A major turning point in the history of the early modern North Caucasus that marks the beginning of its borderlandisation was the annexation of Astrakhan on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea in 1556 by the Tsardom of Muscovy. Muscovy subsequently and successfully expanded its sphere of influence further south into the region. Muscovy's ambitions and overtures in the North Caucasus, specifically in Kabarda, eventually forced the Ottoman Empire to redefine its priorities and strategies in its northern frontier zones. Hence, it was in the North Caucasus that these two empires, with their subject- and territory-making strategies, confronted each other for the first time in a long list of encounters which would shape the history of Eastern Europe in the following centuries.

The North Caucasus within Ottoman Northern Policy

The North Caucasus was a part of the Ottoman Empire's northern frontier, which stretched from Poland-Lithuania in Eastern Europe to the lower Volga River in the north of the Caspian Sea. The Ottoman Porte implemented in the North Caucasus a version of its northern policy, the essential objective of which was to secure and control the Black Sea as a mare nostrum. Ensuring the flow of wealth from the Black Sea shores to the Ottoman capital and its hinterland was a critical aspect of this policy. Because of this mostly effective strategy, the Ottomans for a long time were able to centrally control and prevent increases in prices of foodstuffs and other goods thanks to the resource-rich Black Sea littoral, while securing the core provinces of their empire from threats coming from the north. While its control of the Black Sea was never static and complete, the Ottoman Empire was undoubtedly the most potent political power in and around the Black Sea throughout the sixteenth century.

With their expansionist energies spent on their western and eastern frontiers, the Ottomans preferred to operate in the north, especially in the Pontic-Caspian steppes, through their vassal, the Crimean Khanate. In the sixteenth century, the khanate provided the Ottomans with a reliable proxy power and an army capable of raiding or checking the power of the northern states such as the Tsardom of Muscovy and Poland-Lithuania. Similarly, the Crimean khans played significant roles in the North Caucasus as self-proclaimed overlords of the region and its peoples, which was accepted and, to an extent, respected by the Ottoman Porte.