Colonizing the Eurasian Frontier:

The Nineteenth-Century Russian Empire as Imperialism

Tyson Luneau

Expansion of the Russian Empire in the 19th Century

Defining Imperialism
Political domination, economic exploitation, and military subjugation. Robert Johnson, British Imperialism. Dominance relationship Exploitation not always a characteristic Two types of Imperialism
Western maritime empires Eastern landlocked empires

Arguments Against Russian Imperialism

Lack of overseas territories Less frequent exploitation of resources Centralized and autocratic authority Division between Russia and Western Europe
Uncivilized Russia

Defining Characteristics of Empire

Expansion into and dominance over foreign territory Maintenance of separate cultures within empire Civilizing mission Building political prestige

Catherine the Great (r. 1762-96)

Crimea, annexed in 1774

Early Motivations for Expansion

Need for warm-water seaport. Strategic position against Ottoman Empire Expansion of political power

Expansion in the Caucasus and Central Asia

Expansion into The Caucasus

Paul I secures annexation of Georgia in 1800 Alexander I expands into Transcaucasia Wars with Ottoman Empire (1806-12, 1828-29) and Persians (1805-13, 1826-28)

Russo-Turkish Conflicts
Geographic similiarities Second-tier empires Ottoman decline aided Russian expansion Civilizing mission against Islam

A group of Muslim women in Dagestan, a region in the Northern Caucasus, c. 1910

The Caucasian War and Russias Civilizing Mission

To the Europeanized Russians who undertook to describe them, the mountain tribes of the Caucasus could only appear primitive. They had no writing system and hence no written literature or history; such forms of government that did exist among them were rudimentary and decentralizedTo the Russians who saw them merely as savages, the mountaineers of the Caucasus appeared unenlightened, indolent, violent, treacherous, physically repellent, and libidinous.
- Peter Scotto, Prisoners of the Caucasus

Nomadic Kirghiz on the Golodnaia Steppe in present-day Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, c. 1910.

Eastern Expansion, 1850-1910

Alexander II tours central and eastern Asia extensively Further colonization of Central Asia

Push to reach Pacific coast

Colony of Tashkent
Established in 1860s, present-day Turkestan Experimental colony
Testing new ideas in administration, urban planning, etc.

Free, intellectual society

Trans-Siberean Railway, c. 1910

Nikolaevskii Cathedral in Mozhaisk, c. 1911

Defining Characteristics of Empire

Expansion into and dominance over foreign territory Maintenance of separate cultures within empire Civilizing mission Building political prestige

Questions?