Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in the context of "Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire"

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 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.

The Danubian Principalities (German: Donaufürstentümer, Russian: Дунайские княжества, Romanian: Principatele Dunărene) was a geopolitical term used for the Ottoman vassal principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in the period of 1774–1858, a time of when the territories were a battleground between the Ottoman Empire, Habsburg Monarchy, and Russian Empire. While Russia returned Moldavia and Wallachia to the Ottoman Empire with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774), it retained protectorship over the two and also of the Orthodox subjects in all of the Ottoman Empire. This made the two principalities have the status of dual authority, under Ottoman suzerainty but with Russian protection. The Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829) ended with the Russian occupation of the two principalities. The negotiations of the Great Powers in the aftermath of Russian defeat resulted in the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859.

Kaynardzha (also transliterated as Kajnardža; Bulgarian: Кайнарджа, IPA: [kɐjnɐrˈd͡ʒa]; Romanian: Cainargeaua Mică; Turkish: Kaynarca; Greek: Καϊναρτζή) is a village in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Silistra Province. It is the administrative centre of Kaynardzha Municipality, which lies in the easternmost part of Silistra Province, in the historical region of Southern Dobruja, close to the Romanian border.

The village is known as the location of the signing of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca on 21 July 1774 between Count Pyotr Rumyantsev, representative of Empress Catherine the Great of the Russian Empire and Musul Zade Mehmed Pasha, representative of Sultan Abdul Hamid I of the Ottoman Empire. The treaty put an end to the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, which was devastating for the once-mighty Ottoman realm.