The Kalmyk Khanate was an Oirat khanate on the Eurasian steppe. It covered the area called Kalmykia and the surrounding areas stretching from Stavropol to Astrakhan. For over a hundred years the Kalmyk alternately raided the southern borderlands of Russia but also protected southern borders of Russia and engaging in many military expeditions against the Muslim tribes of Central Asia, the North Caucasus and Crimea. The Kalmyk conducted many military expeditions against the Crimean Tatars, Ottoman Empire and Kuban Tatars and also waged wars against the Kazakhs, subjugated the Mangyshlak Turkmens, and made multiple expeditions against the highlanders of the North Caucasus. The Khanate was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1771.