The whole of the Ukraine, as well as the country which extends to the Black Sea, comprehending Wallachia, remained under Lithuanian dominion till 1453, when Mahomet II., sultan of Turkey, after the taking of Constantinople, changed the political condition of the east. Shortly after this conquest, the Ottomans achieved another over the vassals of Lithuania, already united to Poland. A long series of unfortunate wars, comprehending those with the Cossacks, ravaged the Ukraine and all the south of Poland up to the time of the treaty of Karlovitz, concluded in 1699. The Ottomans, then swearing eternal friendship to Poland, united themselves to their natural ally, in order to combat the Muscovite power, which was beginning to extend itself in every direction. The history of its wars from Peter the Great to Nicholas I. is too well known to require our notice here. With regard to the Transdnieperian Ukraine, it passed with the city of Kiow, by the illegal treaty of Andruszof, in 1688, under the dominion of the czars of Russia. This treaty, concluded in the reign of Sobieski, was a most unfortunate one for Poland, who, by the consequent troubles, was weakened and disorganised; and the same treaty subsequently brought down gradual calamities upon Polish Ukraine; especially in • the year 1768, during the revolt of Zelezniaque and Gonta, which was fostered and organised by Eussia.
After the second dismemberment of Poland, Polish Ukraine passed also (according to all appearances, provisionally) under Russian domination.