There is no country in the world like Tsarist Russia. Over the course of hundreds of years, it continued to expand, eventually turning the territory into the largest country in the world. At its peak, it covered a staggering 22.8 million square kilometers, larger than the territory of the Soviet Union. Judging from the history of Tsarist Russia's expansion, Tsarist Russia had an extreme desire for territory, what was the reason for this?
1: The desire for a frozen port. Since the great geographical discovery, the discovery of the New World has excited the countries of Western Europe. They have chosen to march westward, started the era of great navigation, and also began to dominate the seas and dominate the world. This made Tsarist Russia in Eastern Europe feel very helpless. Because it does not have a superior coastline, it is impossible to participate in this ocean domination.
In order to change its own shortcomings, Tsarist Russia can only desperately expand abroad. It is also to seize the superior coastline and port. At this time, Tsarist Russia either expanded to the east or pushed westward. Expands westward, with the shortest distance from the ocean. Expanding eastward, it was an unknown world. The seizure of superior coastlines, as well as ports, gradually became what Tsarist Russia longed for.
2: For the living space of the nation. We know the history of Russia. The early history of Russia was ruled by the Golden Horde, which was part of the Mongol Empire. After being oppressed by the Mongol Empire, the independent Tsarist Russia and the oppression of other nationalities will be used more and more intensely on other nationalities. Adopt a more powerful policy of oppression, even massacre, against peoples who do not submit. In order to no longer be oppressed by other nationalities, and the living space that the nation needs, Tsarist Russia continued to expand to the surrounding areas. From a landlocked country in Europe to a world power straddling Eurasia, it has completed an unprecedented territorial expansion.
3: Pursue a huge colony. When the western European powers acquired a lot of wealth by establishing huge colonies. Tsarist Russia also wanted to establish its own colonies. But Tsarist Russia's geographical location was different, it was inland, it could only expand around, he could not colonize other continents. Unlike other powers, Tsarist Russia's expansion could only include these territories in its territory. He is not like England and France and other countries, there is a piece here, there is a distribution of a piece there. This also allowed Russia's territory to expand and be connected. For the sake of the so-called colonies, Tsarist Russia also desperately expanded, which brought great harm to other peoples.
4: Compete with Britain, France and other countries to dominate the world. Faced with the rise of Britain, France, and Prussia, Tsarist Russia also felt a crisis. In order to obtain more wealth, in order to have the capital against Britain and France. Tsarist Russia needed more territory and population, all in order to compete with Britain and France for world domination. In the modern history of Europe, Britain, France, and Russia formed a three-state state, and they all wanted to compete for hegemony. In order to deal with the alliance between Britain and France, Tsarist Russia needed greater strength.
5: Disadvantages brought about by geographical location. Judging from the geographical location of Tsarist Russia, it is at a high latitude and has a long coastline. But most of them are in the Arctic Ocean, which is cordoned off by the Arctic Ocean and is not suitable for development, and there are very few excellent ports. The territory, on the other hand, was at high latitudes, had a harsh climate, had very low temperatures, and had a poor living environment, which forced them to expand.
From these reasons, Tsarist Russia's desire for territory also reached its extreme. For a variety of reasons, they continued to expand around, and finally laid the world's largest territorial power. From the perspective of expansion at the east and west ends, when expanding eastward, it basically did not encounter much resistance, and it expanded all the way to the east, passing through Siberia and finally reaching Alaska. Since siberia is basically deserted, the tribes there are quite backward and are not opponents of Tsarist Russia at all. Therefore, the expansion to the east was the smoothest for Tsarist Russia.
Advancing west and south, Tsarist Russia fought quite hard. The swedish kingdom in the west had to pay attention to the strength of Tsarist Russia. It takes a lot of time and the push is quite slow. The Ottoman Empire in the south was also valued by Tsarist Russia. Although the Ottoman Empire continued to be consumed through war, it was also dragged down. In the 12 Russo-Turkish Wars, it took Russia three hundred years to finally consume the Ottoman Empire.
It can be seen that in the expansion of the west, Russia's progress was rather slow, because it encountered a powerful enemy. The two expansion routes lead to different results. The eastward expansion was the smoothest and the most territory was acquired. China has also paid more than 1.5 million square kilometers of territory for this. This is a major regret of the Chinese nation, and it is also a price paid by backwardness.