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In the early 15th century, the Khanate of Sibir was founded by Taibuga, an either Muslim or Shamanist descendant from noblemen in the Golden Horde; after the fall of the horde, a power vacuum was created, allowing Taibuga to seize power.
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Ibak Khan, a Muslim descendant of Genghis Khan (a Shaybanid), kills Taibuga's grandson, Mar, who was by then the Khan, and comes to power.
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Mar's grandson, Muhammad, kills Ibak Khan in battle and takes power. He changes the capital from Chimgi-Tura to Qashliq.
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In August 1552, Ivan the Terrible's 150,000 strong army sacked the walled and moated city of Kazan. After its sacking, Russian colonists occupied the Kazan Khanate.
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After watching the neighboring Khanate fall to the might of Ivan the Terrible, the Taibugid Siberian Khan, Yadigar, to seek friendship with the Tsardom of Russia.
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Kuchum, a Shaybanid, begins fighting with Yadigar for the the title of Khan.
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After Yadigar died, Kuchum ascended to the throne, and began converting the mostly Shamanist people of Siberia to Islam.
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In 1573, Kuchum Khan decided to conduct a raid against the Russian trading post of Perm. After it, a family of merchants asked Yermak, a Cossack general, to attack the Siberians.
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After Yermak was hired, he brought his army of 840 men to Kuchum's numerically superior forces. However, since Yermak's men possessed guns, and Kuchum's only had bows and arrows, Yermak's forces won easily.
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After watching his Khanate fall to Yermak, Kuchum killed him and rose to the throne once again, however, by then, it was already too late.
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Tyumen served as a fortress to protect the areas around fallen Qashliq.
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During Kuchum's fall, he conducted a raid against the people living around the Russian city of Tobolsk.
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On the Ishym River, a Russian General captured two of Kuchum's wives and his son. The son was later given estates in Russia.
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The founding of this granted easier access to regions farther east.
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In order to control Kuchum, who was still raiding Russian settlements, a fort at Tara was built.
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Many of Kuchum's followers were raided by Russians on the upper Irtysh River.
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In 1597, Kuchum asked his son to negotiate with the Tsar for peace, however, when they offered him estates in return for surrender, Kuchum refused.
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Over the thirteen or so years after Yermak's death, Russia had slowly conquered the Siberian Khanate. In 1598, Kuchum was defeated at the banks of the River Ob, the eastern border of the Siberian Khanate. Kuchum was forced to flee, ending his rule over Siberia. However, the Russians killed two of his sons and captured another five sons, eight daughters, and eight wives. A Muslim cleric was later sent to negotiate, but Kuchum described himself as deaf and blind and refused to submit.
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It is said that Kuchum died in Bukhara, a town in the Central Asian steppes.
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By doing so, he opened up exploration west of the river. He was also likely the first explorer to discover Yakutia.
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He forced the residents to pay taxes to the Russian government.
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He was the first to discover the region near Lake Baikal.
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With help of locals, they found the Amur river, and discovered the Sea of Okhotsk.
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This isn't the exact map (I couldn't find it), but this is another map of his of the region around Lake Baikal.
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Thus, he also discovered Chukotka and Cape Dezhnev, the easternmost point of mainland Asia.
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He either won or evaded most of them, and he later drafted a map of the Amur River.
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It was the first to include the Diomede Islands, Wrangel Island, and Alaska.
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The Czar wanted the Dane, Vitus Bering, to find a trade route between America and the Kamchatka Peninsula. 1728 is the year that he reached the Bering Strait, however he turned back due to the aggressive Chukchi people.
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He was told to explore the North Pacific, explore more of eastern Siberia, and map the northern coast of Siberia. These expeditions lasted until 1742 and were known as the Great Northern Expeditions. Many of the newly discovered geographical features were named after men in the expedition, such as Cape Cheluskin and the Malygin Strait.
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The two were not the first to discover Alaska, but they were the first to actually explore it.
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The physicist and philosopher had previously supplied the voyagers with scientific instruments, taught the sailors to use them, and also developed ship and meteorological log systems. In 1763, he wrote an account on the exploration. He included suggestions about the Arctic currents, explained the Arctic climate, and gave the first scientific theory about the Northern Lights. He also portrayed the Arctic as an ocean, while most people believed that it was nothing more than ice.
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There was a problem with the ship, and after a tough winter and several unsuccessful attempts to repair it, the few survivors returned on a merchant ship.
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The Chukchi people of Eastern Siberia were the most defiant of all people that Russia conquered. In one battle on the Orlova river, Russians lost 51 men: a high loss for gun-wielding Cossacks against the indigenous peoples of Northeastern Siberia. In 1742, Tsarina Elizabeth issued a decree: "Attack the restless Chukchi with an armed hand; eradicate them completely." It took one more emperor and one more empress to finally defeat them.
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Before 1784, several people had explored the Alaskan coast, but Grigory Shelikhov, a merchant, established a village on Kadyak Island. Later, in 1799, his son would establish New Arkhangelsk (now called Sitka) on Baranov Island, and it would be the capital of Russian Alaska.
