Early history Of Ukraine (800 BC–AD 700) From 7th century BC Greeks started to colonize the coast of the Black Sea. They traded wine, oil, and textiles, silver and gold wares and utensils with local tribes for grain and hides but they also engaged in slave trade. They introduced Greek Culture and many tribes adopted Greek customs and religion. The Greek historian Herodotus documented information about Ukraine of this period. In antiquity, the south and east of modern Ukraine was populated by nomads called Scythians (Iranian tribe).
The Scythian Kingdom existed here from 700 BC to 200 BC. In the 3rd century AD, the Goths settled and called the country Oium. They formed the Chernyakhov culture before moving on.
In the 7th century, the territory of modern Ukraine was the core of the state of the Bulgars (often referred to as Great Bulgaria) with capital city Phanagoria. At the end of the 7th century, most Bulgar tribes migrated in several directions and the remains of their state were absorbed by the Khazars, a semi-nomadic people from Central Asia.
The Khazars founded the independent Khazar kingdom in the southeastern part of today's Europe, near the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. The kingdom included western Kazakhstan, and parts of modern eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, southern Russia, and Crimea.
Kievska Rus' (800–1200)
During the 10th and 11th centuries the territory of Ukraine became the centre of a powerful and prestigious state in Europe, the Kievan Rus, laying the foundation for the national identity of Ukrainians, as well as other East Slavic nations, through subsequent centuries. Its capital was Kiev, which later became the capital of modern Ukraine, wrested from Khazars by Askold and Dir in about 860. According to the Primary Chronicle, the Kievan Rus' elite initially consisted of Varangians from Scandinavia. The Varangians later became assimilated into the local Slavic population and became part of the Rus' first dynasty, the Rurik Dynasty.
Kievan Rus' comprised several principalities, ruled by the interrelated Rurikid Princes. The seat of Kiev, the most prestigious and influential of all principalities, became a subject of many rivalries between Rurikids as the most valuable prize in their quest for power, sometimes through intrigue but often through bloody conflicts. The Golden Age of Kievan Rus' began with the reign of Vladimir the Great (Volodymyr, 980–1015) who turned Rus' toward Byzantine Christianity. In History he is known as Volodymyr the Great or Saint Volodymyr. During his reign after several wars against Khazar Kahanate, pillaging Pecheneg hordes defeated the Khazars, pushed out the Hungarian hordes from the southern steppes and became a menace to the state. They attacked Kievskaya Rus' lands regularly and turned the South of Ukraine into "Dyke Pole"(Wild field) where almost nobody lived. Volodymyr started to fortify Kyiv against them. After his death in 1015, fighting and assassinations between his sons ensued, resulting in victory for prince Yaroslav in 1019. During the reign of his son, Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power. This was followed by the state's increasing fragmentation as the relative importance of regions rose again. After a final resurgence under the rule of Vladimir Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son Mstislav (1125–1132), the Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into separate principalities following Mstislav's death. The 13th century Mongol invasion devastated Kievan Rus'. KIevan Rus' and Pechenig tribes established an alliance against Tatr-Mongol army. But they were defeated on the Kalka river. Kiev was totally destroyed in 1240.
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
After the Mongol invasion much of Ukraine was controlled by Lithuania (from the 14th century on) and since the Union of Lublin (1569) by Poland(Rech Pospolita) since 1619
On the Ukrainian territory, the state of Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the principalities of Halych and Volodymyr-Volynskyi, which were merged into the state of Halych-Volynia. Prince Danylo (son of Prince Roman) established himself in Halych and his brother Vasylko in Volynj. Together they managed to keep the Tatars away from their principalities. Danylo founded city Lviv in 1250 as a defense site against Tatars. In 1253 he accepted the royal crown from the pope and effected a short-lived church union with Rome. In the mid 14th century, it was subjugated by Casimir The Great of Poland while the heartland of Rus', including Kiev, fell under the Gediminids of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Following the 1386 marriage of Lithuania's Grand Duke Jagiello to Poland's King Jadwiga (her title was "King" although she was a woman), most of Ukraine's territory was controlled by the increasingly Ruthenized Lithuanian rulers as part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At this time, the term Ruthenia and Ruthenians as the Latinized versions of "Rus'", became widely applied to the land and its people, respectively.
By the 1569 Union of Lublin that formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from largely Ruthenized Lithuanian rule to the Polish administration, as it was transferred to the Polish Crown. Under the cultural pressure of Polonization much of the Ruthenian upper class converted to Catholicism (such transitions were beneficial for achieving political influence within the state), for example, King Michael of Poland, who reigned from 1669 to 1673, was of the Polonized Ruthenian Vishnevetsky (Wiśniowiecki) family. At the same time, the common people, especially the peasants, retained their old ways and their allegiance to their historic Eastern Orthodox Church. This led to increasing social tension, visible in events such as the 1596 Union of Brest, created by Sigismund III Vasa, who attempted to bring the Orthodox population under the Catholicism through creation of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. This controversial move failed to achieve its goals. Resisted even by some Ruthenian magnates, otherwise loyal to the Polish kings (Ostrogskis being the most notable example), the new "intermediate" religion was unnecessary for most of the upper class, much of which increasingly turned toward Catholicism with each subsequent generation. Thus, the Ukrainian commoners, deprived of their native protectors among Ruthenian nobility, turned for protection to the Cossacks who remained fiercely Orthodox at all times.
From 1569 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth suffered a series of Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture slaves into jasyr(slavery). The borderland area to the southeast was in a state of semi-permanent warfare until the 18th century. Some researchers estimate that more than three-million people, predominantly Ukrainians but also Circassians, Russians, Belarusians and Poles, were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate.
|
