what was the main reason the princes of moscow were able to expand their power and rule russia?
Moscow lies well-nigh the center of Earth'south largest, flattest expanse of territory. With no natural defenses to slow downwardly invaders, Moscow developed a policy of continually expanding its boarders, acquisition and absorbing potential adversaries and placing more than distance betwixt the Russian heartland and other potential adversaries. For a larger map, click here
Moscow is not just a city. Information technology was a fort that became a city, that became a land, that became an empire, that became a superpower. Moscow maintained an unlikely meteoric rise to the global phase that continued steadily over the course of several centuries. Modern Russian federation can exist understood as a product of this unique development: every bit a land that was rapidly assembled, piece by slice, from the epicenter of its capital by the will, luck, and political maneuverings of rulers that accept been historically based in that city. This is the first of a series of articles that will trace and analyze Russia'southward history as a production of its geographic development.
Geohistory: the Foundations of Moscow and the Russian Land
Moscow was officially founded in 1147 by Yuri Dolgoruki, the K Prince of Kiev. The proper name "Moscow," applied to both the new garrison and the side by side river, may have come from the Slavic, Baltic, or even Uralic or Finno-Urgic peoples who lived in or traveled through the country for centuries before.
In 1147, Moscow was a small fishing village inhabited by Slavic peoples who had begun draining the surrounding swamps in the previous century. Moscow was founded at a time when Yuri's powerful Kievan Principality was expanding northward, colonizing and consolidating lands stretching towards the Arctic. Moscow's location gave the principality another admission point to the Volga River arrangement, which provided transport to the principality's new northward lands and provided increased opportunities to expand further east on the Volga which was so already part of economically valuable trade routes betwixt Europe and Asia.
Although the location had value to Kiev at the time, there was piffling reason to believe that the new garrison would ane day get the geopolitical heart of a vast swath of the Earth. The Moscow River is a relatively small offshoot in the Volga system. Moscow's placement provides an access point to, but non strategic control over any office of that system. Further, different most major European capitals, Moscow had no direct ocean admission for wider, more valuable international merchandise and communication. The atmospheric condition there is wet and the soil soft and moist, creating challenges for growing crops, storing food, and constructing infrastructure. The surrounding swampland bred mosquitos, which spread disease. A lack of attainable quarries meant that Moscow was long dependent on wooden architecture and, thus, susceptible to fires. Beyond Moscow, the vast expanses of Eurasia that information technology would one day control lay mostly flat for hundreds of miles in whatsoever direction. In that location was null to stop the numerous invading armies that would constantly claiming it. In fact, Moscow'southward best natural defense was the bad weather and boggy soil that fabricated inhabiting it a challenge in the first identify.
Moscow, mayhap more than any other urban center on Globe, is a testament to the fact that while geography often gives advantages or disadvantages, sometimes the force of history and the will of man can rival even the power of nature. Moscow grew from the personal ambitions of its rulers, ambitions that were given an immediacy and perceived necessity by the challenges that those ambitions faced.
Kieven Rus, a few years earlier Moscow was founded. Moscow'due south future site, on a relatively minor river, has been added with a cherry arrow. The shaded area at the north was under colonization by Kiev at the time. For the original, larger map, click the photo.
The Early Development of Moscow
X years after Moscow's official founding, a wooden wall was built to protect it, forming the original Kremlin. At about the same time, Kiev proclaimed the Vladimir-Suzdal Principality to further consolidate its governance of the area. Moscow was then a modest outpost near the border of that principality.
Evolution was slow and, when the Mongols invaded in the first one-half of the 13th Century, Moscow was one of several cities burned to the footing. In the 1260s, Moscow was inherited by Daniel, Alexander Nevsky's two-year-old son. By tradition, the youngest son inherited his begetter's to the lowest degree valuable possessions.
Past his teens, Daniel proved to be an practiced ruler who fabricated the well-nigh of the chaotic times that surrounded him. Under the newly established "Mongol Yolk" and with the death of Nevsky, who had been a strong and popular ruler, the area fractured into competing forces. The yolk besides effectively cut the principality from Kiev, whose empire would collapse by the end of the century.
By shifting his alliances between his extended family members and by keeping Moscow away from most straight conflicts, Daniel maintained influence in the region's larger and more powerful cities, especially the rising capital of Vladimir. Past 1296, his influence was such that the Prince of Ryazan, considering Daniel a potential future adversary and probable an easy, youthful target, attempted to conquer Moscow with the assist of allied Mongol forces.
Daniel, still, decisively defeated the invasion and fifty-fifty secured from Ryazan control of the Moscow River when Ryazan sued for peace. With control of the river, Moscow's economy grew at an expedited pace. Daniel's victory was ane of the start accomplished by the Russians over the Mongols and would become office of the narrative of a rising Russian nationalism. It was also the but major military machine battle that Daniel ever led (he otherwise fought nether his more powerful brothers).
Before long before Daniel's death, his childless nephew and marry, Ivan of Pereslavl, bequeathed to Daniel all his lands, including Pereslavl, the former residence of Alexander Nevsksy that had served every bit a second majuscule under Nevsky's grand rule. The acquisition increased Moscow'south wealth and political power.
By the time that Daniel died in 1303, Moscow had grown into a relatively small regional ability of notation with expanding political and territorial influence, economical potential, and cultural value as the pious Daniel had founded the city's first monasteries and major churches, including the Danilov Monastery, which still exists and now bears his proper name.
The expansion of Moscow Principality from Daniel (darkest purple in the south) ca. 1300 to Vasily II (calorie-free pinkish) in 1462. Note the surrounding rivals: the Mongols, Ryazan, Lithuania, and Novgorod. For a larger version, click the map.
Yuri, Daniel'due south eldest son, inherited his crown. Yuri's dominion was much more aggressive – taking new lands to the W and North of Moscow from the Prince of Smolensk and the Swedes to secure access to the Neva River system. That system flows to the Baltic Body of water, the closest signal of direct ocean access bachelor to Moscow. Yuri would proceeds simply indirect admission, all the same; Moscow's ships nevertheless had to laissez passer through the lands of other powers to actually reach the sea. Moscow would spend centuries trying to gain a direct foothold on the Baltic and uncontested ocean access.
Yuri aggressively sought political influence with the Mongols, which were then solidly in power and thus the most direct way to secure his inheritance from his increasingly covetous rivals.
Moscow'southward lasting influence was solidified nether Yuri's son, Ivan. Ivan successfully petitioned the Mongols for the title of Grand Prince, giving him the ability to collect taxes from all Russian lands and making him the single point of contact to pay the tribute demanded by the Mongols from those diverse and fractured lands. Ivan used his new source of finances to build infrastructure, buy land, and offering loans to surrounding principalities (and oft annexing them when payments savage behind). He even bought more than Russians to populate his lands (from the Mongols who had captured them elsewhere). As Moscow grew, and was comparatively safe from Mongol raids (due to its pledged Mongol loyalty and geographic buffers), more than people from surrounding areas moved to live under the protection and growing prosperity of Ivan. In 1325, the Metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church moved the seat of his Meet from Vladimir to Moscow.
Thus, over the course of merely 3 generations, Moscow skyrocketed from existence the region'south least-valuable garrison to being a regional ability able to compete with the other regional powers effectually information technology – including Tver, Ryazan, Novgorod, and even Vladimir, the official uppercase. Moscow took total advantage of the political situation caused by the Mongol invasions and congenital wealth and power by acquiring control of additional lands, full control of the Moscow River, and involving itself directly in the Mongol-imposed governance structures. Moscow's wealth and power, although still small-scale and very much confined to its region, were growing.
Moscow still faced still challenges, however. It lacked ocean admission, it ruled flat, indefensible terrain in a challenging climate, and was surrounded by potential adversaries. Many of those rivals, particularly Novgorod and Ryazan, were comparatively quite powerful, to say nix of the threat Moscow might face from the Mongol overlords should it autumn from favor.
Cracks in the Mongol Yoke
The Mongols continued to favor and strengthen Moscow, however. They did and then particularly as a line of defense against the growing power of the Lithuanians to the Due west. The Mongols were long Moscow's greatest asset; somewhen, Moscow became a major liability for the Mongols. Moscow became potent enough to dominate the surrounding lands and defend against encroachments, and, subsequently, strong plenty challenge the Mongols themselves.
This began in 1362, when then-Prince of Moscow Dimitri Donskoi sought approval from the Mongols for a formal takeover of Vladimir, the former regional upper-case letter. Mamai, and then leading the Mongols, denied the takeover, perhaps trying to taper Moscow'south growing power, and awarded the city instead to the rulers of Tver, a rival of Moscow.
A very brief video on Kievan Rus, the Mongol invasion, and Russia through 1584.
Also in 1362, Lithuania took over Kiev and sought to accelerate towards Moscow. Thus, in 1366, sensing threats from both sides, Donskoi began construction of white limestone walls to supervene upon the oak walls of the Kremlin. These were finished just in fourth dimension to withstand multiple sieges from Lithuania – in 1368, 1370, and 1372. They would also bear witness invaluable against many hereafter Mongol attacks.
By 1375, Donskoi negotiated with Mikhail II of Tver (whose chief benefactor had been the now-defeated Lithuanians) to take possession of Vladimir. However, the Mongols even so refused to recognize the transfer. Donskoi, who knew that the Mongols at that time were weakened by internal divisions, and having pacified the Lithuanians past withstanding their sieges, mounted a military challenge against the Mongols that would transform the surrounding political landscape.
Initially defeated in his 1377 offensive, Donskoi defended successfully against the 1378 Mongol counterattack. Both sides doubled down and prepared for a great battle. Mamai concluded an agreement with Republic of lithuania, his archrival, to join forces and defeat Moscow. Many Russian princes that had sworn allegiance to the Mongols, including Mikhail 2 of Tver, rebelled and joined Moscow. Several Russian princes that had allied previously with Lithuania against the Mongols broke their Lithuanian ties and joined Moscow. The Principality of Ryazan carve up, with the Prince at that place pledging a large armed force to the Mongol side, but with many of his boyers, in fact, defecting to Moscow. The leader of the Russian Orthodox Church officially gave his approving to Donskoi and contributed a contingent of warrior monks.
In 1380, Donskoi managed to attack the Mongols before reinforcements could arrive from either Lithuania or Ryazan. Donskoi, despite being outnumbered nearly 2-1, defeated the Mongols. The Lithuanians recalled their troops en route and Ryazan was forced to bow to Moscow. Although a massive Mongol regular army sent from Central Asia would burn Moscow and regain control of the city in 1382, Donskoi, by the terminate of his reign in 1389, had made Moscow a symbol of Russian resistance and a centre for Russian nationalism. He had also, despite eventually losing to the Mongols, more than doubled the size of the lands under Moscow's command and, in fact, now claimed the correct from the Mongols to mitt downward the title of Thou Prince (with its functions of general tax collecting) to his heirs without first consulting the Khan. This ensured that Moscow's greatest asset was at present under its own command.
Vasili the II saw the most troubled reign of any Moscovite prince to date. A civil war saw him imprisoned and blinded. However, he still expanded his territory and the power of the Moscow throne by the finish of his time in ability.
Origins of the Muscovite Ceremonious State of war
Although Moscow was now a sizeable and wealthy state, after Donskoi's reign, many of the advantages that had contributed to its meteoric rise were lost: freedom from Mongol invasions and a series of uncontested successions. However, fifty-fifty the loss of these advantages did non stop Moscow'southward rapid expansion.
In 1392, under Vasily I, Donskoi's son, Moscow annexed Nizhny Novgorod, another former rival. In 1395, Vasily claimed the infighting inside the Mongol empire prevented him from transferring his tribute: he did non know to whom to send it. He kept collecting taxes every bit the Grand Prince, but put the full forcefulness of these finances into his own kingdom – speedily expanding due north and east – taking Suzdal, Vologda, and conquering the Komi peoples. Past 1408, the horde regrouped and retaliated, burning several cities including Moscow to reinstate their authorization. Past 1414, Vasily was once again a vassal of the horde, but now a much larger and more powerful vassal, and resumed paying tribute.
Vasily Two, eldest son of Vasily I, assumed the throne in 1425. Still, the former ruler'due south blood brother, Yuri, challenge that he was the oldest eligible male heir, received permission from the Mongols to take Moscow past force. The Mongol leader may have hoped to accept a new prince that would be more indebted to him and less likely to rebel. The Mongols may take calculated every bit well that the move would spark a civil war, one that might pull Moscow's valuable surrounding duchy apart, giving Moscow'southward ruler fewer resources and thus making him more than manageable. In any case, in the midst of the 28-year Muscovite Civil War that followed, the Khanate of Kazan was established and the new leader at that place, to institute his supremacy over Moscow, besides attacked while the urban center was weakened.
Vasily Ii was defeated several times, taken prisoner, and fifty-fifty blinded by his enemies. Withal, those enemies always left him alive, perhaps fearing retribution from his numerous supporters. Each fourth dimension he regained his freedom, he regrouped and attacked again.
At the end of the state of war, Vasily remained much as he had begun: with his crown and lands and as a Mongol vassal. Given the circumstances, this was itself an incredible feat. Further, Vasily would as well nevertheless take time to significantly expand Moscow's power and influence by the stop of his reign.
In 1453 (the yr the Muscovite Civil War concluded), Constantinople, then the heart of Eastern Orthodoxy, was taken by the Turks. The Orthodox Patriarch in that location ceded his primacy to the Pope of Rome. Moscow, like many Orthodox centers, refused to recognize the new hierarchy, which would have brought all of Christianity under a unmarried leadership for the first time since the fall of Rome.
Vasily Ii nominated a new Metropolitan, Jonah, to take over religious leadership of the lands of Rus. Jonah was elected by the bishops of Moscow – the kickoff such election without the oversight of Constantinople. Although controversial, this avant-garde Russian nationalism and secured Moscow'southward place as a eye for that nationalism. This would be a valuable tool against Mongol dominion.
Ivan III – Consolidation of the Country
Until Ivan III, son of Vasily 2, the M Duchy of Moscow had been a complicated amalgamation of lands, many of them semi-autonomous, but all united in various means and to various degrees nether Moscow. Ivan would modify this.
Lands added to the Moscow Principality nether Ivan 3 after 1462 are shown in dark-green. This includes the very big Novgorod Republic (the solid green section at the top). Its most valuable lands were in the Arctic, and were rich in furs. For a larger version, click the map.
Ivan 3 was born in the midst of the civil state of war; information technology concluded when he was 13. His side by side nine years were spent taking intendance of his blind father and increasingly shouldering the piece of work of running the duchy. By the time he inherited the throne in 1462, at the historic period of 22, he was an experienced leader and was convinced that only strong, centralized leadership would hold his state together. He was also heir to the already well-established Russian belief that the simply way to brand sure the borders of the state were secure, in the face of numerous adversaries, was to continually abound them at the expense of those adversaries.
Ivan began by confronting Novgorod, a Slavic republic that drew considerable wealth past harvesting furs in the vast swaths of Chill lands that information technology controlled. The Mongols required Moscow to gather tribute from Novgorod although the Mongols had never actually sacked that city (probably due to the astringent boglands surrounding it). Novgorod had, like Moscow, often maneuvered for more independence, but from Moscow, not the Mongols.
The split between Moscow and Novgorod ran deep. Novgorod's highly institutionalized and decentralized organisation of regime in which princes served at the invitation of the people stood in stark contrast to Moscow's centralized and personalized ruling traditions. In fact, Novgorod's social systems were much closer to what had adult in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during its aureate age. Novgorod had constant contact with the Poles, a fellow Slavic people, in maintaining their trade routes to Europe.
As Novgorod saw Moscow annexing more Slavic lands while the Mongol empire crumbled, Novgorod sought to protect its interests by making a pact with Poland. Notwithstanding, under a treaty that Novgorod had signed with Moscow, all Novgorod's deportment in the realm of foreign affairs were to be approved by Moscow beginning. Such approval had not been sought or given. Farther, the Poles held an brotherhood with the Mongols at that time and Ivan saw Novgorod's alliances equally truly enveloping Moscow in united rivals. Ivan moved to enforce the treaty by invading.
Ivan defeated Novgorod, confiscated its well-nigh valuable lands, and demanded a treaty giving Moscow even more authority. Ivan's subsequent attempts to stamp out opposition in Novgorod by diplomacy and, increasingly, arrests and violence proved unsuccessful. Seven years after the start invasion, Ivan invaded again, slaughtering the population, burning parts of Novgorod, and demanding, and receiving, the consummate political subjugation of the metropolis in 1478. The metropolis'south population, however, would proceed to be restless against Moscow rule for at least the adjacent ii generations.
A map showing the full expansion of the Russian Empire. Areas marked in blueish were nether Russian command at the end of the reign of Ivan 3. Ivan 6 added the vast majority of what is marked in purple. Note that the expanse around the Baltic Sea was not secure plenty nor held for long enough intervals to be developed as economically or militarily viable territory. For a larger version, click here.
The fall of Novgorod was important for many reasons. It represented the most pregnant expansion of Moscow's borders to date, an expansion that would only proceed to escalate in the coming years. Information technology also represented the fall of what was the most meaning ethnically Russian rival to Moscow. Thus, this marked the outset of Ivan'southward long campaign to consolidate his holdings under his direct authorisation while making Moscow the almost powerful political base of Russian nationalism.
Ivan went so far as to declare war on his brothers to ensure that their state was completely controlled by him. Boyars were finer reduced to civil servants, carrying out Ivan'southward will. To brand sure that this could exist done finer, Ivan had the Sudebnik, Russian federation'due south beginning code of laws, drawn up. The Sudebnik was largely concerned with regulating land buying and facilitated continued takeovers by Ivan. It also, still, provided a unified system of justice, codification rights and obligations for all classes, and immune for serfs to change masters under sure conditions if they wished.
Ivan refused to pay the customary Mongol tribute in 1476, marking yet some other attempt by Moscow to declare independence. When the Mongols arrived in 1480 with a big strength of equus caballus mounted archers and spear-conveying warriors, Ivan met them with a smaller force equipped with newly caused firearms and cannons. The Mongols retreated and, before they could launch a new offensive, the Aureate Horde, long fractured and struggling, complanate. The diverse Mongol states that emerged from that fall would still pose challenges for Moscow, but never again would Moscow face a united Mongol forepart or once again pay tribute to the Mongols.
Afterward the breakup of the Smooth-Lithuanian Democracy, Ivan pushed West, into former commonwealth lands, as far as possible. Ivan hoped to gain direct access to the Baltic and also to realize what he saw as a rightful claim to Kiev. Considerable advances towards these goals were made, including establishing a fort on the Narva simply a few kilometers from the Baltic Sea and deep advances south towards Kiev, but these were soon lost again as his rivals regrouped and counter attacked.
Despite this, by the finish of his reign, Ivan Three had tripled the size of his lands and consolidated his rule into what was shaping into a massive consolidated monarchy. Ivan'due south son, Vasilli II, continued his policies, further consolidating and expanding, mostly at the expense of the Lithuanians and the Poles.
Ivan IV – The First Tsar
Ivan had himself crowned "Tsar of All Russia" when he was but xvi, pushing for a leadership role molded off Caesar of Rome – accented and accountable only to God. He created the Zemsky Sobor, a legislative organ that included boyers, clergy, and local leaders. He expanded the rights of local governments at the expense of the aristocracy and solidified the rights of serfs to leave their masters nether sure conditions. He reformed the Russian church by posing 100 questions to church leaders and calling them to a conference to have them answered. Although he experimented with somewhat more inclusive forms of governance, Ivan also founded the Oprichniki – a group of individuals who were granted country in return for acting as underground constabulary – seeking out and eliminating any threat to Ivan's rule.
Ivan's attempts to push his borders to the Baltic Body of water presently saw him fighting the Swedes, Latvians, German Hanseatic League, and the Poles. Now, instead of having passive access to the sea through the Neva, he faced a full Swedish occludent. The wars were enormously expensive, and the economic devastation was compounded by droughts and plagues. War, dearth, and disease drained the Russian countryside of the agricultural workforce that created the vast bulk of the country's economic value, putting groovy strain on Ivan's dominion.
Rebuffed in the due west, Ivan was much more successful in the e. Ivan subjugated Kazan and Astrakhan, two bordering Mongol territories, and thus gained strategic control over the economically valuable Volga and Komi Rivers. Ivan issued a patent to the powerful Strogonov family to develop the newly caused Siberian lands. The Strogonovs hired Cossacks as a private army to protect their possessions, and sent the Cossacks deeper into Siberia, again, to secure the borders by expanding them.
Although the Strongonovs planned to proclaim themselves the rulers over the Cossack gains, the Cossacks pledged loyalty direct to Ivan in return for reinforcements to proceed the drive due east, somewhen giving Ivan control over near of another river organisation, the Ob-Irtysh in Siberia.
A item of a land use map for the USSR, ca. 1960, centered on the area nether Russian control in 1584. Notation that even in 1960, near half of this land was undeveloped. Solid green areas (heavily forested), stripped green (swampland), yellow (desert), and stripped white (chill tundra) are largely depopulated and were used for hunting, trapping, and nomadic herding, if at all. The area effectually Moscow was mixed use (farming, grazing, and forestry). Red, orange, and purple areas were used relatively intensively for agronomics to support larger populations merely were, overall, poorly irrigated and faced send issues to move the food to population centers. Russia would e'er struggle with poor land quality and inefficient land use. For a larger map, click here.
Moscow as an Empire: More State with the Same Problems
Past the finish of his reign, Ivan had further consolidated Moscow'south control over a massive and growing swath of state that stretched from the Caspian to the Chill. However, even now, Moscow's empire still faced the same basic challenges information technology had when it was the region'southward least valuable fort.
Moscow however had no bounding main access and thus no admission to the valuable trade and advice capabilities that that represented. Further, despite its size, Moscow was still surrounded past a apartment mural with nigh no pregnant geographic defenses. The Urals perhaps represented the best such nugget controlled past Moscow – but that old and low mountain rage had certainly not stopped the Mongols from invading from the due east. Moscow notwithstanding saw itself as surrounded by enemies and rivals – many of which Ivan had provoked by his military campaigns to gain ocean admission in the w. Mongol clans and the various indigenous tribes in the east were also seen every bit liabilities to exist absorbed.
Lastly, although Moscow'southward holdings at present included relatively sunny grasslands in the south, these were poorly irrigated and most Russian holdings were still boglands and chill tundra. Further, Ivan now faced the added challenge of sheer size and indigenous complication to brand developing physical and governing infrastructure more challenging.
The new Tsardom still held the aforementioned definite geographic center in Moscow, from whence the empire had exploded. Information technology was still governed past the personality of Moscow's leader who had driven that growth through ambition and perceived need. Moscow would keep its now-long-continuing policies of protecting its borders by continually pushing them outward, sometimes at corking cost, and sometimes against all odds and even logic, but ever, it seemed, with eventual success. This strategy had allowed Moscow to prosper against all odds and abound rapidly into one of the world's largest empires and would proceed to define Moscow's tactics.
This commodity was originally published at SRAS.org in Dec, 2015. It was updated and migrated to GeoHistory Today in March, 2017.
Source: https://geohistory.today/origins-of-russia-pt1/
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