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The Peace of Amasya of 1555 formally divided the lands of the south Caucasus into separate Ottoman and Persian spheres of influence. The Georgian kingdom of Imereti and the lands to its west along the Black Sea coast were accorded to the Ottomans. To the east, the Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti and various Muslim potentates along the Caspian Sea coast were subsumed under Persian control.

Russian empress Catherine the Great undertook a series of initiatives to enhance Russian influence in the Caucasus and strengthen the Russian presence on the ground. These involved reinforcing the defensive lines which had been established earlier in the century by Peter the Great, moving more Cossacks into the region to serve as border guards, and building new forts.

War broke out between the Russian and Ottoman empires in 1768 as both sought to secure their power in the Caucasus. ... The course cut by Totleben and his troops as they moved from north to south over the centre of the Caucasian Mountains laid the groundwork for what would come to be formalised through Russian investment over the next century as the Georgian Military Highway, the major overland route through the mountains. The war between the Russians and Ottomans was concluded in 1774 with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca.

The Transcaucasian Railway, completed in 1884, connected Baku on the Caspian coast to Batum on the Black Sea coast via Ganja (Elizavetpol) and Tiflis. In addition to transporting oil, the railroad served to develop new relationships between rural agricultural areas and industrial zones. The connectivity of the region was further increased by the implementation of new communication infrastructure, with telegraph lines connecting Baku to Tiflis via Ganja (Elizavetpol) in the 1860s, and a telephone system operating within Baku in the 1880s.