A Magnificent Gift from Persia NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division

At the start of the 17th century, Tsar Boris Godunov (r. 1598–1605) exchanged gifts and carried on negotiations with Persia. After Boris, rulers of the Romanov dynasty sparred with Ottoman Turkish forces, who in turn often fought with the Safavid dynasty in Persia.

The Muscovite Tsardom's military successes against the Crimean Muslim Khanates damaged relations with the Ottoman Empire, which were exacerbated by the expansion of both powers into the territory of present-day Ukraine. The first war between the Russians and the Turks broke out in 1678 and ended three years later with a peace treaty that awarded the territories northeast of the Dniepr River to Muscovy, and those southwest to the Ottoman Empire. Two other articles in the treaty proved significant in the long run: the Ottoman ruler promised to curb the raids of his Crimean Tatar vassals, and certain Cossacks were given the right to fish in the Black Sea. These stipulations prefigured Russia’s overall policy in the region, which included acquisition of the northern littoral of the Black Sea, mastery of that sea, and penetration into the straits toward Constantinople and the Mediterranean. The Ottoman Turks considered their empire too powerful to anticipate any major threat from Russia, and still dreamed of resurrecting the glorious epoch of Süleyman the Magnificent and his near conquest of Vienna. Thus, in 1683, the Turks declared war on Austria, and the Ottoman army advanced into central Europe and once again laid siege to the Habsburg capital. The attempt failed and was followed by a massive Turkish retreat from their empire’s westernmost possessions in the Balkans. But fighting dragged on for fifteen more years, and Russia, among others, joined the Holy Alliance forged by the pope in Rome to fight the infidels. The war confirmed that the once seemingly unstoppable Ottoman imperial forces and the system that supported them had lost their former vigor.

West Asian empires reached the apex of their power, territorial extent, and wealth during the late 16th and first three-quarters of the 17th centuries. In this era of preeminence, Shah ‘Abbas I, "the Great" (r. 1587–1628), was Persia's foremost Safavid ruler. Akbar Shah (r. 1556–1605), great grandson of Babur Shah (r. 1526–30), founder of the Mughal dynasty in India, and ‘Abdullah Khan (r. 1557–98), the Shaybanids' most powerful monarch in Central Asia, also strongly influenced the fortunes of their own and surrounding empires. The splendors of Shah ‘Abbas's court in Isfahan, India's cultural and political centers of Delhi and Agra (site of the Taj Mahal), and the beauty of Samarkand's gardens, mosques, and tombs all contributed to the European and Russian fascination with West Asia.

	A View of Shah ‘Abbas the Great's Isfahan NYPL, Slavic and Baltic Division

These rulers and their societies, however, remained oblivious to the technological and commercial changes stirring in Europe, which would ultimately—among many other factors—undermine them, and contribute to the rapid demise of their dynasties. The European maritime countries, with their aggressive trade practices, established a semi-permanent presence in Calcutta and Istanbul. Overland commercial transport moving goods such as silks and tea between West Asia and Europe or Russia on huge caravans—many employing a thousand or more camels—suffered severely in this period, as did the regional economies. Organized piracy by nomads barred the way across the plains of what is now Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Mercantile activity then shifted onto European vessels that sailed the seas with exports from West Asia, especially India and Persia around Africa, via Istanbul, and on to the north, a longer but safer route. The great West Asian empires and their rulers declined nearly everywhere in the area.

About a hundred years after the fall of the Mongol Empire, the Russians began their rapid expansion into northern and Central Asia. In the sixty-seven years from 1581 to 1648, the Russians moved through sparsely populated and technologically less advanced areas from the Urals to the Pacific and occupied most of Central Asia and Siberia. Moscow was motivated by the prospect of establishing a direct route to China and expanding its trade in silks and furs (made a state monopoly by Ivan the Terrible) while avoiding the "middle men" of Central Asia. Meanwhile, other Europeans, such as the Portuguese, the French, the English, and the Dutch, were developing sea routes to Asia. This competition for the Asia trade forced the Russians to intensify their effort to seek direct contacts with China and to expand eastward. In the process, 4.5 million square miles was added to the Muscovite state. In 1587, a Cossack army established Tobolsk, and by 1637 had rolled over native tribes and established the fort of Yakutsk on the Lena. Smaller tribes often died out, victims of the diseases brought eastward. Larger tribes generally adapted to colonial rule, which, given the vastness of the territory, was a relatively light burden. Later expeditions entered the Sea of Okhotsk, the Arctic Ocean, Kamchatka, and the Bering Strait.

As the Russians moved into eastern Siberia, several battles were fought with the Qing army. Russian activities in the Amur region particularly attracted the attention of the Manchu Emperor Kangxi (r. 1661–1722). He sent a strong army and drove the Russians out of the region in 1684. They soon returned and in 1686 were again besieged at their fort of Albazin. The Russians were saved by a last-minute reprieve when the emperor lifted the siege in favor of a diplomatic solution, the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689).