Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The Crimea, the rugged, diamond shaped peninsula jutting into the Black Sea from southern Ukraine, had always been a coveted territory because of its mild climate and warm-water ports. By defeating the Ottoman Empire in the first Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774), Russia was able to take control of the Crimea. . . . To this end, she [Catherine the Great] instigated a policy of ethnically cleansing the native Crimean Tatars, who were Turkic Muslims, and replacing them with imported populations, including Swiss and German Christians. The population of Crimean Tatars fell from 5,000,000 to 300,000. The aim of the Crimean War (1853-1856) was to prevent Russia from reaching the Balkans." [1001 Days]