The Ottomans

Built during the reign of Stephen the Great (pictured above), several authors believed the Soroca Fort
was constructed on the site of a former Genoese fortress named Olhionia.[29]

For all of his success, it was under the reign of Alexander I that the very first confrontation with
the Ottoman Turks took place at Cetatea Albă in 1420. A deep crisis was to follow Alexandru's
long reign, with his successors battling each other in a succession of wars that divided the
country until the murder of Bogdan II and the ascension of Peter III Aaron in 1451. Nevertheless,
Moldavia was subject to further Hungarian interventions after that moment, as Matthias
Corvinus deposed Aron and backed Alexăndrel to the throne in Suceava. Petru Aron's rule also
signified the beginning of Moldavia's Ottoman Empire allegiance, as the ruler agreed to pay
tribute to Sultan Mehmed II.

During this time, Moldavia was invaded repeatedly by Crimean Tatars and, beginning in the 15th
century, by the Turks. In 1538, the principality became a tributary to the Ottoman Empire, but it
retained internal and partial external autonomy.[30] In May 1600, Michael the Brave removed
Ieremia Movilă from Moldavia's throne by winning the battle of Bacău, briefly reuniting under
his rule Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania. A Polish army led by Jan Zamoyski drove the
Wallachians from Moldavia and reinstalled Ieremia Movilă to the throne, who put the country
under the vassalage of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Moldavia finally returned to
Ottoman vassalage in 1621.

While Transnistria was never politically part of the Principality of Moldavia, there were sizable
areas which were owned by Moldavian boyars and given by the Moldavian rulers. The earliest
surviving deeds referring to lands beyond the Dniester river date from the 16th century.[31]
Moldavian chronicle Grigore Ureche which mentions that in 1584, some Moldavian villages
from beyond the Dniester in the Kingdom of Poland were attacked and plundered by
Cossacks.[32] Many Moldovans were members of Cossacks units as well, with two of them, Ioan
Potcoavă and Dănilă Apostol becoming hetmans of Ukraine. Ruxandra Lupu, the daughter of
Moldavian voivode Vasile Lupu who married Tymish Khmelnytsky, lived in Raşcov according
to Ukrainian tradition.

While most of today's Moldova came into the Ottoman orbit in the 16th century, a substantial
part of Transnistria remained a part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until the Second
Partition of Poland in 1793.