The Russian conquest of Siberia began in the 1580s, when the Stroganov merchant family hired a Cossack leader named Yermak Timofeyevich to deal with the Khanate of Sibir, ruled by Khan Kuchum. Yermak's small force, armed with firearms, defeated Kuchum's army and took his capital, and although Yermak died in 1585, Russian expansion continued. Fortified outposts such as Tyumen and Tobolsk were founded, and traders and Cossacks followed the great rivers eastward, partly in search of valuable sable furs. By the middle of the seventeenth century they had reached the Pacific coast, founding Yakutsk and Okhotsk on the way. Indigenous peoples were made to pay a fur tribute called yasak, and many suffered from violence, disease and loss of land as Russia grew into the largest country in the world.
Before and after
- 23 January 1579Union of Utrecht
- 1580Publication of Jerusalem Delivered
- c. 1580Eruption of Billy Mitchell
- 11 June 1580Founding of Buenos Aires
- from July 1580 to January 1700Colonization of Siberia
- 1581Construction of Uffizi Gallery
- from 26 July 1581 to 19 January 1795Dutch Republic
- 26 July 1581Act of Abjuration
- from 18 August 1581 to 4 February 1582Siege of Pskov
More in Wars, politics & history
- 13 April 1598Edict of Nantes
- from 1642 to 1651English Civil War
- 24 October 1648Peace of Westphalia
- from 22 February 1700 to 10 September 1721Great Northern War
- from March 1701 to September 1714War of the Spanish Succession
- from 17 May 1756 to 15 February 1763Seven Years' War
The era
This moment belongs to the Early modern world (1500 CE to 1760 CE), voyages, printing and new ideas. You can also browse everything in the 16th century.