Umanske

Umanske lies in the northern Black Sea steppe, in the wider Inhul region. Rivers and grasslands supported movement and agriculture across this frontier country.

The wider steppe lay among the interests of Cossack communities, the Crimean Khanate, Ottoman power and neighbouring states. Raiding, trade and negotiation coexisted across shifting boundaries. Eighteenth-century Russian expansion brought forts, administrative districts and more agricultural settlement, changing established patterns of land use.