Jan 15

While the western European powers were building up their colonial holdings, Russia saw new opportunities to expand eastward into SIberia. The Russians had to deal with Mongol domination for two centuries. Russia began first by conquering cities with Russian speaking populations, and then molding them into a unified Russian state. There were also other ethnic groups such as the Poles, Ukrainians, Germans, Belorussians, and Baltic Peoples that decided to move into these eastern territories. Mongols weren't the only people the Russians had to deal with in Siberia. There were several nomadic hunter gatherer peoples who offered little resistance to Russian expansion. Russians were motivated by the fur trade to move eastward, so they built fortified towns and trading areas to support these trade markets.