The Russian Annexation of the Crimea 1772-1783The Black Sea and the coastal areas have played an important role in the history of eastern Europe and western Asia. Byzantium, Kiev Rus, the Golden Horde, Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire and Muscovy all tried to control parts of its area at various periods in history. From 1475 for three hundred years the Ottoman Turks controlled the Black Sea and the lands surrounding it. In 1783 Catherine annexed the Crimean peninsula, with its Muslim Tatar