Age of Discovery

==Russian exploration of Siberia (1581–1660)==
{{Main|Russian conquest of Siberia|Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir|Siberian River Routes|List of Russian explorers}}
[[File:Siberiariverroutemap.png|right|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Siberian river routes]] were of primary significance in the process of exploration.]]
In the mid-16th century, the [[Tsardom of Russia]] conquered the Tatar khanates of [[Khanate of Kazan|Kazan]] and [[Astrakhan Khanate|Astrakhan]], thus annexing the entire [[Volga Region]] and opening the way to the [[Ural Mountains]]. The colonization of the new easternmost lands of Russia and further onslaught eastward was led by the rich merchants [[Stroganov]]s. Tsar [[Ivan IV]] granted vast estates near the Urals as well as tax privileges to [[Anikey Stroganov]], who organized large-scale migration to these lands. Stroganovs developed farming, hunting, saltworks, fishing, and ore mining on the Urals and established trade with [[Indigenous peoples of Siberia|Siberian tribes]].

===Conquest of the Khanate of Sibir===
Around 1577, [[Semyon Stroganov]] and other sons of Anikey Stroganov hired a [[Cossack]] leader called [[Yermak Timofeyevich|Yermak]] to protect their lands from the attacks of Khan [[Kuchum]]. By 1580, Stroganovs and Yermak came up with the idea of a military expedition to [[Siberia]], in order to fight Kuchum in his own land. In 1581, Yermak began his voyage into the depths of Siberia. After a few victories over the khan's army, Yermak's people defeated the main forces of Kuchum on [[Irtysh River]] in a 3-day [[Battle of Chuvash Cape]] in 1582. The remains of the khan's army retreated to the [[steppe]]s, and thus Yermak captured the [[Khanate of Sibir]], including its capital [[Qashliq]] near modern [[Tobolsk]]. Kuchum still was strong and suddenly attacked Yermak in 1585 in the dead of night, killing most of his people. Yermak was wounded and tried to swim across the Wagay River ([[Irtysh]]'s tributary), but drowned under the weight of his own [[chain mail]]. The Cossacks had to withdraw from Siberia completely, but thanks to Yermak's having explored all the main river routes in West Siberia, Russians successfully reclaimed all his conquests just several years later.
[[File:Yermak Timofeyevich and his band of adventurers crossing the Ural Mountains at Tagil, entering Asia from Europe.jpg|thumb|left|[[Yermak Timofeyevich]] and his band of adventurers crossing the [[Ural Mountains]] at Tagil, entering Asia from Europe]]

===Siberian river routes===
In the early 17th century, the eastward movement of Russians was slowed by the internal problems in the country during the [[Time of Troubles]]. Very soon, exploration and colonization of the huge territories of Siberia resumed, led mostly by [[Cossacks]] hunting for valuable [[fur]]s and [[ivory]]. While Cossacks came from the Southern Urals, another wave of Russians came by the Arctic Ocean. These were [[Pomors]] from the [[Northwest Russia|Russian North]], who already had been making fur trade with [[Mangazeya]] in the north of the Western Siberia for quite a long time. In 1607, the settlement of [[Turukhansk]] was founded on the northern [[Yenisey|Yenisey River]], near the mouth of [[Nizhnyaya Tunguska|Lower Tunguska]]. In 1619, [[Yeniseysk]] [[Ostrog (fortress)|ostrog]] was founded on the mid-Yenisey at the mouth of the [[Angara|Upper Tunguska]].

Between 1620 and 1624, a group of fur hunters led by [[Demid Pyanda]] left Turukhansk and explored some {{convert|1430|mi|0|abbr=off}} of the Lower Tunguska, wintering in the proximity of the [[Vilyuy]] and [[Lena (river)|Lena Rivers]]. According to later legendary accounts (folktales collected a century after the fact), Pyanda discovered the Lena. He allegedly explored some {{convert|1500|mi|0|abbr=off}} of its length, reaching as far as central [[Sakha Republic|Yakutia]]. He returned up the Lena until it became too rocky and shallow, and portaged to the Angara River. In this way, Pyanda may have become the first Russian to meet [[Yakuts]] and [[Buryats]]. He built new boats and explored some {{convert|870|mi|0|abbr=off}} of the Angara, finally reaching Yeniseysk and discovering that the Angara (a [[Buryat language|Buryat]] name) and Upper Tunguska (Verkhnyaya Tunguska, as initially known by Russians) are one and the same river.

In 1627, [[Pyotr Beketov]] was appointed Yenisei [[Voivode|voevoda]] in [[Siberia]]. He successfully carried out the voyage to collect taxes from the [[Transbaikal|Zabaykalye]] Buryats, becoming the first Russian to step in [[Buryatia]]. He founded the first Russian settlement there, Rybinsky ostrog. Beketov was sent to the Lena River in 1631, where in 1632 he founded [[Yakutsk]] and sent his Cossacks to explore the [[Aldan (river)|Aldan River]] and farther down the Lena, to found new fortresses, and to collect taxes.<ref>[[#Lincoln 1994|Lincoln 1994]], p. 62</ref>

Yakutsk soon turned into a major starting point for further Russian expeditions eastward, southward and northward. [[Maksim Perfilyev]], who earlier had been one of the founders of Yeniseysk, founded [[Bratsk]] ostrog on the Angara in 1631. In 1638, Perfilyev became the first Russian to step into Transbaikalia, travelling there from Yakutsk.<ref>[[#The Perfilyevs|The Perfilyevs]], web {{in lang|ru}}</ref><ref>[[#Sbaikal|Sbaikal]], web {{in lang|ru}}</ref>

[[File:Baikal sea.gif|thumb|right|upright=1.35|A map of [[Irkutsk]] and [[Lake Baikal]] in its neighbourhood, as depicted in the late-17th-century [[Remezov Chronicle]]]]
In 1643, [[Kurbat Ivanov]] led a group of Cossacks from Yakutsk to the south of the [[Baikal Mountains]] and discovered [[Lake Baikal]], visiting its [[Olkhon Island]]. Ivanov later made the first chart and description of Baikal.<ref>[[#Lincoln 1994|Lincoln 1994]], p. 247</ref>

===Russians reach the Pacific===
In 1639, a group of explorers led by [[Ivan Moskvitin]] became the first Russians to reach the Pacific Ocean and to discover the [[Sea of Okhotsk]], having built a winter camp on its shore at the [[Ulya River]] mouth. The Cossacks learned from the locals about the large [[Amur River]] far to the south. In 1640, they apparently sailed south, explored the south-eastern shores of the Okhotsk Sea, perhaps reaching the mouth of the [[Amur River]] and possibly discovering the [[Shantar Islands]] on their way back. Based on Moskvitin's account, [[Kurbat Ivanov]] drew the first Russian map of the [[Far East]] in 1642.

In 1643, [[Vasily Poyarkov]] crossed the [[Stanovoy Range]] and reached the upper [[Zeya River]] in the country of the [[Daur people|Daurs]], who were paying tribute to the [[Manchu]] Chinese. After wintering, in 1644, Poyarkov pushed down the Zeya and became the first Russian to reach the [[Amur River]]. He sailed down the Amur and finally discovered the mouth of that great river from land. Since his Cossacks provoked the enmity of the locals behind, Poyarkov chose a different way back. They built boats and in 1645, sailed along the [[Sea of Okhotsk]] coast to the [[Ulya River]] and spent the next winter in the huts that had been built by [[Ivan Moskvitin]] six years earlier. In 1646, they returned to Yakutsk.

[[File:Krsk koch.JPG|thumb|left|upright|A 17th-century [[Koch (boat)|koch]] in a museum in [[Krasnoyarsk]]. Kochi were the earliest [[icebreaker]]s and were widely used by Russians in the [[Arctic]] and on [[Siberia]]n rivers.]]
In 1644, [[Mikhail Stadukhin]] discovered the [[Kolyma River]] and founded [[Srednekolymsk]]. A merchant named [[Fedot Alekseyev Popov]] organized a further expedition eastward, and [[Semyon Dezhnyov]] became a captain of one of the [[Koch (boat)|kochi]]. In 1648, they sailed from [[Srednekolymsk]] down to the Arctic and after some time they rounded [[Cape Dezhnyov]], thus becoming the first explorers to pass through the [[Bering Strait]] and to discover [[Chukchi Peninsula|Chukotka]] and the [[Bering Sea]]. All their kochi and most of their men (including Popov himself) were lost in storms and clashes with the natives. A small group led by Dezhnyov reached the mouth of the [[Anadyr River]] and sailed up it in 1649, having built new boats from the wreckage. They founded [[Anadyrsk]] and were stranded there, until Stadukhin found them, coming from Kolyma by land.<ref>[[#Fisher 1981|Fisher 1981]], p. 30</ref> Subsequently, Stadukhin set off south in 1651 and discovered [[Penzhin Bay]] on the northern coast of the [[Okhotsk Sea]]. He also may have explored the western shores of [[Kamchatka]].

From 1649 to 1650, [[Yerofey Khabarov]] became the second Russian to explore the [[Amur River]]. Through [[Olyokma]], [[Tungir]] and [[Shilka River]]s he reached Amur ([[Dauria]]), returned to [[Yakutsk]] and then back to Amur with a larger force in 1650–1653. This time he [[Russian-Manchu border conflicts|was met with armed resistance]]. He built winter quarters at [[Albazin]], then sailed down Amur and found Achansk, which preceded the present-day [[Khabarovsk]], defeating or evading large armies of [[Transbaikal|Daurian]] [[Manchu]] Chinese and [[Koreans]] on his way. He charted the Amur in his ''Draft of the Amur river''.<ref>[[#Dymytryshyn 1985|Dymytryshyn 1985]], web</ref> Subsequently, Russians held on to the Amur region until 1689, when by the [[Treaty of Nerchinsk]] this land was assigned to the [[Qing dynasty|Chinese Empire]]. It was returned by the [[Treaty of Aigun]] in 1858.

From 1659 to 1665, [[Kurbat Ivanov]] was the next head of [[Anadyrsk]]y ostrog after [[Semyon Dezhnev]]. In 1660, he sailed from [[Anadyr Bay]] to [[Cape Dezhnyov]]. Atop his earlier pioneering charts, Ivanov is credited with creation of the early map of [[Chukchi Peninsula|Chukotka]] and the [[Bering Strait]], which was the first to show on paper (very schematically) the yet undiscovered [[Wrangel Island]], both [[Diomede Islands]] and Alaska, based on the data collected from the natives of Chukotka.

By the mid-17th century, Russians established the borders of their country close to modern ones, and explored almost the whole of Siberia, except the eastern [[Kamchatka]] and some regions north of the Arctic Circle. The conquest of Kamchatka later would be achieved in the early 1700s by [[Vladimir Atlasov]], while the discovery of the Arctic coastline and Alaska would be completed by the [[Great Northern Expedition]] in 1733–1743.

{{further|Major explorations after the Age of Discovery}}