List of conflicts in Europe during Turco-Mongol rule

This article lists conflicts in Europe during the invasions of and subsequent occupations by the Mongol Empire and its successor states. The Mongol invasion of Europe took place in the 13th century. This resulted in the occupation of much of Eastern Europe, and various raids, invasions, and conquests continued for another three centuries from the Late Middle Ages into the early modern period. The Turco-Mongols, a term referring to a mixture of Mongolian and Turkic peoples, were often known historically by the terms Tatars or Tartars. Originally, the Tatars were a Mongolic people from the Tatar confederation who were then subjugated by the Mongol Empire.

Forces from a division of the Mongol Empire called the Golden Horde, led by Batu Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, began attacking Europe in 1223, starting with the Cumans, Volga Bulgaria and Kievan Rus. They destroyed many cities including Kiev,[1] Vladimir and Moscow in the process. They originally planned to continue all the way to the shores of the "Great Sea" (Atlantic Ocean). However, upon learning of the death of Ögedei Khan (third son of Genghis Khan, uncle of Batu Khan) in 1241 they returned eastwards to their steppe homelands. This, it could be argued, saved the rest of Europe from suffering the catastrophes that befell the armies and towns of the Kingdom of Poland and the Kingdom of Hungary, although over-stretched lines of communication and the lack of vast open tracts of pasture land might well have proved the undoing of such a venture. However, Turco-Mongol occupation of much of Eastern Europe then persisted for centuries.

List of events
See also: List of conflicts in Eastern Europe during Turco-Mongol rule

The Tatars succeeded in establishing control over Ruthenian principalities. It included both pillaging and bloody massacres in Russian cities.

From 1599 the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth suffered a series of Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture slaves into jasyr. The borderland area to the south-east was in a state of semi-permanent warfare until the 18th century. Some researchers estimate that altogether more than 3 million people, predominantly Ukrainians but also Circassians, Russians, Belarusians and Poles, were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate. A constant threat from Crimean Tatars supported the appearance of Cossackdom.[4][5]

For years the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan routinely raided Rus principalities for slaves and to plunder towns. Russian chronicles record about 40 raids of Kazan Khans on the Russian territories in the first half of the 16th century.[6] Muscovy was also being invaded by the Nogai Horde and Crimean Khanate which were successors of the Golden Horde.

In the beginning of the 16th century the wild steppe began near old Ryazan on the Oka River and Elets on the Sosna, inflow of the Don. Crimean Tatars chose to proceed along watersheds for their incursions. The main way to Moscow was "Muravski shliach", from the Crimean Perekop up to Tula between the rivers of two basins, Dnieper and Northern Donets. Having penetrated deep in the populated areas about 100-200 kilometers, the Tatars turned back and, having unwrapped wide wings, looted and captured slaves. Until the early 18th century, the khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire. Captives were sold to Turkey and the Middle East. In Crimea, about 75% of the population consisted of slaves.[7] The Crimean city of Caffa was the main slave market.

Annually, Moscow mobilized in the spring up to 65,000 soldiers for boundary service. The defensive lines were applied, consisting of a circuit of fortresses and cities. Cossacks and young noblemen were organized into sentry and patrol services that observed Crimean Tatars and nomads of Nogai Horde on the steppe. About 30 major Tatar raids were recorded into Muscovite territories between 1558-1596.[8]

To protect from the invasions of the Nogai Horde between the Volga and Irtysh rivers, the Volga cities of Samara in 1586, Tsaritsyn in 1589, Saratov in 1590 were founded.

The Crimean Khanate was one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe until the 18th century. The Russian population of the borderland suffered annual Tatar invasions and tens of thousands of soldiers were required to protect the southern boundaries. This was a heavy burden for the state, and slowed its social and economic development. Since Crimean Tatars did not permit settlement of Russians to southern regions where the soil is better and the season is long enough, Muscovy had to depend on poorer regions and labour-intensive agriculture. Poland-Lithuania, Moldavia and Wallachia were also subjected to extensive slave raiding. The Crimean Khanate was conquered by the Russian Empire in 1783, bringing an end to Mongol and Tatar rule in Europe. The Turkic invasion in Anatolia (previously populated by some European nations), Cyprus and the Balkans remains unchanged.

Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary's two million population at that time were victims of the Mongol invasion of Europe.[9] About half of the Rus' population may have died during the Mongol invasion of Rus'.[10] Colin McEvedy (Atlas of World Population History, 1978) estimates the population of Russia-in-Europe dropped by 500,000 people, from 7.5 to 7 million in 1300.[11] In some areas of Poland more than 70% of the population was slaughtered, e.g. at the silver mines of Rosperk (Rozbark), next to Bytom while one of the (at least) two raids around 75% were killed and the looted silver was used to build the massive Silver Tree fountain of Karakorum.

See also

References
  1. "https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/citd/RussianHeritage/4.PEAS/4.L/12.III.5.html". Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 3 June 2016. External link in |title= (help)
  2. Svat Soucek. A History of Inner Asia. Cambridge University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-521-65704-0. P. 116.
  3. "The Tatar Khanate of Crimea - All Empires". Archived from the original on 23 March 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  4. "Avalanche Press". Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  5. "Articles: The living legacy of jihad slavery". Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  6. The Full Collection of the Russian Annals, vol.13, SPb, 1904
  7. "Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History". Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  8. "Inalcik. Servile Labor". Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  9. "Hungary - history - geography". Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  10. "History of Russia from Early Slavs history and Kievan Rus to Romanovs dynasty". Archived from the original on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  11. "WAR STATS REDIRECT". Retrieved 3 June 2016.

Further reading
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