History Of The Crimean Peninsula

• published: 29 Aug 2015
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The Crimean Peninsula (Russian: Крымский полуостров, Ukrainian: Кримський півострів, Crimean Tatar: Qırım yarımadası), also known simply as Crimea, is a major land mass on the northern coast of the Black Sea that is almost completely surrounded by water. The peninsula is located just south of the Ukrainian mainland and west of the Russian region of Kuban. It is surrounded by two seas: the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov to the east. It is connected with the Ukrainian mainland by the Isthmus of Perekop and is separated from Kuban by the Strait of Kerch. The Arabat Spit is located to the northeast; a narrow strip of land that separates a system of lagoons named Sivash from the Sea of Azov. Crimea—or the Tauric Peninsula, as it was formerly known—has historically been at the boundary between the classical world and the steppe. Its southern fringe was colonised by the ancient Greeks, the ancient Romans, the Byzantine Empire, and the Ottoman Empire, while at the same time its interior was occupied by a changing cast of invading steppe nomads, such as the Cimmerians, Scythians, Goths, Bulgars, Huns, Khazars, Kipchaks, and the Golden Horde. Crimea and adjacent territories were united in the Crimean Khanate during the 15th to 18th century before falling to the Russian Empire and being organised as its Taurida Oblast in 1783. In 1954, the Soviet Crimean Oblast was transferred from Russia to Ukraine. It became the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within newly independent Ukraine in 1991, with Sevastopol having its own administration within Ukraine but outside of the Autonomous Republic. Sovereignty and control of the peninsula became the subject of the ongoing 2014 Crimean crisis, a territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine. The classical name Tauris or Taurica is from the Greek Ταυρική, after the peninsula's Scytho-Cimmerian inhabitants, the Tauri. Strabo and Ptolemy refer to the Strait of Kerch as the Bosporus Cimmerius, and to Cimmerium as the capital of the Taurida, whence the peninsula, or its easternmost part, was also named Promontorium Cimmerium. In English, the Crimean Khanate is referred to as Crim Tartary in the early modern period. The Italian form Crimea (and "Crimean peninsula") also becomes current during the 18th century, gradually replacing the classical name of Tauric peninsula in the course of the 19th century. The omission of the definite article in English ("Crimea" rather than "the Crimea") becomes common during the later 20th century. The name "Crimea" ultimately, via Italian, takes its origin with the name of Qırım (today's Stary Krym) which served as a capital of the Crimean province of the Golden Horde. The name of the capital was extended to the entire peninsula at some point during Ottoman suzerainty. The origin of the name Qırım itself is uncertain. It is mostly explained as: The classical name was revived in the name of the Russian Taurida Governorate. While it was abandoned in the Soviet Union, and has had no official status since 1921, it is still used by some institutions in Crimea, such as the Taurida National University, or the Tavriya Simferopol football club. In ancient times, it was the home of Cimmerians and Scythians, as well as the site of Greek colonies. The most important city was Chersonesos at the edge of today's Sevastopol. Later occupiers included the Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Khazars, the state of Kievan Rus', the Byzantine Empire, the Kipchaks, and the Golden Horde. In the 13th century, portions were controlled by the Republic of Venice and by the Republic of Genoa. In the 9th century, Byzantium established the Cherson theme to fend against incursions by the Rus' Khaganate, and the Crimean peninsula from this time was contested between Byzantium, Rus' and Khazaria. The area remained the site of overlapping interests and contact between the early medieval Slavic, Turkic and Greek spheres, and became a center of slave trade in particular, the word slave itself deriving from the ethnonym of the Slavs who were sold to the Muslim world and Byzantium during this period. In the 1230s, this status quo was swept away by the Mongol invasions, and Crimea was incorporated into the territory of the Golden Horde throughout the 14th century. The Crimean Khanate, a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, succeeded the Golden Horde and lasted from 1449 to 1779. Until the late 18th century, Crimean Tatars maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire, exporting about 2 million slaves from Russia and Ukraine over the period 1500--1700. The Khanate was conquered by the Russian Empire under Catherine the Great in 1783. From 1853 to 1856, the peninsula was the site of the principal engagements of the Crimean War, a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia.