Imperial Russia
Imperial Russia
Main article: Russian Empire
Peter the Great, Tsar of All Russia in 1682–1721 and the first Emperor of All Russia in 1721–1725
Under Peter the Great, Russia was proclaimed an Empire in 1721, and became recognised as a global power. Ruling from 1682 to 1725, Peter defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War, forcing it to cede West Karelia and Ingria (two regions lost by Russia in the Time of Troubles),[51] as well as Estland and Livland, securing Russia’s access to the sea and sea trade.[52] On the Baltic Sea, Peter founded a new capital named Saint Petersburg. Later, his reforms brought considerable Western European cultural influences to Russia.
The reign of Peter I’s daughter Elizabeth in 1741–62 saw Russia’s participation in the Seven Years’ War (1756–63). During this conflict, Russia annexed East Prussia for a while and even took Berlin. However, upon Elizabeth’s death, all these conquests were returned to the Kingdom of Prussia by pro-Prussian Peter III of Russia.
Catherine II (“the Great”), who ruled in 1762–96, presided over the Age of Russian Enlightenment. She extended Russian political control over the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and incorporated most of its territories into Russia during the Partitions of Poland, pushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Europe. In the south, after the successful Russo-Turkish Wars against Ottoman Turkey, Catherine advanced Russia’s
boundary to the Black Sea, defeating the Crimean Khanate. As a result of victories over Qajar Iran through the Russo-Persian Wars, by the first half of the 19th century, Russia also made significant territorial gains in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus.[53][54] Catherine’s successor, her son Paul, was unstable and focused predominantly on domestic issues. Following his short reign, Catherine’s strategy was continued with Alexander I’s (1801–25) wresting of Finland from the weakened kingdom of Sweden in 1809 and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. At the same time, Russians became the first Europeans to colonise Alaska and founded settlements in California, such as Fort Ross.
