Question

discuss the expansionist policies under the tsar

Answer 1

The rise of the Russian Empire, unlike the rise of Western colonial empires, although altering power balances through Eurasia, involved only limited commercial exchange. After freeing themselves from Mongol domination by 1480, the Russians pushed eastward. Some extension of territory also occurred in eastern Europe. Regional states, many differing from Russia, were present, with Lithuania and Poland rivaling Russia into the seventeenth century. Russia, with its Byzantine-influenced culture, had been unimportant in world affairs before the fifteenth century. Russia then entered into new contacts with the West without losing its distinct identity. Between 1450 and 1750, many lasting characteristics of the eastern European world were formed.