Case Study Circassian Migration FV - EUROCLIO

The Russian-Caucasian Wars (1763-1864)
Scene from the Russian-Caucasian War, painting by the
Russian artist, Franz Roubaud, circa 1866.
Russia’s interest in the north Caucasus intensified
during the reign of Catherine the Great. She appointed
Prince Grigory Potemkin as viceroy of the Caucasus
even though Russia only controlled a small part of it.
Further military campaigns in the 1780s led to Muslim
resistance in the north Caucasus and one of the
resistance leaders, Shaykh Mansur declared a holy war.
In 1795 Tiblisi, the capital of Georgia, a christian country
with powerful Islamic neighbours, was sacked by a
Persian army. In 1801, at the request of Georgy XII,
Georgia was annexed into the Tsarist empire. This now
provided Russia with a power base in the Transcaucasus
to support any further incursions into the North
Caucasus.
Resistance from tribes in Dagestan, Chechnya and
Avaria increased but from 1801-1832 Russian
campaigns in the region tended to be sporadic, mainly
because of wars at that time with Sweden, France,
Persia and the Ottoman Empire. In the 1830s Islamic
resistance intensified under a new leader, Imam Shamil.
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