Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe in the context of "Crimea"

The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as Tauris, Taurica (Greek: Ταυρική or Ταυρικά), and the Tauric Chersonese (Greek: Χερσόνησος Ταυρική, "Tauric Peninsula"), begins around the 5th century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern-day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome (63 BC – 341 AD). The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire (341–1204), the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461), and the independent Principality of Theodoro (ended 1475). In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince Vladimir the Great was baptised at Chersonesus Cathedral, which marked the beginning of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. During the Mongol invasion of Europe, the north and centre of Crimea fell to the Mongol Golden Horde, and in the 1440s the Crimean Khanate formed out of the collapse of the horde but quite rapidly itself became subject to the Ottoman Empire, which also conquered the coastal areas which had kept independent of the Khanate. A major source of prosperity in these times was frequent raids into Russia for slaves for the Crimean slave trade.

In 1774, the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Catherine the Great. After two centuries of conflict, the Russian fleet had destroyed the Ottoman navy and the Russian army had inflicted heavy defeats on the Ottoman land forces. The ensuing Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca forced the Sublime Porte to recognize the Tatars of the Crimea as politically independent. Catherine the Great's incorporation of the Crimea in 1783 from the defeated Ottoman Empire into the Russian Empire increased Russia's power in the Black Sea area. The Crimea was the first Muslim territory to slip from the sultan's suzerainty. The Ottoman Empire's frontiers would gradually shrink, and Russia would proceed to push her frontier westwards to the Dniester. From 1853 to 1856, the strategic position of the peninsula in controlling the Black Sea meant that it was the site of the principal engagements of the Crimean War, where Russia lost to a French-led alliance.

The Russian Empire formally annexed the Crimean Khanate on 19 April [O.S. 8 April] 1783, following a decade-long campaign of intervention in the Crimean Peninsula. Russia aimed to control the Black Sea and end raids by Crimean slavers into its territory. To accomplish this, the Russians waged a series of wars against the Ottoman Empire and its Crimean vassal state, culminating in victory in the 1768–1774 Russo-Turkish War. The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, signed in 1774, granted the Crimean Khanate nominal independence from the Ottomans under Russian influence. In subsequent years, Russia would intervene widely in Crimean affairs, provoking a series of revolts by the Crimean Tatars, while the Ottomans watched in ambivalence. Crimea was finally annexed by Russia on 19 April 1783, after Russian imperial advisor Prince Grigory Potemkin encouraged Empress Catherine the Great to dissolve the khanate and formally claim its territory. The annexation ended the centuries-long Crimean slave trade. Under Russian administration, the former khanate was subjected to a long-term policy of de-Tatarisation. Tatar property was confiscated, and Russians were encouraged to settle in the region, sparking waves of Tatar emigration.

The history of slavery in the Muslim world was throughout the history of Islam with slaves serving in various social and economic roles, from powerful emirs to harshly treated manual laborers. Slaves were widely in labour in irrigation, mining, and animal husbandry, but most commonly as soldiers, guards, domestic workers. The use of slaves for hard physical labor early on in Muslim history led to several destructive slave revolts, the most notable being the Zanj Rebellion of 869–883. Many rulers also used slaves in the military and administration to such an extent that slaves could seize power, as did the Mamluks.

Most slaves were imported from outside the Muslim world. Slavery in the Muslim world did not have a racial foundation in principle, although this was not always the case in practice. The Arab slave trade was most active in West Asia, North Africa (Trans-Saharan slave trade), and Southeast Africa (Red Sea slave trade and Indian Ocean slave trade), and rough estimates place the number of Africans enslaved in the twelve centuries prior to the 20th century at between six million to ten million. The Ottoman slave trade came from raids into eastern and central Europe and the Caucasus connected to the Crimean slave trade, while slave traders from the Barbary Coast raided the Mediterranean coasts of Europe and as far afield as the British Isles and Iceland.

The Cossack raids largely developed as a reaction to the Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe, which began in 1441 and lasted until 1774. From c. 1492 onwards, the Cossacks (the Zaporozhian Cossacks of southern Ukraine and the Don Cossacks of southern Russia) conducted regular military offensives into the lands of the Crimean Khanate, the Nogai Horde, and the Ottoman Empire, where they would free enslaved Christians and return home with a significant amount of plunder and Muslim slaves. Unlike the Tatars, Cossack raiders were capable of capturing and devastating highly fortified cities. Though difficult to calculate, the level of devastation caused by the Cossack raids is roughly estimated to have been on par with that of the Crimean–Nogai slave raids. According to History of Ruthenians, Cossack raids during Sirko's era were a hundred times more devastating than Crimean–Nogai raids.