Cossacks (1686–1709) the standoff with the Russian government during its attempts to cancel the self-governing of the Sich, and its fall (1734–1775) the formation of the Danubian Sich outside the Russian Empire and finding ways to return home (1775–1828) Formation The Zaporozhian Sich emerged as a method of defence by Slavic colonists against the frequent and devastating raids of Crimean Tatars, who captured and enslaved hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, Belorusians and Poles in operations called "the harvesting of the steppe". The Ukrainians created a self-defence force, the Cossacks, fierce enough to stop the Tatar hordes, and built fortified camps (sichi) that were later united to form a central fortress, the Zaporozhian Sich. Prince Dmytro Vyshnevetsky established the first Zaporozhian Sich on the island of Small (Mala) Khortytsia in 1552, building a fortress at Niz Dnieprovsky (Lower Dnieper) and placing a Cossack garrison there; Tatar forces destroyed the fortress in 1558. The Tomakivka Sich was built on a now-inundated island to the south, near the modern city of Marhanets; Tatars also razed that sich, in 1593. A third sich soon followed, on Bazavluk island, which survived until 1638, when it was destroyed by a Polish expeditionary force suppressing a Cossack uprising. These settlements, founded during the 16th century, were already complex enough to constitute an early proto-state. Struggle for independence The Zaporozhian Cossacks became included in the Kiev Voivodeship from 1583 to 1657, part of the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown. They resented Polish rule, however, one of the reasons being religious differences, as the cossacks were Orthodox Christians whereas the Poles were mostly Catholics. They thus engaged in a long struggle for independence from surrounding powers, the Rzeczpospolita (Polish state), the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean Khanate, and the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire. The Sich became the centre of Cossack life, governed by the Sich Rada alongside its Kosh Ataman (sometimes called Hetman, from German "Hauptmann"). In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky captured a sich at Mykytyn Rih, near the present-day city of Nikopol. From there he began an uprising against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that led to the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate (1649–1764). After the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, the Zaporozhian Host was split into the Hetmanate, with its capital at Chyhyryn, and the more autonomous region of Zaporozhia, which continued to be centred on the Sich. During this period the Sich changed location several times.