Russia looks West

During the Renaissance, the West was having new ideas of government, art, and farming! Now the Russians, who were at both the East and the West, were more Eastern than Western. They had long robes and beards, and the women stayed in separate rooms and didn’t mingle with men. But Peter the Great would make Russia more Western. He became Czar at 1682, but because he wasn’t old enough, his sister took the throne for him for temporary use. During this time he talked to Westerners, played play battles with his friends. Then when he tried to take the throne when he was 17, his sister tried convincing the royal guard to capture Peter and his mother! Bu t the royal guard, tired of her tyranny, refused to do her orders and made Peter Czar, while she fled. Now that Peter was Czar, he wanted to make a port so that Russians would be able to enjoy Western goods! He then decided that Azov, an Ottoman Turk seaport, would be good to sail into the Mediterranean Sea and trade goods to all of Europe. He then marched his troops to Azov where the Russians demanded surrender but because the Turks didn’t because they could get supplies from ships. So, Peter ordered his men to build ships before spring so they could finally take the city by dwindling its supplies. After they took Azov, they still needed to defeat soldiers guarding the strait to go to Europe, and he didn’t want to go into a full-blown war with the Turks, so he decided to go for Sweden, since he could sail into the Baltic and trade with the Europeans that way. After twenty years of warfare, Sweden was finally defeated when their king died in battle. With Sweden now defeated Peter can now trade with Europeans and, he also made his new capital, St. Petersburg, in Sweden! But he soon died trying to help his sailors out of cold water.