The Black Sea Germans (; ; ) are ethnic Germans who left their homelands (starting in the late-18th century, but mainly in the early-19th century at the behest of Emperor Alexander I of Russia - ), and settled in territories off the north coast of the Black Sea, mostly in the territories of the southern Russian Empire (including modern-day Ukraine). Black Sea Germans are distinct from similar groups of settlers (the Bessarabia Germans, Crimea Germans, Dobrujan Germans, Russian Mennonites, Volga Germans, and Volhynian Germans), who are separate chronologically, geographically and culturally. History Germans began settling in southern Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula in the late 18th century, but the bulk of immigration and settlement occurred during the Napoleonic period, from 1800 onward, with a concentration in the years 1803 to 1805. At the time, southern Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire. Designated New Russia, and often colloquially South Russia (or Südrussland by its German-speaking inhabitants), these lands had been annexed by the Russian Empire during the reign of Catherine the Great after wars against the Ottoman Empire (1768–1774) and the Crimean Khanate (1783). The area of settlement was not as compact as that of the Volga territory; rather it was home to a chain of colonies. The first German settlers arrived in 1787, first from West Prussia, then later from Western and Southwestern Germany and Alsace, France; as well as from the Warsaw area. Catholics, Lutherans, and Mennonites were all known as farmers (see Molotschna for Mennonite settlements in the Melitopol area); the Empress Catherine, herself an ethnic German, sent them a personal invitation to immigrate to the Russian Empire, as she felt they would make useful subjects and enrich her realm. She granted them privileges such as the free exercise of their religion and language within their largely closed communities, also exempt from military service and taxation. Emigration to the Americas In the late 19th century, both changing political conditions and growing hostilities towards Germans from Russia caused many Black Sea Germans, as well as Volga Germans, among other Germans from Russian communities, to begin migrating to North and South America, especially to Canada, the United States and Argentina. United States The first Black Sea German settlements in the United States were established in 1873 near the town of Lesterville, South Dakota, but they soon spread throughout both Dakotas. Lutherans and Catholics were the largest groups among the