History of the Northern Black Sea Region from the Ancient Greek to Russian eras |
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History of the Northern Black Sea Region from the Ancient Greek to Russian eras |
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Back . . . . Aspire
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Visioneering
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The lands north of the Black Sea were a home for many peoples other than the Ukrainians and Russians who now dominate the region. Indeed, Russians and Ukrainians did not even begin to settle the region until the late 18th century. The commonly accepted history of this region was filtered through the lens of Russian imperialism until the collapse of the Soviet system. The emergence of Ukraine and Moldova as independent countries and the return of descendants of Crimean Tatars deported by Stalin have provided alternative intepretations that affirm their cultural identities. But their revisonist histories of the region also suffer from ethnocentric bias. This historical sketch attempts to sort out some of the conflicting claims and to provide a more objective narrative. It is very much a work in progress that I shall rewrite as needed. I welcome suggestions.
Prehistoric Crimea was occupied by the Celtic Cimmerians from perhaps the 15th centuries BCE to the 7th century BCE, when the Sythians expelled them. A few found refuge in the mountains and southern coast. They were later known as the Tauri. This is the source of the name Taurica for the peninsula. The Scythian arrival was the first of many to the Crimea and other lands north of the Black Sea. Most of the waves of migrants came by land from the steppe lands to the east. But some have come by sea to settle on the coasts.
In the same century as the Sythian conquest, Greek city states
established colonies in Crimea:
Heraclea at Chersonese in the SW on the Heraclian Peninsula,
(western Sevastopol),
Greek city states also planted colonies elsewhere on the coast of
Crimea, at Feodosiya on the SE coast, and Kyrkynytyda at Yevpatoria on
the west coast, and elsewhere on the north shore of the Black Sea.
Ionians from Miletus at Theodosia and Panticapaeum (aka Bosporus or
Kerch, at the eastern tip of Crimea),
In 438 BCE the archon (ruler) of Panticapaeum assumed the title of king of Bosporus. This kingdom was linked to Athens, to which it shipped wheat and other commodities. In 114 BCE the Bosphoran king -- threatened by the Scythians -- put himself under the protection of the king of Pontus. In 63 BCE, after the king of Pontus had died, the Roman general Pompey interfered in the arrangement and assigned the kingdom to the Bosphoran king's son as a reward the for his assistance to Rome. In 15 BCE Rome returned it to the king of Pontus, but as a Roman tributary state.
By the 1st century CE most the Greek colonies fell under the control of Rome. Several centuries later the Goths arrived from the north and conquered the Sythian kingdom (in 250 CE).
Disaster struck with the arrival of the Huns in 376 CE. They destroyed the settled population of the Crimea and devastated the neighboring lands north of the Black Sea. The Huns were followed by the Alans in the 5th-6th centuries. They were also destroyers, including destruction of the Greek city of Feodosiya on the SE coast.
The division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western parts meant that control over the Black Sea colonies was assumed by Constantinope, which gradually transformed into the Byzantine empire. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Byzantines strengthened their fortifications in Crimea in an attempt to block the entry of steppe peoples into the peninsula.
The Alans, like the Goths before them were initially hostile towards the Byzantine empire. But after the middle of the 6th century they allied with the empire.
In 576-579 the empire of the Turkic Khaganate had spread from Asia to the eastern shores of the Sea of Azov. It broke up in the second half of the 7th century. The Khazars were a splinter group from this huge state. By the early 8th century the Kazars reached the Dnipro (Dnieper) river region. In the mid-8th century they overran Crimea and destroyed the Byzantine fortresses and settlements. This made it possible for a Turkic speaking population to flow into Crimea. However, the Byzantines recovered the major fortress in southern Crimea (at Mangup) and restored southern Crimea as a Byzantine Theme (province) populated by Goths, Alans and Greeks.
By the mid 10th century Slav settlement was noticeable as they established the principality of Tmutorokan at the eastern tip of Crimea and in western Kuban. Kievian Rus destroyed the Khazar Khaganate. Kievian Rus extended its control south as far as the mouth of the Danube in the west and the lower Dnipro (Dnieper) in the east, and established claims in Bulgaria and the Crimea. But this was transitory. Shortly after the Rus captured the Bulgarian capital, the Byzantine army defeated the Rus and forced them to abandon claims to Bulgaria and the Crimea. The Rus also began to suffer the consequences of their destruction of the Khazar Khaganate. This had opened the way to incraessingly serious incusions by the steppe nomads from the east. The Pechnegs (Kipchaks) passed by the former Khazar strongholds and defeated the Rus near the Dnipro (Dnieper) cataracts.
In 1016 the Byzantine Empire reasserted control over much of Crimea. In 1050 the Pechnegs (Kipchaks) overran Crimea.
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Kievian Rus recovered from its setbacks and entered its greatest period under Vladimir "the Saint" and Yaroslav "the Wise".
In the mid 11th century Kievian Rus began to disintegrate. The Polovtsi (Cumans) arrived from the east and devastated the lands north of the Black Sea. They forced the Rus to abandon the lower Dnipro (Dnieper) and Prudenny Buh (Southern Bug).
In 1223 a calvary detachnent of Chingis-Khan's Mongol swept out of the Caucacus and defeated both the Polovtsi and the Rus at the Kalka river (north of the Sea of Azov), raided the Crimean and lower Dnipro areas and travelled up the Volga, where they suffered a rare defeat (by the Bulgars) and retreated to the east. But the Mongols returned in force in 1237 and conducted a thorough and devastating conquest of the Rus and their neighbors. They left behind the khanate of Kypchak (based at Saray on the lower Volga) which -- as the "Golden Horde" ruled the lands north of the Black Sea, and exacted tribute from the Rus principalties to the north. Incidentally, the word Crimea is dervived from Mongol term for Taurica -- Kyrym (Krym).
The western terminus for the Great Silk road was on the SE coast of Crimea. The sacking of Constantinople by Western Crusaders in 1204 left a vacuum that was filled by the Venetians and Genoese. In 1266 the Genoese wrested control over Kaffa (Feodosiya) from the Golden Horde. The Venetians maintained a consulate at Sudak from 1287 onwards. The Genoese destroyed or seized the Crimean coast settlements of the rival Venetians. The Genoese colonies were at Soldaia (Sudak), Chembalo (Balaklava, on the south coast near Sebastopol), Kaffa (Theodosia), Eupatoria, and Cerccio (Kerch, at the eastern tip of Crimea). They thrived as trading towns until the Ottoman Turks conquered Crimea in 1475.
The southern shore of the Crimea and the mountainous region centered on the fortress Mangup was part of the small principality of Feodoro. The population of the principality were the descendants of Goths and Alans that had converted to Christianity. It also survived until the Ottoman conquest.
Seljuk and Orguz Turkish clans remained in the Black Sea region after the Mongol invasions. The pan-Mongol empire broke up about 1368 and the Golden Horde disintegratated in the 15th century and was destroyed by Timur. Tamerlane conquered Mangup. This was during Tamerlane's war against the Golden Horde leader, Toktamysh, who fled to Lithuania. Several independent Tatar khanates were established. This included the Crimean Khanate, which was established in 1441 by Haci Giray Khan. The Giray dynasty ruled the Khanate until April 8, 1873. The Crimean Khanate governed the lands north of the Black Sea between the Dnipro (Dnieper) and the Don Rivers plus the Kuban. Its capital was at Bakhchisarai (near Simferopol). But the khanate's independence was brief.
In the 1470s the Ottoman Turks invaded and brought the Khanate into the Ottoman system. The sultans set Crimea up as an autonomous state under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire - the amount of autonomy exercised by the Crimean Tatars during this period is a matter of debate. Throughout the 10th to 17th centuries, Crimean Tatars (or what the Russians considered Tatars) raided Polish, Ukrainian, and Russian towns.
The Giray's reigned first at Solkhat (Eski-Krym), and
from the beginning of the 15th century at Bakhchi-sarai. But after 1478
they ruled as tributary princes of the Ottoman empire down to 1777, when
the Russians defeated them and made them dependent upon Russia. In 1783
Imperial Russia annexed the Crimea.
More to come -- someday :)
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