The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti () was created in 1762 by the unification of the two eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti. It was led by the Georgian royal Bagrationi dynasty.
From the 16th to 18th centuries, these two kingdoms were under Iranian suzerainty because of the spheres of influence created in the region by the Peace of Amasya and mutually agreed with the Ottoman Empire. However, following the death of Nader Shah, local Georgian monarchs Heraclius II and Teimuraz II took advantage of the resulting chaos and obtained de facto independence. Heraclius subsequently united the two smaller kingdoms into one.
To support the newly independent kingdom, in 1783 Heraclius signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with the Russian Empire, by which he formally laid Kartli-Kakheti's investiture in the hands of the Russian monarch, and made the kingdom a Russian protectorate. Amongst others, this provided a written guarantee for protection against any new attacks against Georgia by hostile foreign powers. However, by the 1790s Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar emerged as the newest threat and, after Heraclius II refused to scrap the treaty with Russia, he invaded the Georgian kingdom, capturing and sacking Tbilisi. Although this Iranian invasion was short lived, it was a humiliation for Russia. To restore Russian prestige, Catherine II, on the advice of Ivan Gudovich, belatedly declared war on Persia.
The following years, which were marked by instability, culminated in 1801 with the official annexation of the kingdom by Paul I within the Russian Empire during the nominal ascension of Heraclius's son George XII to the Kartli-Kakhetian throne. Following the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813, Iran definitively ceded much of the Caucasus to Russia.
History
thumb|left|Detail from the map by Claude Buffier, 1736
After Nader Shah's death in 1747, Heraclius II and Teimuraz II capitalized on the eruption of chaos in mainland Iran. In the ensuing period Heraclius II made alliances with the khans of the area, established a leading position in the southern Caucasus, and requested Russian aid. In 1762, he succeeded his father as king of Kartli, and with already being king of Kakheti, eastern Georgia thus became politically unified for the first time in three centuries. Around 1760, it had become evident as well that Karim Khan Zand had become the new ruler of Iran. Shortly after, in 1762–1763, during Karim Khan's campaigns in Azerbaijan, Heraclius II tendered his de jure submission to him and received his investiture as vali ("governor", "viceroy") of Gorjestan (Georgia), the traditional Safavid office, which by this time however had become an "empty honorific". Karim Khan died in 1779 however, with Persia again being engulfed into chaos.
Seeking to remain independent, but also realizing that he would need a foreign protector with regard to his kingdom's foreign policy, King Heraclius II concluded the Treaty of Georgievsk with Russia in 1783, resulting in the transfer of responsibility for defense and foreign affairs in the eastern kingdom, as well as importantly, officially abjuring any dependence on Iran or any other power. However, despite these large concessions made to Russia, Heraclius II was successful in retaining internal autonomy in his kingdom. Heraclius appealed then to his theoretical protector, Empress Catherine II of Russia, asking for at least 3,000 Russian troops, Nevertheless, Heraclius II still rejected the shah's ultimatum.
Agha Mohammad Khan subsequently crossed the Aras River, and after a turn of events by which he gathered more support from his subordinate khans of Erivan and Ganja, he sent Heraclius a last ultimatum, which he also declined, but, sent couriers to St. Petersburg. Gudovich, who sat in Georgievsk at the time, instructed Heraclius to avoid "expense and fuss",
By this, after the conquest of Tbilisi and being in effective control of eastern Georgia, Agha Mohammad was formally crowned Shah in 1796 in the Mughan plain. As the Cambridge History of Iran notes; "Russia's client, Georgia, had been punished, and Russia's prestige, damaged." Heraclius II returned to Tbilisi to rebuild the city, but the destruction of his capital was a death blow to his hopes and projects. Upon learning of the fall of Tbilisi General Gudovich put the blame on the Georgians themselves. To restore Russian prestige, Catherine II declared war on Persia, upon the proposal of Gudovich, and sent an army under Valerian Zubov to the Qajar possessions on April of that year, but the new Tsar Paul I, who succeeded Catherine in November, shortly recalled it.
Aftermath and absorption into the Russian Empire
thumb|225px|left|Entrance of the Russian troops in Tiflis, 26 November 1799, by [[Franz Roubaud, 1886]]
Reestablishment of Iranian rule over Georgia was short-lived this time, and the next few years were years of muddling and confusion. In 1797, Agha Mohammad Khan was assassinated in his tent in Shusha, the capital of the Karabakh khanate, which he had taken just some days earlier. On January 14, 1798, as King Heraclius II died, and he was succeeded on the throne by his eldest son, George XII (1746–1800) who, on February 22, 1799, recognized his own eldest son, the Tsarevich David (Davit Bagrationi-batonishvili), 1767–1819, as official heir apparent. In the same year, following the power vacuum in Georgia that got created mainly due to Agha Mohammad Khan's death, the Russian troops entered Tbilisi. Pursuant to article VI of the 1783 treaty, Emperor Paul confirmed David's claim to reign as the next king on April 18, 1799. But strife broke out among King George's many sons and those of his late father over the throne, Heraclius II having changed the succession order at the behest of his third wife, Queen Darejan (Darya), to favor the accession of younger brothers of deceased kings over their own sons.
The resulting dynastic upheaval prompted King George to secretly invite Paul I of Russia to invade Kartli-Kakheti, subdue the Bagrationi princes, and govern the kingdom from St. Petersburg, on the condition that George and his descendants be allowed to continue to reign nominally – in effect, offering to mediatise the Bagrationi dynasty under the Romanov emperors. Continued pressure from Persia, also prompted George XII's request for Russian intervention.
Paul tentatively accepted this offer, but before negotiations could be finalized, he changed his mind and issued a decree on December 18, 1800 annexing Kartli-Kakheti to Russia and deposing the Bagratids. Paul himself was assassinated shortly thereafter. It is said that his successor, Emperor Alexander I, considered retracting the annexation in favor of a Bagratid heir, but being unable to identify one likely to retain the crown, on September 12, 1801, Alexander proceeded to confirm annexation.