Eastern Focused Russia

How do you get Russia to focus on eastward expansion, such as Central Asia, the Caucasus, or Persia, rather than westward expansion like Poland, Crimea, and the Baltic in the 18th century? Historically, Russia did send some military expeditions and explorations to the east, but nothing to the scale of the military campaigns they orchestrated in Europe. Would a strong Polish-Lithuania bulwark and/or hegemonic Sweden be able to push Russia from the West? Or would Russia require some sort of pull from the East, if so what would suffice?
 

kernals12

Banned
How do you get Russia to focus on eastward expansion, such as Central Asia, the Caucasus, or Persia, rather than westward expansion like Poland, Crimea, and the Baltic in the 18th century? Historically, Russia did send some military expeditions and explorations to the east, but nothing to the scale of the military campaigns they orchestrated in Europe. Would a strong Polish-Lithuania bulwark and/or hegemonic Sweden be able to push Russia from the West? Or would Russia require some sort of pull from the East, if so what would suffice?
This sounds more like a southward expansion
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
Charles consolidating a strong Swedish-Lithuanian Union that blocks Russia to the west?

A China that fumbles the Ming-Qing transition badly and remains divided and internally unstable for longer.

A Persia with hardly any strong or lucky leaders for any of the 18th century.
 
A longer-living Feodor III, or his son, Ilya?
South direction with Crimea and Caucasus is in the cards, but combining it with more successful Amur Wars it may work.
My ideas regarding Russia in the TL of longer-living Feodor had southward expansion being the prioirity, and while there is a war for Ingria in mid-1710ies, there is never a Baltic transfer of capital, and TTL successors of Peter I (who still ends up on the throne, but with different upbringing and priorities) would focus eastwards (yes, properly eastwards - with Central Asian conflicts with China, annexing Altai (with its precious silver) & beginning of navy in Pacific Ocean with proper exporation of Amur estuary)/
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
South direction with Crimea and Caucasus is in the cards, but combining it with more successful Amur Wars it may work.
My ideas regarding Russia in the TL of longer-living Feodor had southward expansion being the prioirity, and while there is a war for Ingria in mid-1710ies, there is never a Baltic transfer of capital, and TTL successors of Peter I (who still ends up on the throne, but with different upbringing and priorities) would focus eastwards (yes, properly eastwards - with Central Asian conflicts with China, annexing Altai (with its precious silver) & beginning of navy in Pacific Ocean with proper exporation of Amur estuary)/

Is that a shared world TL, or squarely focused on Feodor? Is it summarized anywhere?
 
An earlier Turkestani Conquest has some interesting consequences. You might be able to snatch Afganistan before the British assert authority on the Northern region of India.
 
Is that a shared world TL, or squarely focused on Feodor? Is it summarized anywhere?
Feodor becomes co-star of the TL by Chapter XXIV dealing with alternate Eternal Peace (the knock-off of his survival is no riding accident in 1674, which was what crippled his spine OTL).
Amur Wars with China have better results as OTL, and Russia takes Crimea and a foothold at Caucasus earlier.
The TTL XVIII century Russian policy is only outlined in my post-TL notes I've linked to, since both me and @Emperor Constantine left the thing due to other commitments/projects.
 
A China that fumbles the Ming-Qing transition badly and remains divided and internally unstable for longer.
That would mean, no doubt, that the Qing did not consolidate quickly so they might have allied with Russia to finish off the Ming, or been caught between the Romanovs and the Ming, thus establishing Russian control or protection.

That, no doubt, would lead Russia to invade and annex Korea next. How difficult that would be I am not sure, but with a permanent Russian hold on the Sea of Japan, the country might even have been able to snatch Taiwan and use it as a base to expand into tropical southeast Asia before the French did. That might have had the Russians fighting with Spain and the Dutch for control of these regions, but it could have placed them in the position to maintain a powerful maritime empire.

A Russian maritime empire in the marginal west Pacific might also have opened Japan much earlier than it was, unless Moscow’s focus was further south. As this is before major metallurgical developments or the discovery of oil refining, there would have been less incentive to explore the tropics for its natural resources, so I imagine Russia would have focused on Japan and very likely prevented its isolation as occurred under the Tokugawa Shoguns.
 
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