Key Facts
- Duration
- 1762–1801 (39 years)
- Founded by
- Unification of Kartli and Kakheti under Heraclius II
- Treaty of Georgievsk
- 1783 — established Russian protectorate
- Sack of Tbilisi
- 1795 by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar
- Annexed by
- Russian Empire under Paul I, 1801
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
In 1762, Heraclius II and his father Teimuraz II exploited the chaos following Nader Shah's death to achieve de facto independence from Iranian suzerainty. Heraclius then merged the eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti into a single realm. In 1783 he signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, formally placing the kingdom under Russian protection while retaining nominal sovereignty, seeking a guarantor against renewed Ottoman and Iranian pressure.
Phase II: Zenith
Under Heraclius II, Kartli-Kakheti experienced a period of relative stability and centralized governance, consolidating Georgian political and cultural identity in eastern Transcaucasia. The kingdom maintained diplomatic relations with the Russian Empire and sought to preserve Orthodox Christian traditions and the Bagrationi dynastic legacy amid competing regional powers. Tbilisi served as the political and cultural center of this consolidated Georgian state.
Phase III: Decline
The 1795 invasion by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, who sacked Tbilisi, severely weakened the kingdom. Years of instability followed, and Russia's response was inadequate. Upon the nominal accession of George XII in 1801, Tsar Paul I annexed the kingdom outright into the Russian Empire, extinguishing Georgian statehood. The subsequent Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 confirmed Russian dominance over the Caucasus region.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory