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The Cossacks
The term Cossacks is applied to specific militaristic communities of
various ethnicities living in the steppe regions of Ukraine. Towards the
end of the 14th century, Ukrainian migrants from Lithuania had
established a "host" in the Steppes of Ukraine. In the 16th
century, a part of the cossack community moved to the other side of the
Azov Sea, those are called the Don Cossacks. The Dnipro Cossacks of
Ukraine formed the Zaporozhian Sich. Initially a vassal of
Poland-Lithuania, the increasing social and religious pressure from the
Commonwealth caused them to proclaim a Cossack Hetmanate, initiating a
rebellion under Bohdan Khmelnytsky in the mid-17th century. Afterwards,
the Treaty of Pereyaslavl with Russia signalled the start of the
Commonwealth's decline but also brought Ukraine under Russian control
for the next three hundred years.
The Cossacks of the Zaporozhian Host, who lived on the steppes of
Ukraine, are a well known group of Cossacks. Their numbers increased
greatly between the 15th to 17th centuries, led by poor Ruthenian
nobility, merchants and runaway peasants from Poland-Lithuania. The
Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European geopolitics,
participating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire. As a result of
the Khmelnytsky Uprising in the middle of the 17th century Zaporozhian
Cossacks managed to briefly create an independent state, which later
became the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate, a suzerainty under protection
of the Russian Tsar but ruled by the local Hetmans for half a century.
In the later half of the 18th century the Zaporozhian Host was dissolved
by the Russian authorities. Some of Cossacks' descendants have moved to
the Danube delta region and Kuban, although after 1828 most of the
Danubians have moved first to the Azov and later to the Kuban. Although
today some of the Kuban Cossacks and their descendants do not consider
themselves Ukrainians by nationality, the language they speak and their
folklore preserves a significant Ukrainian influence.
Around the end of the 16th century, relations between the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire, which were not
cordial to begin with, were further strained by increasing Cossack
aggressiveness. From the second part of the 16th century, Cossacks
started raiding Ottoman territories. The Polish government could not
control the fiercely independent Cossacks, but since they were nominally
subjects of the Commonwealth, it was held responsible for the raids by
their victims. Reciprocally, the Tatars living under Ottoman rule
launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the sparsely inhabited
south-east territories. Cossack pirates, however, were raiding wealthy
merchant port cities in the heart of the Ottoman Empire, which were just
two days away by boat from the mouth of the Dnieper. By 1615 and 1625,
Cossacks had even managed to raze townships on the outskirts of
Istanbul, forcing the Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace. Consecutive
treaties between Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
called for both parties to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but
enforcement was almost non-existent on both sides. In internal
agreements, forced by the Polish side, Cossacks agreed to burn their
boats and stop raiding. However, boats could be rebuilt quickly, and the
Cossack lifestyle glorified raids and booty. During this time, the
Habsburg Empire sometimes covertly employed Cossack raiders to ease
Ottoman pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tatars shared
an animosity towards each other due to the damage done by raids from
both sides. Cossack raids followed by Tatar retaliation, or Tatar raids
followed by Cossack retaliation were an almost regular occurrence. The
ensuing chaos and string of retaliations often turned the entire
south-eastern Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity
war zone and led to escalation of Commonwealth-Ottoman warfare, from the
Moldavian Magnate Wars to the Battle of Cecora and Wars in 1633–1634.
The waning loyalty of the Cossacks and the szlachta's arrogance towards
them resulted in several Cossack uprisings against the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth in the early 17th century. Finally, the King's adamant
refusal to cede to the Cossack's demand to expand the Cossack Registry
was the last straw that prompted the largest and most successful of
these: the Khmelnytsky uprising that started in 1648. The uprising
became one of a series of catastrophic events for the Commonwealth known
as The Deluge, which greatly weakened the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
and set the stage for its disintegration 100 years later. The rebellion
ended with the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav in which Cossacks pledged their
loyalty to the Russian Tsar with the latter guaranteeing Cossacks his
protection, recognition of Cossack starshyna (nobility) and the autonomy
under his rule, freeing the Cossacks from the Polish sphere of
influence. The last, ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to rebuild the
Polish-Cossack alliance and create a Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian
Commonwealth was the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach, which was approved by the
Polish King and Sejm as well as by some of the Cossack starshyna,
including Hetman Ivan Vyhovsky. The starshyna were, however, divided on
the issue and the treaty had even less support among Cossack
rank-and-file; thus it failed. Under Russian rule the Cossack nation of
the Zaporozhian Host was divided into two autonomous republics the
Cossack Hetmanate, and the more independent Zaporizhia. A Cossack
organisation was also established in the Russian colony of Sloboda
Ukraine. These organisations gradually lost their autonomy, and were
abolished by Catherine II by the late 18th century.
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