Khanate of Sibir in the context of "Siberia"

The Russian conquest of Siberia took place during 1581–1778, when the Khanate of Sibir became a loose political structure of vassalages that were being undermined by the activities of Russian explorers. Although outnumbered, the Russians pressured the various family-based tribes into changing their loyalties and establishing distant forts from which they conducted raids. It is traditionally considered that Yermak Timofeyevich's campaign against the Siberian Khanate began in 1581. The annexation of Siberia and the Far East to Russia was resisted by local residents and took place against the backdrop of fierce battles between the indigenous peoples of Siberia and the Russian Cossacks, who often committed atrocities against indigenous Siberians. The conquest of the region was a spontaneous event organized by a group of adventurers; it is one of the early European colonial campaigns.

The Khanate of Sibir was a Muslim state located just east of the middle Ural Mountains. Its conquest by Yermak Timofeyevich in 1582 was the first event in the Russian conquest of Siberia.

The Shibanids or Shaybanids, more accurately known as the Abul-Khayrid-Shibanids, were a Culturally Persianate Dynasty of Uzbek (Turko-Mongol) origin who ruled over the Khanate of Bukhara (from 1505 to 1598), the Khanate of Khwarezm (Khiva) (from 1511 to 1695), and the Khanate of Sibir (from 1563 until 1598). Their territory included most of modern-day Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and parts of Russia (including West Siberia) in the 15-16th century (1428-1599). They were succeeded by the Janid dynasty (1599 to 1785).

They were the patrilineal descendants of Shiban, the fifth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. Until the mid-14th century, they acknowledged the authority of the descendants of Shiban's brothers Batu Khan and Orda Khan, such as Öz Beg Khan. The Shaybanids originally led the Gray Horde southeast of the Urals (also known as the Uzbegs, after the Uzbeks), and converted to Islam in 1282. At its height, the Khanate included parts of modern-day Afghanistan and other parts of Central Asia.

Yermak Timofeyevich (Russian: Ермак Тимофеевич, IPA: [jɪrˈmak tʲɪmɐˈfʲejɪvʲɪt͡ɕ]; 1532 (supposedly) – August 5 or 6, 1585) was a Cossack ataman who started the Russian conquest of Siberia during the reign of the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. He is today a hero in Russian folklore and myths.

Russian interests in the fur trade fueled their desire to expand east into Siberia. The Tatar Khanate of Kazan established by Ulugh Muhammad was the best entryway into Siberia. In 1552, Ivan the Terrible's modernized army toppled the khanate. After the takeover of Kazan, the tsar looked to the powerful and affluent Stroganov merchant family to spearhead the eastward expansion. In the late 1570s, the Stroganovs recruited Cossack fighters to invade Asia on behalf of the tsar. These Cossacks elected Yermak as the leader of their armed forces, and in 1582 Yermak set out with an army of 840 to attack the Khanate of Sibir.

Taibuga (Siberian Tatar: Тайбоға қан, romanized: Tayboğa qan), the first khan of the Khanate of Sibir, came to power in the 13th century as a result of the power vacuum caused by the breakup of the Mongol Empire. Some legendary accounts identify him as a noble from Bukhara and associate him with the conversion of Sibir to Islam.

The facts of his reign remain relatively unclear, but it appears he was a shamanist. Taibuga drove the forces of Novgorod from his land. He was claimed as the founding ancestor by the Taibuga clan of Sibir.