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    The Zaporozhian Cossacks

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    The Zaporozhian Cossacks were a group of Ukrainians who lived along the Dnieper River in the 15th-17th centuries. They were initially organized by Ruthenian nobility but later included merchants, peasants, and others fleeing oppression. The Cossacks played an important role in conflicts between Poland-Lithuania, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. In the mid-17th century, a Cossack uprising led to a brief period of Cossack independence before coming under Russian control. The Cossacks conducted raids against neighbors such as the Ottoman Empire, increasing tensions, and were difficult for neighboring powers to control.

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    The Zaporozhian Cossacks

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    FREIMUZIC
    92 views2 pages
    The Zaporozhian Cossacks were a group of Ukrainians who lived along the Dnieper River in the 15th-17th centuries. They were initially organized by Ruthenian nobility but later included merchants, peasants, and others fleeing oppression. The Cossacks played an important role in conflicts between Poland-Lithuania, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. In the mid-17th century, a Cossack uprising led to a brief period of Cossack independence before coming under Russian control. The Cossacks conducted raids against neighbors such as the Ottoman Empire, increasing tensions, and were difficult for neighboring powers to control.

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    The Zaporozhian Cossacks

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    The Zaporozhian Cossacks were a group of Ukrainians who lived along the Dnieper River in the 15th-17th centuries. They were initially organized by Ruthenian nobility but later included merchants, peasants, and others fleeing oppression. The Cossacks played an important role in conflicts between Poland-Lithuania, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. In the mid-17th century, a Cossack uprising led to a brief period of Cossack independence before coming under Russian control. The Cossacks conducted raids against neighbors such as the Ottoman Empire, increasing tensions, and were difficult for neighboring powers to control.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    92 views2 pages

    The Zaporozhian Cossacks

    Uploaded by

    FREIMUZIC
    The Zaporozhian Cossacks were a group of Ukrainians who lived along the Dnieper River in the 15th-17th centuries. They were initially organized by Ruthenian nobility but later included merchants, peasants, and others fleeing oppression. The Cossacks played an important role in conflicts between Poland-Lithuania, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. In the mid-17th century, a Cossack uprising led to a brief period of Cossack independence before coming under Russian control. The Cossacks conducted raids against neighbors such as the Ottoman Empire, increasing tensions, and were difficult for neighboring powers to control.

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    The Zaporozhian Cossacks, who lived on the Pontic-Caspian steppe below the Dniep

    er Rapids (Ukrainian: za porohamy;), became a well-known group. Cossack numbers


    increased greatly between the 15th and 17th centuries. Cossacks were usually org
    anized by Ruthenian boyars or princes of the nobility, especially various Lithua
    nian starostas. Merchants, peasants and runaways from the Poland-Lithuania Commo
    nwealth, Moscow state, and modern Moldova and Romania also joined the Cossacks.
    The first recorded Zaporizhian Host prototype was formed when the cousin of Ivan
    the Terrible, Dmytro Vyshnevetsky built a fortress on the island of Little Khor
    tytsia on the banks of the Lower Dnieper in 1552. The Zaporozhian Host adopted a
    lifestyle that combined the ancient Cossack order and habits with that of the K
    nights Hospitaller.
    The Zaporozhian Cossacks played an important role in European geopolitics, parti
    cipating in a series of conflicts and alliances with the Polish-Lithuanian Commo
    nwealth, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire. As a result of the Khmelnytsky Uprising
    in the middle of the 17th century, the Zaporozhian Cossacks briefly established
    an independent state, which later became the autonomous Cossack Hetmanate (1649
    4). It was a suzerainty under protection of the Russian Tsar from 1667 but ruled
    by the local Hetmans for a century.
    The Zaporozhian Sich had its own authorities, its own "Nizovy" Zaporozhsky Host,
    and its own land. In the later half of the 18th century, Russian authorities de
    stroyed this Zaporozhian Host and gave its lands to landlords. Some Cossacks mov
    ed to the Danube delta region, where they formed the Danubian Sich under Ottoman
    rule. To prevent further defection of Cossacks, the Russian government restored
    the special Cossack status of the majority of Zaporozhian Cossacks. This allowe
    d them to unite in the Host of Loyal Zaporozhians, and later reorganize into oth
    er hosts, of which the Black Sea host was most important. They eventually moved
    to the Kuban region, due to the distribution of Zaporozhian Sich lands among lan
    dlords, and the resulting scarcity of land.
    Victorious Zaporozhian Cossack with the head of a Tatar, 1786 print
    The majority of Danubian Sich Cossacks had moved first to the Azov region in 182
    8, and later joined other former Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region. Group
    s were generally identified by faith rather than language in that period,[citati
    on needed] and most descendants of Zaporozhian Cossacks in the Kuban region are
    bilingual, speaking both Russian and the local Kuban dialect of central Ukrainia
    n. Their folklore is largely Ukrainian.[39] While, in recent times, the Ukrainia
    n linguistic and cultural impact has been attributed to Ukrainophile interests,
    the predominant view of ethnologists and historians is considered to be found in
    the common culture dating back to the Black Sea Cossacks.[40][41][42]
    The Zaporozhians gained a reputation for their raids against the Ottoman Empire
    and its vassals, although they sometimes plundered other neighbors as well. Thei
    r actions increased tension along the southern border of the Polish-Lithuanian C
    ommonwealth. Low-level warfare took place in those territories for most of the p
    eriod of the Commonwealth (1569 1795).
    In 1539, the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent asked Grand Duke Vasili III
    of Russia to restrain the Cossacks; the Duke replied: "The Cossacks do not swea
    r allegiance to me, and they live as they themselves please."[citation needed] I
    n 1549 Tsar Ivan the Terrible replied to the Suleiman's request that he stop the
    attacks by the Don Cossacks, saying, "The Cossacks of the Don are not my subjec
    ts, and they go to war or live in peace without my knowledge."[citation needed]
    The major powers tried to exploit Cossack warmongering for their own purposes. I
    n the 16th century, with the power of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth extendi
    ng south, the Zaporozhian Cossacks were mostly, if tentatively, regarded by the
    Commonwealth as their subjects.[43] Registered Cossacks formed a part of the Com
    monwealth army until 1699.
    Bohdan
    e 19th
    Around
    ttoman

    Khmelnytsky's entry to Kiev. Painted by Mykola Ivasiuk,[44][45] end of th


    century
    the end of the 16th century, relations between the Commonwealth and the O
    Empire were strained by increasing Cossack aggression. From the second pa

    176

    rt of the 16th century, Cossacks started raiding Ottoman territories. The Polish
    government could not control the Cossacks, but was held responsible as the men
    were nominally their subjects. In retaliation, Tatars living under Ottoman rule
    launched raids into the Commonwealth, mostly in the southeast territories. In re
    taliation, Cossack pirates started raiding wealthy trading port-cities in the he
    art of the Ottoman Empire, as these were just two days away by boat from the mou
    th of the Dnieper River. By 1615 and 1625, Cossacks had razed suburbs of Constan
    tinople, forcing the Ottoman Sultan to flee his palace.[46]
    Consecutive treaties between the Ottoman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Common
    wealth called for the governments to keep the Cossacks and Tatars in check, but
    neither enforced the treaties strongly. The Polish forced the Cossacks to burn t
    heir boats and stop raiding by sea, but they did not give it up entirely. During
    this time, the Habsburg Empire sometimes covertly hired Cossack raiders to go a
    gainst the Ottomans to ease pressure on their own borders. Many Cossacks and Tat
    ars developed longstanding enmity due to the losses of their raids. The ensuing
    chaos and cycles of retaliation often turned the entire southeastern Polish-Lith
    uanian Commonwealth border into a low-intensity war zone. It catalyzed escalatio
    n of Commonwealth-Ottoman warfare, from the Moldavian Magnate Wars (1593 1617) to th
    e Battle of Cecora (1620) and campaigns in the Polish-Ottoman War of 1633 1634.
    An officer of the Zaporozhian Cossacks in 1720
    Cossack numbers expanded when the warriors were joined by peasants escaping serf
    dom in Russia and dependence in the Commonwealth. Attempts by the szlachta to tu
    rn the Zaporozhian Cossacks into peasants eroded the Cossacks' formerly strong l
    oyalty towards the Commonwealth. The government constantly rebuffed Cossack ambi
    tions for recognition as equal to the szlachta, and plans for transforming the P
    olish-Lithuanian two-nation Commonwealth into a Polish-Lithuanian-Rus' Commonwea
    lth made little progress due to the idea's unpopularity among the Rus' szlahta o
    f the Rus' Cossacks being equal to Rus' szlachta. The Cossacks' strong historic
    allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Church also put them at odds with officials o
    f the Roman Catholic-dominated Commonwealth. Tensions increased when Commonwealt
    h policies turned from relative tolerance to suppression of the Eastern Orthodox
    church after the Union of Brest. The Cossacks became strongly anti-Roman Cathol
    ic, in this case an attitude that became synonymous with anti-Polish.

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