European advances into the Americas is a pretty useless attempt by whoever makes it, governing parameters being entirely different in virtually every aspect.Īnd when, by bad planning, you get into a situation where you starve, you'll likely eat your own friends in the end, so it was a stroke of good luck to come across others that one didn't feel particularly friendly about. Not until Ivan IV (the terrible) took the Tatar (and by then Muslim) capital of Kasan, was the hitherto ever-lasting threat of the Asian dominance removed, at the same time allowing annexation of the whole mid-Volga area and opening the path to Siberia.įor historic reasons sketched, Russians were not prone to be particular kindly disposed towards Asians.Ĭomparing their advance into Siberia with W. To just name one aspect, Russia was darn near destroyed by the hordes which came out of Asia and lived under the Mongol and Tatar yoke for such a period that it remains a trauma to this day to most Russians.
Timelines and conditions rarely match, encountered circumstances neither, and least of all geographical issues. Where history is an interesting subject, the minute one starts comparing that of others (nations) with one's own, one defeats oneself. As already noted, these explorers were sending back some rather graphic reports, and the Tsars actually seem to have explicitly ordered some of the worst of it. You can't really argue that this was something that took place without the Russian government's knowledge either, as one can with many of the abuses which took place under the Spanish Empire. You can't really argue that this was something which took place without the Russian government's knowledge either, as one can with many of the abuses which took place under the Spanish Empire. It seems that the only reason they ever stopped is because Russian raiding parties eventually ran afoul of the Chinese border, and simply didn't have the manpower or supply lines necessary to challenge their military establishment. Their cruelty was so infamous that natives named them "demons," and they could cause the populations of entire regions to flee just by reputation alone! God alone could help anyone who got in their way. Their only real interest was plunder, followed by resettlement with their own people. In contrast with the Spaniards, who pretty clearly came to the Americas with a mind to govern and rule (even if they weren't competent at it), and the English, French, or Dutch, who flatly didn't give a damn about the natives one way or the other for any purpose other than trade and conversion, the Russians basically rolled into Asia like a horde of bloodthirsty Vikings with all guns blazing.
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