With
Ottomans’ and Persians’ loss of strength, Russians became effective in 18th century.
And they recaptured with an attack over Persia in 1796 those places where they had to
leave at the beginning of the century. They used the conflicts between the little khanates
and beylics and therefore they seized large lands without spending much afford. They used
artillery troops, which was new for highlander forces who were defeated easily after a
couple of shoots. This small khanates had to accept the power of this new enemy, but they
revolt whenever they had a chance in order to gain their independence again. Russians
considered their freedom lover actions as a betreyal and destroyed their village and
towns. When Derbent was invaded in 1796, Tabasarans also submitted. In 1803 Russians
captures Avar Khanate which was the most important khanate in Daghestan. Baku and Kuba
khanates were invaded in 1806. Until 1819, Russians captured many Daghestan tribes such as
Akusha veya Darghi, Siorgen, Roghul and Kubachi. After being submitted against Russians in
1786, Ghazi Kumuk Khan revolt in 1821 but was defeated Russia. In a quarter of a century,
Russia captured most of Daghestan and some khanates in south. During this invasion,
Russians behaved in an uncivilized and non-ethical way that they used barbarous methods.
These inhuman methods even bothered Tzar Nicola I, who was a tyrant himself.
Because of these invasions and resisting struggle against
them, the first half of 19th century is one of the most important periods in Daghestan
history. In this period, Daghestan went into Russian sovereign with Gulistan Agreement
signed between Russia and Iran in 1813. However, Daghestan did not accept Russian
sovereign and showed a remarkable and admiring resistance under the leadership of Sheikh
Shamil until 1859. After this year, there had been seen some revolts which were not
successful, and Daghestan had to accept Russian sovereign at last.
In order to keep their control over the invaded lands,
Russians settled Kazak people in this region and gave them some military privileges.
Daghestan was not very attractive for Russian immigrants because the land was not
fruitful. But immigrants went to some fruitful plain areas laying from the mountains to
the sea coast, and this area were under control of them. In other words, plow followed the
sword; sometime they moved forward together. At the end of these developments, some
settlement places were built as well as constructed forts in these areas which were also
used as base on attacks to mountainous region.
In the 18th century, Europeon countries were very active
in colonial policies due to economical, political and technological effects as well as
military impact. Following Spain and Portugal, some other European countries like England,
France, Belgium, the Netherlands colonized oversea countries in America, Africa and Asia
and exploited the natural sources in these countries. As a European country, Russia were
getting economical and military strength in these years. On the other hand, Russia had
some demographical, social and geographical advantages such as having a big army,
patriotism and sense of faith among some social classes as well as having a center
position away from outer dangers threats. Using these advantages, Russia were expanding
its borders as other European countries and getting new colonies.
In this period, Daghestan people showed a wholehearted
and zealous resistance against Russians while they mode some socio-economical structural
changes. One of the most important changes was to abrogate feudalism which Russian could
not for years. Thus, it will be of great help to go over the position of Russia in that
time as well as this great resistance campaign so that we can determine correctly these
socio-economical developments happened in Daghestan in this period.
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