Siberia is vast and despite the long distances Russia conquered it throughout the 16th and seventeenth centuries. But given that it was mostly empty and put Russia in contact with potential enemies why did Moscow conquer it? To find out watch this short and simple animated history documentary.

A special thanks to my patrons below:
Jens Koch-Nommensen
Øystein Alsaker
Carl Österbrand
Colonel Cheng
Sergio M. Vela
Michael Kram
Hasmuffin 
Franco La Bruna
Ethan 
Bradley chaulk
Don Bonnigan
Southside Mitch
Ian Whitcomb
Justin Kubusch
John
Matthew Literovich
Adam Barrett
Heath Robertson
Ryan Schindeler
JakeBak0905
Person
DocOzz13 .
Paul Munro
Martha Grondin
Andrea Dekrout
Brooks Woolson
Nathan Mendelsohn
Vance Christiaanse
Mario Peshev
Sean D.
Christopher Godfrey
Harley Raptopoulos
Aaron Conaway
sharpie660
Philip Yip
Shauna K
Travis Mount
Joooooshhhhhh 
Jane Sumpter
Alex Teplyakov
Joshua Rackstraw
Piotr Wojnowski
Joshua Schneider
Phillip Gathright
BeninPrince51
Ron Johnson
zockotron
Jamie van Brewen
Andrew F
Zhao Liu
William Swiacki
Andy McGehee
Arthur Hosey Jr.
Phoenix Fats
Adrian Marine
Barry
John Orr
Andreas Mosand
Steven Gibson
Konstantin Bredyuk
Tony Belmonte
Jack Nelson
Erik Hare
Nicholas Menghini
Allen Rines
Dr. Schtnizel
Tactical_Jackal 
Shawn Morse
Roman Kynčl
Nick Macarius
Contdoko12
D. Mahlik
MGS2600
Matthew Toles
Chris Winther
Peter Marino
Michael Galloway
Bernardo Cavalcanti
Katie Flinn
Thomas McGraw
Clayton Schuman
Dana Spurgeon
Jacob Zachs
Andrew Patane
Carl Blanton
Sahni 
Zach Rust
Bradley Backoff
Nolan Peale
Vilena5
KNSTRKTVST
Jake Faust
Tim Stone
Angel Aguiñaga
Keith A. Layton
HelloAgain
Chase Labiste
Bret Allan
Joe DeVito
Mickey Landen
Liam Gilleece
Serius_Loyola
John Garcia
Brian George
Ciege Engine
blaZzinG_FurY
Matt Reed
Dullis 
Bartosz Zasada
Wilhelm Screamer
Matthew Hogan
Chris Weisel
Zachary Pascalar
Victor Gomez
Ben Drums 24
Tino
Christopher S Nelson
William Adderholdt
Bodo Nuber
Bernice 
Justin Short
Anthony McCann
george tyler
Leena Al-Souki
JAY ALAN EDELMAN
B Dryad
SketerK
ThePalestRose
Juan Castillo
Warren Rudkin
Magdalena Reinberg-Leibel
Hexapuma
Perry Gagne
Curt Helmerich
Dexter_McAaron
Colm Byrne
Aaron Larrow
ARandomPaperClip
Blue Cardinal
Alex Slepak
Geoffrey Sparrow
Tim Stumbaugh
No way
Logical Insanity
Joseph Hutchins
Jason Gould
Liquid Chief
Oliver Jenner
Tyler Jenkins
Ahmed Roshdi
Chach
Matthew O'Connor
Tim Sweeney
Stefan Møller
Ian Smith
Bren Ehnebuske
Joseph Reinsch
Abhijeeth 
Chris Wreker
Andrew Niedbala
Matt Busch
Ali Sadighian
Yared Cristiano
Ned Burke
Burt Clothier
Thomas McGill
Robin!
kevinh
BattleGoat Studios
David van Reyk
Steve Bonds
Nathan Ngumi
bas mensink
Zach Weakland
Rob Rollins
Ryan Lowe
Steven Mastronardo
Joel Wasserman
Clay Carroll
Andrey Listochkin
anon
luvrhino
Colonel Oneill
Vegard Tønnessen
Matthew Ward
Romney Manassa
Mars Project
William Clark
Emily D
Alen
Gordon Wilson
James 
Joseph Kerckhoff
Sethars
Bruh 11
Jonny Minogue
Alex G.
SirAlpaka 
Tristan Kreller
Melissa Prober
Donald Weaver
nullptr 
Sara Birnbaum
Brian Giordano
Richard Wolfe
hefcluba
pdswanfleet 
Yuichiro Kakutani
LambOfLeg 
Yosef Waysman
Eric Askins
Azul Bravestrong
Joshua A Bishop
Dr. Howard Dr. Fine Dr. Howard
Emily Glover-Wilson
JT96
Thomas Wang
Phil and Lisa Toland
Kirk Hoffman
Tranier Bocaj
Joker 54
Juan Benet
Mik Scheper
Allen
Charles Doolittle
Wolf 
Mark Ploegstra
Anthony Uk
Hunter Bayliss
David Spellmeyer
Scott Oppel
Hiro P
אורי פרקש
I'm Not In The Description
Sean Long
Laurent Othacehe
Manny F
0_DannyBoy
Theodosius the Elder
Lech Duraj
Dustin Koellhoffer
Jeffrey Schneider
Sophie Winter
Igor Stavchanskiy
Ryan Haber
Doug MacLean
Danny Anstess
Colm Boyle
Gregory Priebe
James R DeVries
Tom Ebert
Isabel Harrison
Zachary Oertel
John Gross-Whitaker
Riley davidson
Roko Lisica
Robert Brockway
Miky Hidalgo Morriss
Heytun 
Kevin Phoenix
Dan Reiher
George Caponera
Seth Reeves
Dutchball Animations
Chasen Le Hara
Dr. Sarno
Will Sullivan
Rita Cragwall
mohd 
Peter Konieczny
Ian M
AltHistoryConjectures
Nathan Snyder
Joel Cromwell
Kinfe85
Andrew Sever
Windischgraetz
Shakira Graham
mgnesium.poetry
Ethan Harlow
ConspiracyPizza 
Farquhar Ramshackle 
Lindorien 
Paul McGee
Abdallah Al-Ammari
João Santos
Daniel O'Reilly
Typhoon2401
Deadlock
Markus Lindström
Michael Corson
blei95
Olaf
Kasi
Jan Bart Verbist
Oto Kohulák
Robin_Col
M Scho
Schwarzer Hai
biohazardgamer
James
Tarsirrus
Rhys Little
Ben L
Justin McDaid
Jackarice26
Gina Service
Harrison Tatem-Wyatt
Twinny Hill
KingKyumber
Phil Johnston
Rhys Jackson
DarkLycan 
Roberticus1992
zemnmez 
Tom Pollard

Russia, as you'll be aware, is huge, growing from a medium-sized state in the mid-16th century to this in the mid-1700s.

Most of these lands are in what's called Siberia, which were difficult to govern due to their sheer size and placed Russia in contact with more potential rivals.

As such, this raises the question, why did Russia conquer Siberia?

Well, it won't surprise you to know that the primary reason was money.

As of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Moscow's lifeblood was trade, often in furs.

These were sourced from the neighbouring lands and states which often came into conflict with Moscow.

In 1552 Ivan conquered the Khanate of Kazan and soon afterwards the Astrakhan Khanate.

These conquests were both primarily to give Moscow control of

the Volga River and thus the region's trade routes.

So with the economic lifeblood of Moscow secured along with

some new fancy farmland and peasants there to tax, why did Ivan and his successors push for more?

an army of Cossacks to pacify the neighbouring states.

The first was to prevent raiding into Moscow's territories and the second was to extract tribute in the form of furs which would then be sold onto Europe.

After the Russians conquered Siberia, from which Siberia gets its name, there was little in the way of organised resistance left, which as a result meant that it only took 60 years for Moscow to conquer all of this.

And it made its way there because frankly, nobody could stop them.

And for the Tsars of Russia, expansion only had upsides.

Siberia was cheap to govern because it basically wasn't governed.

Russia planted trading posts and small fortresses along the frontier, which existed to protect roads and river crossings from raiders.

As for most of the people who lived in Siberia, many had little idea that they now lived in a place called Russia.

In fact, in much of Siberia's north, Russian influence was basically non-existent and some parts of it wouldn't be fully mapped until the Soviet Union carried out its censuses.

It's just that the Russians claimed it and the people who made the maps weren't exactly going to argue with them.

Eventually, the Russians would run into a major power which wanted to expand into the region.

When they first came into contact, the Qing were quick to shoot at

Local leaders continued fighting until leadership in Moscow formally sued for peace.

It was agreed that in return for some limited trade access, Russia would renounce any claim to these lands and acknowledge Qing ownership.

After both sides had agreed, it wasn't long before the Russians took everything to the north.

Again, this was because nothing was stopping them and it's not like it cost the government much to do so.

Also, Russia was now about 20 times as large as it had been a century prior, and its sheer size and by extension prestige was 1 of the reasons that European leaders acknowledged Russian Tsars becoming Russian Emperors.

When China would later find itself on the receiving end of European imperial policy, Russia was quick to capitalise, and it took the lands it had previously been denied, meaning that the country would stretch all the way from the Baltic Sea in the west to

I hope you enjoyed this episode and a special thanks to my Patrons James Bizonette, Kelly Moneymaker, Sky Chappell, Korsha Wolf, Jerry Lambdin, Jordan Longley, Adam Stalter, Marcus Arsner, YN Hockey, Spencer Lightfoot, Rod D.

Martin, Words About Books Podcast, Captain Psydog, Gustav Swan, Marvin Casal, Camoon Yoon, Winston K.

Wood, Boogily Woogily, Daniel Tobian, Miss Isette, Aaron the White, Corey Turner, The McWhopper, Alex Schwin, Anthony Beckett, Copper Tone, Maggie Patskowski, Shuenin, Spinning 3 Plates and Charles I.


Speaker 0: Russia, as you'll be aware, is huge, growing from a medium-sized state in the mid-16th century to this in the mid-1700s. Most of these lands are in what's called Siberia, which were difficult to govern due to their sheer size and placed Russia in contact with more potential rivals. As such, this raises the question, why did Russia conquer Siberia? What did it have to gain from doing so? Well, it won't surprise you to know that the primary reason was money.

As of the reign of Ivan the Terrible, Moscow's lifeblood was trade, often in furs. These were sourced from the neighbouring lands and states which often came into conflict with Moscow.

Speaker 1: In 1552 Ivan conquered the Khanate of Kazan and soon afterwards the Astrakhan Khanate. These conquests were both primarily to give Moscow control of

Speaker 0: the Volga River and thus the region's trade routes. So with the economic lifeblood of Moscow secured along with

Speaker 1: some new fancy farmland and peasants there to tax, why did Ivan and his successors push for more? Well, Ivan sent a

Speaker 0: man called Yermak Timoveevich to lead

Speaker 1: an army of Cossacks to pacify the neighbouring states. And he did this for 2 reasons.

Speaker 0: The first was to prevent raiding into Moscow's territories and the second was to extract tribute in the form of furs which would then be sold onto Europe. After the Russians conquered Siberia, from which Siberia gets its name, there was little in the way of organised resistance left, which as a result meant that it only took 60 years for Moscow to conquer all of this.

Speaker 1: And it made its way there because frankly, nobody could stop them.

Speaker 0: And for the Tsars of Russia, expansion only had upsides. Siberia was cheap to govern because it basically wasn't governed. Russia planted trading posts and small fortresses along the frontier, which existed to protect roads and river crossings from raiders. As for most of the people who lived in Siberia, many had little idea that they now lived in a place called Russia. In fact, in much of Siberia's north, Russian influence was basically non-existent and some parts of it wouldn't be fully mapped until the Soviet Union carried out its censuses.

It's just that the Russians claimed it and the people who made the maps weren't exactly going to argue with them. Eventually, the Russians would run into a major power which wanted to expand into the region. The Qing Dynasty.

Speaker 1: When they first came into contact, the Qing were quick to shoot at

Speaker 0: the Russians until they left. Local leaders continued fighting until leadership in Moscow formally sued for peace. It was agreed that in return for some limited trade access, Russia would renounce any claim to these lands and acknowledge Qing ownership. After both sides had agreed, it wasn't long before the Russians took everything to the north. Again, this was because nothing was stopping them and it's not like it cost the government much to do so.

Also, Russia was now about 20 times as large as it had been a century prior, and its sheer size and by extension prestige was 1 of the reasons that European leaders acknowledged Russian Tsars becoming Russian Emperors. When China would later find itself on the receiving end of European imperial policy, Russia was quick to capitalise, and it took the lands it had previously been denied, meaning that the country would stretch all the way from the Baltic Sea in the west to

Speaker 1: the Sea of Japan in the east. I hope you enjoyed this episode and a special thanks to my Patrons James Bizonette, Kelly Moneymaker, Sky Chappell, Korsha Wolf, Jerry Lambdin, Jordan Longley, Adam Stalter, Marcus Arsner, YN Hockey, Spencer Lightfoot, Rod D. Martin, Words About Books Podcast, Captain Psydog, Gustav Swan, Marvin Casal, Camoon Yoon, Winston K. Wood, Boogily Woogily, Daniel Tobian, Miss Isette, Aaron the White, Corey Turner, The McWhopper, Alex Schwin, Anthony Beckett, Copper Tone, Maggie Patskowski, Shuenin, Spinning 3 Plates and Charles I.

See all History Matters transcripts on Youtube

Why did Russia conquer Siberia? (Short Animated Documentary)