A History of Turkey, Part 1

PROFILE
Region: The Middle East
Climate: Seasonal Temperate, Hot Mediterranean
Leader(s): Tayyip Erdogan, since 2014 (at time of writing)
Population: 79,463,663
Capital: Ankara
Largest City: Istnabul
Currency: Turkish Lira
Languages: Turkish
Independence: N/A, was created from the Ottoman Empire in 1920
Territories or Colonies: None

THE FACTS
Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey is a large nation in the Middle East & Europe, bordering Bulgaria. It is often known as the crossroads of the world because it's located on the divide between Europe and Asia. Istanbul is one of the few Intercontinental Cities like Panama City, Panama (half in South America, half in North America) or Port Said, Egypt (half in Africa, half in Asia). 

Turkey is known for its unique cuisine, culture and language that is unlike any other in the world. It's culture is an interesting mix of Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Eastern European influences.

BEFORE THE BYZANTINES (????-324)
Turkey is home to some of the oldest civilizations in the world. It's in close proximity to the cradle of humanity (the Tigris and Euphrates delta) and is home to what many consider the oldest city in the world Catalhoyuk. This town was a clump of buildings (what would be considered a village or small town by today's standards). It had agriculture on its edges (a recent invention), specialization within its walls like artisans and potters, etc. and was home to four to five thousand, one of the largest concentrations of people at this time.

Keep in mind that most humans were either a). nomads who just wandered around, ate whatever they could and preoccupied themselves with hunting, sleeping, sex and figuring out why the terrifying light in the sky always goes behind the earth or b.) you were a farmer who without the tools needed for large scale agriculture were relegated to small measly plots where you could grow a couple of the crops that grew in your local area and nothing else. Life wasn't great and living cities was important because it allowed you to have a career other than farmer, hunter or gatherer. 

At this time there was no such thing as a Turkish people. There were various groups like the Hattians, Hittites and others who would set up a primitive empire centered around a large town and spread their influence around the general area, and then would be wiped out by the Assyrians or some other group that wanted to control that land even more. The period between 2000 and 1200 BCE was a period of varying control by various groups. Stability wasn't anywhere to be found. 

Persia controlled the region for a bit, but the most important ruler the region had was Rome. Rome set up the farthest reaches of its Empire in Anatolia. They set up a capital in Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire actually became more stable and powerful than the Western Roman Empire. When Rome was sacked in 410 by those nasty Barbarians it didn't really affect the Byzantines who were off doing their own thing in Turkey and Greece. 

Next post I will go into the rest of the history up to the renaissance. Turkey might require three posts as it's very complex. 

A History of Turkmenistan, Part Two

ARAB INVASION & OTHERS (600s-1157)
The Arabs arrived in the region in the 600s, shortly after their conquest of the Arabian peninsula was complete, the Arabs wanted to find more territory to spread their religion to. The Arab conquest of this region was discussed in the Uzbekistan post previously. Religion was a powerful motivator, that caused thousands of Arab troops to arrive in a distant and strange land that was unlike anything they'd ever seen. It was persian in culture and most people were Zoro-Astrian, the religion of the Ancient Persians (one of the earliest Monotheistic religions). They first occupied the city of Merv (named for noted Turkmen Merv Griffin). Merv was the Arab's home base for their missionary efforts. 

The Arabs went as far east as China and as far west as Turkey. To this day the Western part of China has a large ethnically Central Asian Muslim population.

The Turkmen people weren't huge fans of the occupying Arabs. They took to their religion pretty well, but they weren't big on the military force itself. There's a story of a Goldsmith in Merv who told the Abbasid named Abu Muslim (who was so Muslim he was literally named Muslim) to not fight fellow muslims (meaning the people of Turkmenistan). Abu Muslim said "fuck that" and killed the Goldsmith and his entire family, as well as forty innocents because he felt like it.

The Arabs were overthrown by the Seljuks. The Seljuk occupation was a bit better for the average Turkmen person. Architecture was built (too bad most of it is dusty ruins at this point), paintings were painted and pottery was made. Pottery is usually a sign a culture is doing well. If they can designate hours a day painting ornate symbols on some ceramic it means they're doing pretty good.

At this time though, the Turkmen ethnic group which is how most people from Turkmenistan identify didn't really exist. 

The Turkmen originated from a loose group of nine tribes around Lake Baikal in Russia, just north of Mongolia. These tribes were nomadic and eventually found their way to modern-day Turkmenistan and felt like settling down. There was some conflict between them and the other tribes and civilizations in the region, but it's mostly pretty boring and not important to the history of Turkmenistan as some tribes one and some tribes lost, etc.

MONGOLS SHOW UP (1157-1700s)
In 1157 the Mongols invaded! The Mongols arriving in your country is usually a bad sign and when I say usually I mean always. The Mongols tore shit up! They burned Merv to the ground (which is why it's not a city anymore, and is more of a dirt pile with some ruins on it). 

The Mongols did with Turkmenistan what they did with everywhere else they invaded. Genghis Khan just pawned the land off on one of his generals or kids that he liked or something like that. He was like:

"Hey Chagatai, son. You've been doing pretty well. I figured you're ready for the responsibility that comes with managing a vast expanse of land. All you have to do is supply your warriors with enough money so they can terrorize the villages and towns in the land and it'll basically take care of itself. Alright, bye now. I'm off to go cross the Great Wall of China like it's nothing." 

After the Mongols fell, a couple more empires captured the land like Timur who died a bit afterward and his Empire went with him and some smaller Tribes that governed the land for a bit.

RUSSIAN COLONIZATION (1800s-1917)
Russia and its ever expanding empire eventually reached the arid steppe of Turkmenistan. In 1869 the Russian government built a city designed as a port-town on the Caspian Sea called Krasnovodsk. Russia expanded its influence in the region by cracking down on the Slave trade in the region, mostly commited by Turkmen steppe residents. Russia outlawed slavery in 1723 and used this as a reason for their involvement in the region, even though they really wanted the land and natural resources.

Russians began settling the barren swathes of land in Turkmenistan founding cities like Ashgabat (the nation's capital) and this pissed off the Turkmen people who lived there already. They didn't want outsiders to come and ruin their land. 

If you want more information on why Russia was claiming so much land check out the section of the Uzbekistan post where I talk about "The Great Game". I won't talk about it here because I'd be mostly repeating myself.

USSR (1917-1991)
Turkmenistan in 1917, became something of a problem for the newly formed USSR. It was filled with people that hated Moscow and Russia in general, but not for the reasons that the Bolsheviks did. They hated everything Russian and wanted out of the Russian Empire and the USSR. Most Turkmen people either didn't care the outcome of the Russian Revolution or were actively rooting against the Bolsheviks. 

Turkmenistan was kept out of the spotlight for most of the 20th century as a satellite country of the USSR, that wasn't super important on the world stage. It still is pretty forgotten. It's the 7th least visited country in the world being beaten out by Tuvalu (which I talked about last week) and Somalia for obvious reasons, among others.

The country wasn't talked about much and the USSR almost seemed to forget it existed. 

INDEPENDENCE (1991-PRESENT)
Turkmenistan, along with the other Soviet States became independent in 1991-1992. Saparmurad Niyazov, who was the head of the communists was elected (in a less than fair election). Niyazov seems to be trying to beat out Idi Amin for craziest dictator discussed on this blog however.

Niyazov's official title is "President of the Republic of Turkmenistan, Leader of ALL Turkmen". He wrote a new-age spirituality book called the Ruhnama which honestly sounds awful and made it mandatory in school. He changed the names of months, cities and other places to names of his family members and other things he deems worthy.

He also took term limits out of the constitution and declared himself President for Life which isn't good. That's dictator red-flag number one right there.

He then mysteriously died in 2006, leaving his illegitimate son Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow (the leader with the longest name EVER) in charge. He won with 89% of the vote which seems fishy at best. He did some things to help Turkmenistan step into the 21st century like removing the internet firewall and allowing some criticism of the government. He also used some of Turkmenistan's new oil-money to refurbish the capital city and infrastructure around the country.

Even though some things are getting better life in Turkmenistan is still rough and without many political freedoms. It seems like things are improving though thanks in part to leadership that's crazy, but not AS crazy as Niyazov and the new oil money.

FUN FACTS
-Turkmenistan is home to the Gate to Hell (a.k.a. the Crater of Fire or the Door to Hell) a crater that is eternally on fire because of natural gas under the surface of the desert. It is known to be the most Metal tourist attraction in the world.
-Turkmenistan is exposed to "extreme seasons" with temperatures going from 15 degrees in the winter to 120 degrees in the summer.
-Turkmenistan has half the population of New York City, but 13 times as many airports.
-There is a carpet museum with the Guinness world record for largest hand-woven carpet.
-Even though firewalls have been lifted only 1.5% percent of Turkmenistan residents use the internet, so they're probably not reading this.

A History of Turkmenistan, Part One

PROFILE
Region: Central Asia
Climate: Extreme Continental, Desert
Leader(s): Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, since 2006 (at time of writing)
Population: 5,171,943
Capital: Ashgabat
Largest City: Ashgabat
Currency: Turkmen New Manat
Languages: Turkmen, Russian
Independence: 1991, from the Soviet Union
Territories or Colonies: None

THE FACTS
Turkmenistan is one of the stan countries in Central Asia. These often forgot about countries are vast in size, taking up land conquered by the Mongols, but are low in population like Mongolia. The people in these countries are from a variety of ethnic groups that were Turkic in origin, hence the origin of the name Turkmenistan.

EARLY HISTORY (????-600s)
The first time Turkmenistan shows up in history is when Alexander the Great arrives in the 300s BCE. Alexander the Great brought his Macedonians all the way to Afghanistan and passed through central Asia conquering stuff and naming cities after himself and his horse.

The Region at the time was only controlled by Stone-Age groups of nomadic warriors and Alexander the Great was able to overpower them technologically. Alexander the Great didn't have time to rule everything though and his empire was short lived, much like himself and it died with him when he got a cold, or died of alcohol poisoning (depending on who you listen to, but getting a cold isn't a very cool way to go). 

The Persians later re-conquered the region like they did in Uzbekistan and added it to its province of Transoxiana. You may remember this from the Uzbekistan post, as these countries are near each other much of there history will overlap and I'll just reference previous posts if necessary.

A History of Uganda

PROFILE
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Climate: Tropical, Wet and Rainy
Leader(s): Yoweri Museveni, since 1986 (at time of writing)
Population: 37,873,253
Capital: Kampala
Largest City: Kampala
Currency: Ugandan Shilling
Languages: Swahili, English, Ateso, Kakwa, Kinyarwanda, Kumam, Luganda, Lugbara, Lugwere, Lunyoli, Luo, Lusamia, Lusoga, Rukonjo, Runyankole, Runyoro, Sebei
Independence: 1962, from the United Kingdom
Territories or Colonies: None

THE FACTS
Uganda is relatively small, but densely populated nation in Sub-Saharan Africa bordered by Tanzania, Rwanda, the DRC, South Sudan and Kenya. It's in the African Great Lakes region, a region of lakes formed by the Great Rift Valley, including Lake Kyoga, Lake Albert, Lake Victoria, Lake Edouard, Lac Kivu, Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi among others. It is run by Yoweri Museveni, who many consider a dictator, who himself overthrew the previous dictator Idi Amin, known for being suspected of cannibalism. 

EARLY HISTORY (????-1894)
Uganda stayed relatively isolated from Europe and Asia. Uganda at this time was never really a superpower in the region, but it was always connected to those in power. The kingdoms of Buganda and Bunyoro made ties with the Sudanese in the north, who made money selling slaves in the Arab Slave trade. They also had ties with the Zanzibarians who occupied the islands of Zanzibar and didn't trade slaves as much which makes them better than the Sudanese in my book.

The Arab slave trade and the African Slave trade went the way of the dinosaur well before Europe arrived in the region which means that North Africa had to find a new industry and oil wasn't useful yet, so they went with spice trading and trade in general. The Buganda as well as other smaller kingdoms didn't have as much of a problem though, because they never traded in slaves, they just allied with countries that did, so this didn't effect the economy very much which was primarily farming. 

I've talked about this in the Zimbabwe and Zambia posts, but there is an idea of pre-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa as this vast jungle full of uncontacted tribes like are still today found in the Amazon and the Indian Ocean, but while there were some uncontacted tribes like the Pygmies, most people lived under the jurisdiction of some sort of Kingdom. These kingdoms would most likely be divided into regional councils, like town councils that would make laws for the region. 

Pre-Colonial Africa had a system of civics as complex as Europe at the time. Let's say the average European in the middle ages is named Berchtold. He lives in the German countryside. He technically lives in the Holy Roman Emprie, but he probably doesn't care as the laws that effect him are the laws of a local Vassal (basically a medieval sheriff) or if he's indentured, the laws of the landowner he works for would matter. 

Similarly many Early Ugandans were subsistence farmers who lived under the jurisdiction of a Kingdom they likely had no contact with, but their village or region had a council that was more important.

The Buganda Kingdom was a legit Kingdom too. It had a feared army and a fancy capital in Kampala (Uganda's present day Capital city, on the shores of Lake Victoria).

The African Great Lakes Region before the arrival of the British was described as "A World in Miniature". It had a vast network of roads, trade routes and warring kingdoms and warlords. The Arab influenced north was vastly different from the Buganda in the center of it all and the Zanzibarians off the coast or the Pygmies hidden in the jungle. It was like African Game of Thrones. 

First contact with the world beyond the Arab World (meaning Europe and the U.S. of A.) happened, not when the British arrived in the 1890s, but earlier when the Ivory Trade became profitable. Uganda was in the heart of Ivory Territory and hunted Ivory for profit, (almost until Elephants became extinct). Uganda at this time was ballin. They had all of this Ivory money. They were trading with Europe, they had recently converted partially to this religion they'd just learned about called Islam. Things were pretty good for the Buganda.

Bugandans were even wearing clothing from America called "mericani" (like a-mericani), drinking British Tea and coffee and buying guns from Europe. This is why when Colonists and Missionaries arrived in the land they described it as very western and modernized. 

All of this good stuff sadly had to come to an end when all of this trading with the outside world led to three different outbreaks of diseases the Bugandans weren't immune to like smallpox and sleeping sickness. Dammit!

BRITISH COLONIZATION (1894-1962)
All of this set the stage for the British to show up and take all of their shit, as the story goes once again, but this time it was slightly different. The British never fully colonized the region. They arrived relatively late and the region was already pretty westernized. They set up a "Protectorate" which is kind of like a Colony, except the government stays the same (non-British) and the British just keeps some profits, changes the flag, imposes British culture and protects the land with their army. Very few British people came and lived in the land like they did in the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa or New Zealand.

The country was split between converts to Islam and Christianity. But these new Christians were already divided. Some of the missionaries converted them into Catholics, while others were Protestant, and so violence erupted Ireland style, but this time in Africa, because one group that decided they liked Jesus now felt their love for Jesus was incompatible with the other group that recently decided they liked Jesus, but in a different way. (I'm still not 100% sure of the key fundamental differences between Protestants and Catholics. I get there are differences in the way the church is set up and what you do, like sacraments and priests and what not. I know that protestants were protesting something, but those problems had more to do with 1300s Europe than they do with anything now. I dunno, probably something more important that I don't understand).

During colonization Britain sided with the most powerful group in the region the Buganda Kingdom, which alienated the Bunyoro, the second largest land-holders in the Protectorate. The Buganda became hated by other Kingdoms for basically selling out to Britain and the West. 

For a lot of normal everyday people though not much changed. They still lived in a village and farmed, but instead of having a flag that had a white stripe with a lion and shield in it surrounded by blue stripes, their flag was a blue field with a union jack on the upper left with a crested crane on it. In other words not much but the flag, language and money changed.

Even the language element is debateable. While many Ugandans today speak English, traditional languages are preferred.

The region seemed to dodge both World Wars unlike many other of its neighboring countries. This region was the frontlines for many of the battles in Africa, as Germany's crown jewel in Africa (German East Africa, now called Tanzania) was nudged right up against Britain's holdings in Uganda, Zambia and Kenya, as well as Belgium's Congo Free State. Belgium wasn't super thrilled with Germany on account of Germany invading them, so the Free State warred with German East Africa, as well as Portuguese Mozambique, which didn't do much fighting as Portugal was essentially neutral, but they sided with Britain.

INDEPENDENCE (1962-PRESENT)
In 1962 Uganda gained independence as the U.K. was trying to jettison some of its colonial holdings as they were starting to look bad. 

Milton Obote became the first president and declared the country should be a Republic, which lasted approximately nine years before insane person Idi Amin decided he wanted a stab at controlling the country.

He wasn't a good choice for Uganda for the following reasons:

• He probably had brain syphilis or bipolar disorder.
• He bestowed upon himself this ridiculously garish title "His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular" and no, I did not sneak that MC in the middle. Idi Amin was not secretly a rapper, that stood for Military Cross.
• He claimed to be the King of Scotland despite not being born in Scotland, none of his family being from Scotland and having very little contact with Scotland in general, also the fact that Scotland hasn't had a king for 400 years as well
• He was rumored to be a cannibal and even if he wasn't, somebody has to be pretty fucked up to be rumored to be a cannibal.

But seriously he was a horrible dictator that rose to popularity as an affable, likable man of the people who seemed to lose his mind over time. He alienated Uganda's Asian, Jewish and intellectual community, as he deemed these groups threatening to his regime. 

He burned books, killed those with glasses and destroyed chess boards and other things associated with intellectualism.

Thankfully Amin's rule was ended in 1979, but recently the country has been hit with a string of dictators, like Museveni, but not much is better.

A History of Tuvalu

PROFILE
Region: Oceania
Climate: Warm, Tropical 
Leader(s): Enele Sopoaga, since 2013 (at time of writing)
Population: 10,640
Capital: Fongafele
Largest City: Fongafele
Currency: Tuvaluan Dollar, Australian Dollar
Languages: Tuvaluan, English
Independence: 1978, from the U.K.
Territories or Colonies: None

THE FACTS
Tuvalu is a tiny island nation in the South Pacific midway between Hawaii and Australia. It is one of the smallest nations geographically and population wise, as the fourth smallest by area and the second least populous. It has fewer people than San Francisco's Chinatown district a neighborhood four by eight blocks large.

The country itself is comprised of nine island groups in an archipelago. Tuvalu is one of the countries most affected by climate change because of how low lying and small it is. 

Another idea of how small it is: there is only one High-School that every one in the nation goes to and only two supermarkets. 

PRE-CONTACT (????-1568)
Not very much is known about the islands before arrival by Europeans who wrote stuff down. The culture of Oceania didn't have written languages and therefore history was passed down orally. The Tuvaluan people were believed to have come from Samoa on outrigger canoes. This website has information on how the polynesian people groups navigated the vast Pacific ocean and has details about expeditions a recreated outrigger canoe made around the world recently.

The Samoans quickly populated eight of the islands, giving Tuvalu it's name: Eight Standing Together in early Austronesian dialects.

SPANISH CONTACT (1568-1861)
The Spanish were messing around in that area during the late 1500s. They had successfully found their way to India (with no help from Columbus, that dumbass) and they had just started to expand their voyages into the South Pacific, discovering Australia (which they, at the time, believed was a part of Antarctica) and discovering this massive ocean they hadn't had much contact with.

This guy Alvaro de Mendana y Neyra was a Spanish explorer who was dicking around in this area when he happened across Nui, a small atoll that today contains little more than a few speckles of houses and a bunch of palm trees. He thought the island was so great he called in Jesus. 

Some Nui islanders were concerned that this massive wooden ship that was bigger than any boat they'd ever seen before, populated with a bunch of white guys in tights and sailed out to try and figure out what was going on in the boat. Alvaro didn't make contact with the islanders instead writing in his journal that the islanders were "naked" and "brown" and that their was a large dock on the island.

Mendana showed up a couple more times, but never made contact.

Europe left it alone, similar to Vanuatu, because they didn't think these places had any resources that they needed and they were so hard to get to that even if they did have resources, it probably wouldn't be worth it to spend gajillions of dollars shipping them 6000 miles through choppy sea.

In 1819, the next big step forward for Tuvalu came when this british guy Arent de Peyster almost crashed into Funafuti. He renamed the islands Ellice's Group, because Britain wasn't so hot on Spain at the time and the way he could get back at Spain and get some props from the British government would be to give this far-off, pretty isolated and not totally important to the geo-political climate of Europe, group of islands a British name. This name stuck until 1976, when Tuvalu gained independence and chose a native name.

The islands were again left alone. They were visited by some more British guys, then some American guys, one of whom was named Obed Starbuck of Nantucket, MA. He wasn't super important, I just wanted to write the name Obed Starbuck, because it's really cool.

EUROPE STARTS TO SHOW UP AND LIVE ON THE ISLANDS (1861-1940s)
In the 1860s, Europe showed up and this means two things. Illegal Slavery and Jesus! The Illegal Slavery thing wasn't too successful as the Tuvaluans ended up just killing the slavers (a.k.a. Blackbirders), but 400 Tuvaluans were captured and sold to plantations in Fiji, Samoa and even Hawai'i (slavery had been Abolished in the U.S., but at this time Hawai'i was a sovereign kingdom run by Kamehameha V, who was fine with it). 

The missionaries actually arrived by accident. They were doing missionary stuff in the Cook Islands, and their boat accidentally drifted off course. I don't know how you slip 1,600 miles off course, but hey I'm not a sailor. 

Missionaries and traders began arriving at the islands in the 1880s and 1890s. The islanders weren't super thrilled to have all of these Europeans taking their coconuts and trying to convert them to Christianity, but it eventually worked out for the missionaries. Now most people in the country are Christian. 

The white population on the islands was never super high though (at one point Funafuti only had two white residents, a soldier of fortune named Al and a trader named George Westbrook) which sounds like the setup for a sitcom, but it isn't. 

The islands were handed to the british in 1877, all the while the native Tuvaluans were pissed. They were having their natural resources taken from them and they didn't even get to keep any of the cool colonial architecture associated with being a colonized island nation.

WW2 & INDEPENDENCE (1940s-PRESENT)
The Tuvaluans were double pissed when war-crazy Japan showed up and started claiming all of these Pacific Islands. The British lost control briefly, during a Japanese occupation. America showed up to kick out the Japanese and blow stuff up, and the Tuvaluan people are happy that the crazy Japanese are out of their hair, but the U.S. just start building military bases and airfields on the islands. "Come on!!!" -Tuvaluans during WW2

Now, it's post-war, and you're Great Britain. You're thinking to yourself "I have all of these territorial possessions left over from the colonial era and this newfangled UN isn't super into colonizers like myself", so in 1974 the Brits say to the Tuvaluans "hey, you guys need to set up your own government, we're giving you up." This wasn't one of those U.S.A. or South America style independences that involve big wars, garish songs and national heroes that are later idolized for saying and doing things they probably didn't say or do. This was the quiet, diplomatic kind that involved lots of paperwork and guys at desks looking at charts with numbers on them. The boring kind, but the kind with less maiming and killing, so I guess the better kind.

After independence most things were good. Tuvalu's standard of living is pretty high for the region and how much political turmoil can possible come from a country smaller than Disneyland with the population of a poorly attended Joan Jett concert. 

The biggest problem now for Tuvaluans is climate change. Rising sea levels are threatening the land itself and many Tuvaluans might soon have to move to other countries like Fiji, Solomon Islands and Australia or the U.S.

FUN FACTS
Tuvalu is smaller than San Francisco's Chinatown.
You could fit the entire population of Tuvalu into AT&T Park in San Francisco and it would only be a quarter full. 

A History of Ukraine, Part 2

KIEVAN RUS (800s-1300s)
Sadly there's no writing documenting the founding of Kiev, but most believe it began to be built up in the late 800s as part of the Khazar state, an empire that spanned from Uzbekistan, through the caucasus region to Eastern Europe, basically encircling the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea. In 882 it was conquered by the Varangians, who were basically Vikings, but not Norse. They came from the Baltic Region and regions east of there. Kiev (and Ukraine as well) was important because it was a good area for trade. You may hear me saying this a lot (in past posts) but if the country is in Eurasia, there's a good chance it was involved in either Silk Road trade or Indian Ocean trade. Eurasia (often called the Old World, with North Africa) was heavily networked with trade routes from the often isolated Japan to Portugal, and from the Mongolians of the north to the various groups of India. 

Many consider the Kievan Rus the city state that began the Russian Empire, and while Kiev was the crossroads of Eastern Europe it wasn't as much of a city state as say Singapore is now. It didn't have a unique cultural identity and was more of a band of ethnically similar tribes that formed an urban conglomeration. 

Rus in this context means a kingdom or city state under the Russian umbrella. You may know of Belarus, but there was also Chorna Rus, Cherven Rus and the Lithuanian Rus. 

These Rus's weren't in anyway unified though. They were constantly at war or bickering, as neighboring political entities tend to do. 

However, for the people of Kiev, times weren't as bad as they could have been if they lived in the feudal hellscape of Central Europe. Sure, they weren't as nice as they were in the Arab world at the time, but there's always something worse, I guess.

This relative stability wouldn't last though because in 1240 the Mongols sacked Kiev. DAMMIT! The Mongols ruin everything: Kiev, The Order of the Assassins and countless cool empires. On the bright side he might have reduced carbon emissions by killing so many people forests overtook formerly populated places, so... I guess that's good. 

POLISH AND RUSSIAN RULE (1300s-1700s)
Let's skip forward in time a bit to the next big change in Ukraine's history. In 1569 Poland and Lithuania joined forces so they had a better chance of not being invaded every three days by Russia or Prussia. This commonwealth quickly became one of the largest countries in Europe taking over parts of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia. Many ethnically polish people showed up to Ukraine in hopes of farming and using their not-yet-spoiled-by-radiation soil to grow food. The Ukrainians welcomed them with pretty open arms and intermingled with them. 

Also, let's not forget that this was the Renaissance and Poland knew it. Poland was the closest thing to a huge art producer like Western Europe that the Ukraine had and Poland introduced new ideas like making paintings of rich people and wearing feathers (and other renaissance things, but mostly those first two). 

Many of these Poles that showed up in Ukraine came to be known as Cossacks, which is where we get the term today. 

In 1648 the Cossacks rebelled in what is called "The Ruin" (finally historians give something a cool name). The Cossacks were sick of being ruled by Warsaw, which they feel didn't care about Ukrainians and Cossacks. They were almost totally independent at this point, but that meant they would have to fight their own wars and that's exactly what they did against their old parents The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as well as the Ottomans who just like being dicks and getting in the way. 

Here's where Russia shows up. They tell Ukraine (aka the Cossacks) "Hey guys. You're under threat of invasion by Poland-Lithuania at any time. That sucks. We hate them too. How about you let us build some forts in your land and we'll provide protection from them. We're totally not going to slowly overthrow your government and replace it with a puppet government that takes orders from us. That would be totally rude."

But, they did that though. Never trust Russia.

This however did have some upsides. The Ottomans were deathly afraid of Russia so immediately backed off and so did the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, before being partitioned back into nothingness.

But it was mostly bad. Russia, as mighty as they were, were incredibly afraid of uprising or revolution. They banned the Ukrainian language and suppressed their cultural identity, replacing it with a Russian one. 

SPLIT BETWEEN RUSSIA AND AUSTRIA (1700s-1991)
For most of the 1800s, Ukraine was split between Austria (and Austro-Hungary) and Russia, with it's massive empire. Russia was gaining territory so quickly it eventually became the largest Empire on earth in size, remnants of it remain today as the country of Russia. 

Ukraine, like Uzbekistan (from a couple posts ago) didn't like being under Russia's control. They fought in the Ukrainian War of Independence in 1917. They successfully set up a state (The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic) but it only was independent for 3 years (1919-1922), before being consumed by the massive machine that was the USSR. 

In WW2 Ukraine was on the front lines as one of the first points of entry into the USSR from Western Europe and therefore a ton of fighting took place there. Ukrainians weren't all that thrilled to fight under the flag of a country they hated, but they also felt the need to defend their land against the Nazis and Italians. 

Post war this new-fangled body called the UN was starting up in from the ashes of the LON and they wanted Ukraine to be in it. But the USSR said "How can one of my constituents act as an independent country. That'd be like asking if Virginia wanted a seat in the UN, without considering the USA". But Ukraine got in, even though it was technically a part of the USSR. The UN shows favoritism for smaller scrappy states that want independence, rather than large monolithic Empires. 

INDEPENDENCE (1991-PRESENT)
When the USSR collapsed, Ukraine became one of the largest new nations with a land area larger than  most countries in Europe and a large population as well. 

The independence referendum which was just a formality at this point got 90% of the vote (only 56% in Crimea, showing their early signs of wanting to split) and they were off on their on way. 

Things were rocky at first, like the path for most new nations, and the country was full of corruption, political prisoners and other problems that you'll find all over Eastern Europe and the former Soviet countries. 

Things were at a boiling point when Leonid Kuchma, president of Ukraine was convicted of abducting journalist Georgiy Gongadze, who ran an anti-establishment internet newspaper. Kuchma said he wouldn't run for a second term because if he did he would probably get like 0.00001% of the vote. 

Their next president Yushcheko tried to cut ties with Russia favoring the EU. He thought fostering relations with the rest of Europe would be a good idea. He was right. Too bad his plan couldn't be enacted because he lost the election to Viktor Yanukovych another Ukrainian politician named Victor with a last name starting with "Y". 

He is known to many in the west as a Putin suck up, who carried out illegal political imprisonment and the guy who had a petting zoo installed at his mansion, but when reporters questioned why he would have such a thing claimed all of the animals (mostly ostriches) just showed up there and congregated by themselves.

In 2014 Russia invaded the Crimean peninsula and Yanukovych just kind of let it happen. I WONDER WHY!?!? He let it happen because him and Putin are pals. This invasion split the country. Some were pro EU and Anti-Russia, and some were Anti-EU and pro Russia. 

Now Ukraine is in a full on war over Crimea with the death count in the thousands (mostly civilians) with a crumbling economy and rampant corruption. So, it can only get better, I guess.

FUN FACTS
If you don't count Russia, Ukraine is the largest country in Europe by Area.
It is common to say "Ta ni" which translates to "Yeaaaaaaah, no"
Subway stations are massive, because they were designed to hide war-planes and bombs in war time.
Ukraine isn't as big as Texas.