Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Cossacks
(1,003 words)

1. Introduction

Kazaki [2] were armed, free Muslim farmers of the Tatar Khanate between the Crimea and Siberia, who in the course of the steppe wars of the 13th and 14th centuries demonstrated their military potency especially in ambitious raids behind enemy lines, where they sowed panic in the population and disrupted lines of communication. Learning from the enemy from the 14th century, not only did Lithuania (Poland-Lithuania from 1386), …

Cite this page
Nolte, Hans-Heinrich, “Cossacks”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_022684>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170206



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