Early Modern and Modern States of the Caucasus: Map & History

From circa 1450, in the Kingdom of Georgia rival movements arose among competing feudal factions within the royal house and nobility. These caused a high degree of instability across the entire territory of the kingdom. This period was characterised by feudal competition, separatism, and civil war.

From Wikipedia: Kingdom of Kartli · History: Disintegration of the Kingdom of Georgia into warring states (CC BY-SA 4.0)

As a duchy (saeristavo) within the Kingdom of Georgia, Abkhazia was previously referred as the Duchy of Tskhumi. It was ruled by the house of Sharvashidze since the 12th century. The sources are very scarce about the Abkhazian history of that time. The Genoese established their trading factories along the Abkhazian coastline in the 14th century, but they functioned for a short time. When the Georgian kingdom was embroiled in a bitter civil war in the 1450s, the Sharvashidzes joined a major rebellion against King George VIII of Georgia, which saw him defeated at the hands of the rebels at Chikhori in 1463. The victorious king of Imereti created a principality (samtavro) for each of his allies, thus the Principality of Abkhazia was founded.

From Wikipedia: Principality of Abkhazia · Background (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Since the beginning of the 13th century, Guria, one of the provinces of the Kingdom of Georgia, located between Rioni and Chorokhi rivers was administered by hereditary governors (Eristavi). The Gurian ruler to whom the Georgian crown attached the title of Gurieli ("of Guria") took advantage of the Mongol invasion of Georgia and started asserting its independence in the 1280s, but the Mongols forced him to submit to George V "the Brilliant" (r. 1299–1346) in about 1330. However, soon after Bagrat V of Georgia (r. 1360–1390) ascended the throne, the Svans revolted to the northeast of Guria. Bagrat defeated them but subsequently ceded Guria to the Eristavi of Svaneti in c. 1362, and the Guria was usually held by the House of Vardanisdze thereafter.

From Wikipedia: Principality of Guria · Early history (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Svaneti lies in northwestern Georgia, along two broad upland valleys located to the south of Mount Elbrus – the upper Enguri River valley in the west and the upper Tskhenistskali and its tributary, the Kheladula, in the east. In the period of Georgian unity (1008–1463), it was a duchy (saeristavo) within the Bagratid kingdom of Georgia ruled first by the house of Vardanidze from the late 11th to the 14th century, and then by that of Gelovani which established themselves as virtually independent princes when Georgia fragmented, in the 1460s (officially 1490/1491), into three kingdoms – Kartli, Kakheti, and Imereti – and several regional principalities and feudal enclaves.

From Wikipedia: Principality of Svaneti · Early history (CC BY-SA 4.0)

A number of these khanates, including Ganja, Shirvan, Shaki, Derbent, and Karabakh, produced their own coins, first in the name of Nader Shah and then in the name of the Zand ruler Karim Khan Zand. A large portion of their coinage was completely nameless by the end of the 18th century. While a few uncommon issues of Derbent contain a vague reference to one of their khans, none of the khans ever put their names on their coins, due to lacking the legitimacy of a sovereign monarch and any claims to independence. These northern Iranian coins were made entirely of silver and copper.

From Wikipedia: Khanates of the Caucasus · Coinage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

According to Leonti Mroveli, the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, the word "Caucasus" is derived from the Nakh ancestor Kavkas.

From Wikipedia: Chechnya · History: Origin of Chechnya's population (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Ichkeria was a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization between 1991 and 2010. Former president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, deposed in a military coup of 1991 and a participant of the Georgian Civil War, recognized the independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1993. Diplomatic relations with Ichkeria were also established by the partially recognised Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the Taliban government on 16 January 2000. This recognition ceased with the fall of the Taliban in 2001. However, despite Taliban recognition, there were no friendly relations between the Taliban and Ichkeria—Maskhadov rejected their recognition, stating that the Taliban were illegitimate.

From Wikipedia: Chechnya · Politics: Separatist government (CC BY-SA 4.0)

During the First Chechen War, the Chechen economy fell apart. In 1994, the separatists planned to introduce a new currency, but the change did not occur due to the re-taking of Chechnya by Russian troops in the Second Chechen War.

From Wikipedia: Chechnya · Economy (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The First Chechen War, during which Russian forces attempted to regain control over Chechnya, took place from 1994 to 1996. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority in troops, weaponry, and air support, the Russian forces were unable to establish effective permanent control over the mountainous area due to numerous successful full-scale battles and insurgency raids. The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in 1995 shocked the Russian public. In April 1996, the first democratically elected president of Chechnya, Dzhokhar Dudayev, was killed by Russian forces using a booby trap bomb and a missile fired from a warplane after he was located by triangulating the position of a satellite phone he was using.

From Wikipedia: Chechnya · History: Chechen Wars and brief independence (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The culture of Chechnya is based on the native traditions of Chechen people. Chechen mythology along with art have helped shape the culture for over 1,000 years.

From Wikipedia: Chechnya · Culture (CC BY-SA 4.0)