Note publique d'information : In the Shadow of Great Powers is the second volume of Christoph Baumer s History of
the Caucasus. It covers the period from the Seljuk domination of the Southern Caucasus
around 1050 CE to the present day. After the Kingdom of Georgia s golden age of independent
power and cultural blossoming in the 12th and early 13th centuries, the Caucasus was
overrun by the Mongols and soon disintegrated into innumerable smaller kingdoms, principalities
and khanates. At the same time, an Armenian kingdom in exile maintained a precarious
independence in Cilicia, today s southern Turkey, by applying a three-way diplomatic
policy balanced between the Mongol Il-Khanate, the Crusader states and, to a lesser
degree, the Mameluke Empire. Then followed four centuries during which the highly
fragmented polities of the North and South Caucasus became political pawns of the
regional great powers, above all the Ottomans, Iran and Russia. In the wake of World
War I the South Caucasus enjoyed a short-lived independence whereas its northern neighbours
were engulfed by the Russian civil wars. But by 1921 the Soviet Union had re-established
Russian dominance over the whole region and, from a Western perspective, the region
disappeared behind the Iron Curtain. Nevertheless, the Caucasian nations kept their
pronounced identities even under Soviet rule, giving rise at the dissolution of the
Soviet Union to a number of internecine conflicts. Whereas the Russian Federation
managed to maintain its supremacy over the North Caucasus - albeit at the cost of
bloody wars and insurrections - Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia succeeded in more
or less gaining control over their destiny. Of these three republics, only Azerbaijan
secured a wide-ranging independence thanks to its fossil fuel resources. Following
Russian interference, Georgia lost control over two of its provinces while Armenia
remains dependent on Russian support in the face of its notoriously antagonistic relations
with neighbouring Azerbaijan and Turkey over the unresolved issue of Karabakh. In
the Shadow of Great Powers includes some 200 full-colour images and maps which further
bring the turbulent history of this region to light.
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