth 5 rubles, which was equivalent to a year's salary of a Cossack serving in Siberia. And a large part of these skins are exported to the European market, where the value of the skins will be doubled.
The speed of commodity circulation and the market are one of the important factors that determine commercial profits, and traffic conditions play a pivotal role in it. Although there was a land route to Mangadia at the time, the sea route was undoubtedly more time-saving and relatively convenient for transportation. Every summer, merchant ships gather here, and the whole of Mangajaya is prosperous and vibrant.
Along the shores of Taz Bay there are numerous merchant ships waiting to transport cargo. The large and spacious supply exchange is crowded and busy people can be seen everywhere. To save time, the exchange is busy almost around the clock. Whenever a large deal is negotiated, a banquet is held to celebrate. There are fine wines from Europe, as well as local delicacies such as caviar, berries, mushrooms, sturgeon, venison and more.
In the winter, due to its location in the far north, where the weather is cold and the sea route is not navigable, Mangadia becomes a huge "soft gold" warehouse at this time of year. Countless sables, brown sables, seal skins and large quantities of precious animal bones are stored in large warehouses, waiting to be shipped to Moscow and Europe in the summer. Mangaia is in a frozen wasteland, but it grows richer year after year.
In the early 17th century, the Mangazia sea route was already very busy, and trade in Mangadia flourished. In 1633, for example, a merchant fleet of 20 Gochi carrying 387 merchants and industrialists traveled from Tobolsk to Mangaia. The grain and other goods weighed 228 tons and were worth 10,385 rubles, which was a staggering amount at the time.
Overlook the Ob River from the air
04 Decline and abandonment
At a time when economic activity in Mangadia was booming, who would have thought that the Tsarist government would suddenly order a closure?
The main reason for this is the international factor. After the opening of the new shipping route, Europe entered a period of geographical discovery, and after Portugal and Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, France and other Western European powers actively colonized overseas. Wherever there is interest, they are pervasive. Against this backdrop, the fertile mangaia region will sooner or later arouse their interest and covetousness.
At that time, Russia was weak and militarily backward, repeatedly losing on the battlefield to Sweden, Poland, and even the Ottoman Turkish Empire, not to mention the great powers of Britain, France, and the Netherlands. If they had found a route to Mangajaya, Russia could have been squeezed out. Since fur resources are the lifeblood of the Russian economy, the impact will be disastrous if Russia loses Mangadia.
Another reason was that after the frenzied plundering of the Russians, the resources of fur beasts in Mangajaya were rapidly depleted, and the cossacks who had no beasts to catch moved to the Yenisei River and the farthest Lena River.
Finally, the harsh climatic conditions in the Gulf of Ob and Taz Bay often cause serious accidents that make it very difficult to transport food to the Mangajaya region. There are already better and safer water routes through the Yenisei River and Tuluhansk, so it is inevitable to abandon the sea and land routes of the Arctic Ocean.
In 1613, Mikhail Romanov succeeded to the throne as the new Tsar, and the Russian Empire began to enter the Romanov dynasty.
In 1619, the Tsar ordered the closure of the sea route to Mangajaya, removed all navigational markers along the route, and set up surveillance posts along the Coast of the Arctic Ocean to intercept or kill all those who dared to disobey. Mangaia's economic activity was hit hard and began to decline.
In 1642, Mangadia was nearly reduced to ashes in a fire, and since then it has been even more depressed.
In 1672, Tsar Alexei Mihajlovich ordered that the city of Mangajaya be abandoned and that all of its garrisons be moved to Tuluhansk in the Yenisei River Valley. Mangaia has completely fulfilled its historical mission.
05 Conclusion
The predecessors planted trees, and the posterity cooled off. The monarchs of the Russian Empire had a high vision and constantly tempted the bold Cossacks to cross the Ural Mountains, and finally took the rich Siberia for themselves. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Siberia's rich "Golden Fleece" once accounted for 30% of the Russian treasury revenue, which strongly supported the crazy foreign expansion of the Russian Empire. It was also during this period that Russia defeated its traditional strong neighbors such as Sweden, Turkey, and Poland, and became a European power.
The Cossacks, as Russia's expansionary vanguard, began to expand from north to south after occupying the Mangajaya region. Their gooch was already full of sails, their sabers were polished, their arquebusiers were already filled with lead bullets, and with a sharp whistle the Cossacks set off again...
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Text/Source Teacher said 123, more wonderful content, stay tuned.