Battle of Krtsanisi - Background

Background

Eastern Georgia, composed of the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti, had been under intermitent Persian suzerainty since 1555. However, with the death of Nader Shah in 1747, both kingdoms broke free of Persian control and were reunited in personal union under the rule of the energetic king Heraclius II (Erekle) in 1762. In 1783, Heraclius placed his kingdom under the protection of the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Georgievsk. A limited Russian contingent of two infantry battalions with four artillery pieces arrived in Tbilisi in 1784, but was withdrawn, despite the frantic protests of the Georgians, in 1787. Despite being left on his devices, Heraclius still cherished a dream of establishing, with Russian protection, a strong and united monarchy, into which the western Georgian Kingdom of Imereti and the lost provinces under Ottoman rule would all eventually be drawn.

The consequences of these events came a few years later, when a new dynasty, the Qajars, emerged victorious in the protracted power struggle in Persia. Their head, Agha Mohammad Khan, resolved to bring the Caucasus once more under the Persian orbit. Finding an interval of peace amid their own quarrels, the Persians demanded Heraclius II to renounce the treaty with Russia in return for peace and the security of his kingdom. Heraclius appealed then to his theoretical protector, Empress Catherine II of Russia, but he was not listened, leaving Georgia to fend off the Persian threat alone. Nevertheless, Heraclius II still rejected the Khan’s ultimatum.