How the Russian imperialism conquered the Taimyr Peninsula
In the 15th century, the Age of Discovery began, and Western European countries expanded overseas with the power of boats. However, deep in the forests of the Eastern European Plain, the Cossacks quietly marched eastward, exploring unknown lands.
They crossed the Ural Mountains and conquered Siberia in a short time, reaching the Pacific coast. Inadvertently, the Cossacks won an empire for Russia.
The advance of the Cossacks in Siberia is amazing. In 1581, Tsar Ivan IV sent Yermak with 840 Cossacks across the Ural Mountains to begin a formal invasion of the Siberian Khanate.
In 1598, the Siberian Khanate finally fell, heralding the fall of the middle and lower reaches of the Ob River into the control of **. Subsequently, in 1601 the ** people occupied the Mangajieya region east of the Ob Bay, and in 1607 they founded Turukhansk on the lower Yenisei River.
During this period, the ** people not only pushed forward to the middle and upper reaches of the Yenisei River with all their might, but also some people went down the river to explore the Arctic Ocean, and even reached the northernmost point of the Eurasian continent - the Taimel Peninsula.
* Over the next 100 years, the geographical contours of this vast area will gradually become clear. It was a heroic and epic process that deserves to be remembered.
01 Geography Siberia is the most vast and mysterious wasteland in Russia, covering an area of 13.22 million square kilometers, accounting for 77% of Russia's total area.
It is 7,000 kilometers long from east to west and more than 3,000 kilometers from north to south. The Siberian rivers run from west to east with the Ob, Yenisei and Lena rivers, all of which flow north into the Arctic Ocean.
Unfolding the world map, we will find that the northernmost and easternmost points of the Eurasian continent are in Siberia. The easternmost point is Cape Dezhniov in the northeastern corner of Siberia, about 169°40 E, and the northernmost point is Cape Chelyuskin on the Temyel Peninsula in Siberia, at about 77°43 N.
It can be said that this is the real end of the sky and the corner of the sea. Let's take another look at the Arctic map. Along the 70° north latitude, the coastline of the Siberian Arctic Ocean extends in an arc, but when it reaches the Temyr Peninsula, it suddenly protrudes into the Arctic Ocean, which causes its unusually high latitude and establishes its status as the "Arctic within the Arctic Circle".
Situated between the lower Yenisei and Lena rivers, the Temyr Peninsula has a unique geographical environment. The peninsula is bordered by the Kara Sea and the Yenisei Gulf to the west and northwest, and the Laptev Sea and the Khatanga Gulf to the east and northeast.
It is separated from the Severdaya Archipelago by the Vilikitsky Strait to the north and the Central Siberian Plateau to the south. The peninsula is vast, about 400,000 square kilometers, about 1,000 kilometers long and 500 kilometers wide.
The northern coastal area of the peninsula is flat, the central Belanga Mountains have a higher altitude of 1,146 meters, and the southern part is low. The peninsula has a cold climate, with annual precipitation ranging from 150 mm to 230 mm.
Most of the area belongs to the tundra zone, with a winding coastline and many fjords. The peninsula is low-lying with marshes and lakes. Among them, Lake Taimel is the largest lake in the region, with a total area of 4,560 square kilometers, second only to Lake Baikal.
The main inhabitants of the Tamyr Peninsula are the Aenets, who belong to the North Asian type of the race. At present, the number of the Aenets is about 5,000 and they are mainly engaged in deer farming and fishing.
The famous port city in the region is Dixon, an important port and refueling base on the Northern Sea Route.
Siberia, a tundra that had been dormant for thousands of years, was shattered by outsiders at the end of the 16th century. They were armed with muskets, with high noses and deep eyes, and full beards, and the sound of cannons and the smoke of muskets filled the air, discouraging the local natives.
Every time the Cossacks occupied a piece of land, they built a fortress at the mouth of the great river, and then enslaved the locals to pay taxes in kind. The forests of Siberia are full of all kinds of fur-bearing animals, among which sable and squirrel skin are the most famous, their value is immeasurable, and they are known as the "soft ** of the north".
One sable skin was exchanged for 50 acres of land at the end of the 16th century, and in the middle of the 17th century, the indigenous inhabitants of Kamchatka exchanged 8 sable skins for a knife and 16 sable skins for an axe.
As a result, fur became an important driving force for adventurers to come to Siberia. Despite the harsh winters and muddy summers, the Cossacks advanced quickly by using the river with the help of sleds and lightweight, flat-bottomed wooden boats "Fruit".
They would even drag the boat forward in order to enter another water system. In this way, the "leapfrogging" conquest of all of Siberia made the fur tax a third of the total income of the Russian Empire.
The conquest of the Mangaxiana region and the exploration of the Piasina region In 1601, the Russians occupied the fur-rich Mangaxiana region and established the city of Mangajiea, beginning the administration of the area.
From there, they used it as a base to move towards the Piasine region, an area located on the West Taimel Peninsula and crossed by the Piasine River. Piasina was originally the name given to the area by the ancient Yenisei Samoyeds, meaning the zone of open tundra.
Due to geographical reasons, it belongs to the Arctic tundra zone, with long and severe winters, very weak sunlight, and raging wind and snow, resulting in sparse vegetation, and the surface vegetation is dominated by mosses and lichens.
In order to search for intelligence, the Russian** formed two reconnaissance teams at the beginning of the 17th century, one set out from Mangajieya to the mouth of the Tuluhan River, then crossed the Yenisei River to the lower reaches, and then along the plain to the Piasine River, and the other team set out from the mouth of the Ob River, first to the Gulf of Ob, and then from the mouth of the bay into the Arctic Ocean.
In the course of their exploration, they discovered many never-before-seen islands, rivers, birds, and beasts, and mapped their operations to account their experiences. Immediately after the expedition completed its task, the incident was reported to the Moscow authorities.
The conquest of Mancajiea and the exploration of Piasina reflected the Russians' courageous exploration of the unknown and their thirst for resources, and were also an important step in their territorial expansion and acquisition of resources.
In 1607, the ** army invaded and conquered the Samoyeds along the banks of the Taz River and at the mouth of the Yenisei River, and taxed the Tunguska people along the Tunguska River.
At the mouth of the Tulukhan River, ** built Turukhansk, and established a stronghold in the lower reaches of the Yenisei River, conquered the local Oschaks, and forced them to pay taxes.
* They also entered the Hantai River valley and the Great Khta River region, imposed a tax in kind on the indigenous Aenets, and established Hantai wintering grounds on the Hantai River.
The Cossacks, who invaded the Piasine valley from the Great Khta River basin, penetrated north into the Piasine tundra, where the Aenets lived. Led by Kurochkin, the colonists set out on a trip to the Taimyr Peninsula, where they traveled down the river from Turukhansk and found that the Yenisei River was deep and navigable, and that large ships could access it from the sea.
After a strenuous voyage, the flotilla reached the Piasine River, where the ** people secured their footing. Four years later, the Mangcajie Governors incorporated the Piasina region into the territory and placed it under the administration of Mangaxiana County.
Several wintering grounds were also built along the Great Hita River, culminating in the establishment of the small town of Orlov on the Piasine River in 1626.
From the past to the end, the ** people have gone through hardships to successfully reach the northernmost tip of the Temyer Peninsula. Although the details have been lost over history, the discovery of the relics has given us a glimpse into the existence of a team of colonists in the first quarter of the 17th century.
They built huts from the west through the northernmost part of Siberia, and in the winter the fate of the three was uncertain, and the following summer they arrived on the opposite island in a small boat, and most of the members were not spared.
* The people never stopped expanding, and the Cossacks later invaded the Lena River valley and the northeastern corner of Siberia. Some fur goods from the Kolyma, Indigilka and Yana rivers in Northeast Asia must have passed through the Taimer Peninsula region as well.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, with the further expansion of Siberia and the development of a series of geographical discoveries and expeditions, the understanding of the coast of the Arctic Ocean and the northern sea routes began to become clearer.
In 1724, Tsar Peter the Great began his expedition to the Arctic. The Laptev brothers systematically explored the sea northeast of the Taimel Peninsula, and in 1739 1742 Admiral Hariton Prokofievich Laptev inspected the coast from the Lena River to the Khattanga River and the Taimyr Peninsula.
He went through great pains to document the topography and anthropology of this coastal area. The Laptev brothers in 1733 1743 inspected the sea area between the Taimyr Peninsula and the Novosibirsk Islands.
In 1935, the former Soviet Union officially named this sea area the Laptev Sea in honor of the Laptev brothers' exploration of this area in the mid-18th century.
Continuing the unfinished business of his predecessors, Chelyuskin inspected part of the coast of the Taimyr Peninsula in 1741 and 1742. On May 9, 1742, a group led by Chelyuskin reached the northernmost headland of Eurasia.
The northernmost point in Eurasia, the golden horn of Chelius, is named after him.
The exploration and in-depth study of the golden horn of Chelius at 77°43 north latitude was completed, which heralded the successful conclusion of the expedition to the Great North. As a result, the Temyr Peninsula has cemented its position as the "North of the Far North" of the Eurasian continent.
Since the beginning of the 17th century, they have annexed the Ob and Yenisei rivers one after another, and the next target before them is another major river in Siberia, the Lena River.
In order to acquire the "Golden Fleece" and new territories, the Cossacks "Fruit" again set out for ......(On the Internet, if there is any infringement, please contact us to delete.)
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