Zaporizhia is a historical region in central Ukraine below the Dnieper Riverrapids - hence the name, literally " beyond the rapids". From the 16th to the 18th centuries the Zaporizhia region functioned as semi-independent quasi-republican Cossack territory centred on the Zaporizhian Sich. Sometimes the region is referred to as Zaporizhian Sich as well. Zaporizhia corresponds to modern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, major parts of Zaporizhia and Kirovohrad Oblasts, as well as parts of Kherson and Donetsk Oblasts of Ukraine.
Names
The region was officially known as Free lands of the Lower Zaporizhia Host. Among other names, it was called as Wild Fields, Novorossiya, and others.
Zaporizhia was the name of the territory of the Cossack state, the Zaporozhian Host, whose fortified capital was the Zaporizhian Sich. From the 15th century to the late 17th century it was fought over by Muscovy, the Polish Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire, as well as by the Hetmans of Central Ukraine. For most of that time it was technically controlled by Poland, but it was rarely peaceful, and was widely regarded as turbulent and dangerous, the refuge of outlaws and bandits. In the eyes of the vast majority of the Ukrainian people, however, it was a promised land of heroes and free men. In addition to many invasions by neighbouring countries, inhabitants of the Zaporozhe had to deal with an influx of new settlers from all directions and conflicts between the szlachta and independent Cossacks, who enjoyed a kind of autonomy in the region. Further, Cossacks often raided the nearby rich lands of the Ottoman Empire, retaliating for the constant slave raids of the Tatars against Ukrainian territories as far west as Galicia, in return provoking raids by Ottoman vassals, the Tatars. The more independent Army of Lower Zaporozhia was centered at the Old Sich. In 1709, Tsar Peter I ordered the destruction of the Old Sich, forcing the Zaporozhian Cossacks to flee to Oleshky, on the Black Sea in Ottoman territory. In 1734, the Russians allowed the Cossacks to re-establish their republic as the Free Lands of the Zaporozhian Host, based at the New Sich, but brought in many foreign settlers, and destroyed the Sich for good in 1775, incorporating the territory into New Russia. In the population Zaporozhye lands in the late 1970s to early 1980s of the XVIII century after prevailed Ukrainians. In 1779, they accounted for 64.36% of the total population of this region. On the second the place among others ethnic group was occupied by the Greeks, followed by Armenians and Russian.
Economy
Some historians estimate, that an average peasant's hut did not last over 10 years. In the years 1605-1633, for example, Red Ruthenian lands suffered 100,000 people taken captive by the Ottomans, and 24,000 dead; in the first half of the 17th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, controlling Zaporizhia, lost approximately 300,000 of people due to the Ottoman raids.
Legacy
It was after this region, a city of Zaporizhia received its name in 1921 previously known as Aleksandrovsk.
