Annexation of the Crimean Khanate by the Russian Empire in the context of "Catherine the Great"

The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde. Established by Hacı I Giray in 1441, it was regarded as the direct heir to the Golden Horde and to Desht-i-Kipchak.

In 1783, violating the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (which had guaranteed non-interference of both Russia and the Ottoman Empire in the affairs of the Crimean Khanate), the Russian Empire annexed the khanate. Among the European powers, only France came out with an open protest against this act, due to the longstanding Franco-Ottoman alliance.

Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: qırımtatarlar, къырымтатарлар), or simply Crimeans (qırımlılar, къырымлылар), are an Eastern European Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Black Sea, uniting Mediterranean populations with those of the Eurasian Steppe.

Until the 20th century, Crimean Tatars were the most populous demographic cohort in Crimea, constituting the majority of the peninsula's population as a whole. Following the Russian Empire's annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1783, they were subjected to attempts at driving them from the region through a combination of physical violence and harassment, forced resettlement, and legalized forms of discrimination. By 1800, between 100,000 and 300,000 Crimean Tatars had left Crimea.

The de-Tatarization of Crimea (Crimean Tatar: Qırımnıñ tatarsızlaştırıluvı; Russian: Детатаризация Крыма, romanized: Detatarizatsiya Kryma; Ukrainian: Детатаризація Криму, romanized: Detataryzatsiya Krymu) was initiated by the Russian Empire and perpetuated by the Soviet Union. Following the Russian Empire's annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1783, a variety of legal and practical measures were implemented to subjugate the indigenous Crimean Tatars, who are a Turkic ethnic group. This process of "de-Tatarization" manifested in many ways throughout Crimea, intensifying significantly during the Soviet Union's Stalinist era: the Crimean Tatar language was suppressed and supplanted by the Russian language, especially by renaming Crimean toponyms; the government settled Russians and other Slavs in the region and promoted Tatarophobia amongst them, such as by describing Crimean Tatars as traitorous "Mongols" with no authentic connection to the peninsula; and, ultimately, as many as nearly half a million Crimean Tatars were deported in a campaign of ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide. During 1783–1917, nearly 4 million Muslims were forced to emigrate from Crimea, primarily to the Ottoman Empire. Prior to 1783, Crimean Tatars made up 95% of the Crimean population.

Taurida Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (guberniya) of the Russian Empire. It included the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River with the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. It formed after the Taurida Oblast was abolished in 1802 during Paul I's administrative reform of the territories of the former Crimean Khanate, which were annexed by Russia from the Ottoman Empire in 1783. The governorate's centre was the city of Simferopol. The name of the province was derived from Taurida (Greek: Ταυρική), a historical name for Crimea.

Today the territory of the governorate is part of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts of Ukraine, which were annexed by Russia after their 2022 invasion, but remain internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.