By the 19th century, the Russian Empire had established itself as a European power, but it also looked eastward, striving to assert control over the region between the Black and Caspian Seas.
In 1805, the Karabakh Khanate came under the protection of Tsar Alexander I, leading to an artificially altered ethnic composition that undermined the previous social unity of the region. Although the Russian Empire had reached the height of its power at that time, it was already beginning to face internal crises and external challenges.
Ultimately, amid this political instability and weakening of the empire, its collapse paved the way for the establishment of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918.
Though its existence was brief, it laid the foundations for the creation of an independent state that would be reborn several decades later
