5. Moving People and Retracing Borders (18th Century)

Geographic science continued to develop in the 18th century in due part to the new discoveries and advancements in ways to measure the Earth. As maps mention the toponyms alongside demonyms, Ukraine is referred to in conjunction with the Zaporizhia Cosacks. Different nations and populations share the lands of modern Ukraine, during that century, an area marked by endless political and military conflicts between Russia, Poland, Habsburg Austria, Sublime Porte, and Crimean Khanate. The campaigns of the Great Northern War of 1700–1721 were followed by the Russian-Turkish wars waged between 1735–1739, 1768–1774, and 1787–1791. Crimea remained a cohesive territory with its own customs and traditions until it was annexed by Russia (1783). The traveler Nikolaus Ernst Kleemann (1736–1801) describes Khanate’s administration and the customs of the nomadic tribes living in Crimea and in the nearby steppes just before Russian troops entered the peninsula in early 1770s and put an end to the traditions. In 1778–1779, Russian general Suvorov moved few dozens of thousands of Christian merchants, craftsmen, and peasants up north from Caffa, Bakhchysarai and smaller villages, to weaken the Crimean Khanate. Greeks from the southwest of the peninsula would build the city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea (1778). Armenians founded Nakhichevan-on-Don in 1779 (now a region of Rostov-on-Don city). Many people perished during such an unprecedented removals and Russia paid the khan 100,000 rubles as contribution. By the end of the century, foundational ideas about identity and self-identification gave birth to the Ukrainian National Revival. [DO]