The famous Caucasian War (1817-1864) lasted about half a century, led by the “anti-imperialist” and Sufism (Islamic mysticism) leader Imam Shamil (1797-1871).
Czar Ivan IV initiated construction of the Tarki fortress on the Caspian Sea as early as 1559. In the subsequent centuries Russia gradually extended control over the surrounding area, culminating with the 1829 Treaty of Turkmenchay that established the Aras River as the expanding empire’s boundary with Persia.
During Caucasian War Russian Empire expanded to control the region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea, the territory that is modern Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Iran and Turkey. The Russian invasion was met with fierce resistance. The first period coincidentally ended with the death of Alexander I and Decembrist Revolt in 1825.
Russian military action in the interior of the Caucasus began on a modest scale. During the first two decades of the nineteenth century, Russian commanders in the Caucasus carried out campaigns against Turkey and Persia and secured the Caspian coast and portions of modern Azerbaijan.
General Alexei Yermolov, a top Russian commander, used inhumanely harsh methods to conquer the region and retain it under the Romanov crown’s control. Hundreds of thousands were ethnically cleansed, and many civilians murdered.
The Russian colonial administration in Georgia, Armenia, and Shemaha struggled to establish effective rules over the Caucasian peoples, who had different languages, religions and ethnicities. The Caucasian War also known as the Russian conquest of the Caucasus ended with the annexation of the areas of the North Caucasus to Russia and the Ethnic cleansing of Circassians.
Caucasian War
