Savonians started moving to Kainuu in the 1550s, encouraged by the Swedish king Gustav Vasa. At the time, there were no fast settlements or villages in Kainuu. Since the Treaty of Nöteborg in 1323, the area had belonged to Russia, and the Swedish rulers wanted to increase the Finnish presence in the area for political reasons. In the coming decades, Russians tried to get rid of the Swedish settlements that had spread to their lands by raiding and destroying Kainuu villages and murdering the men, women and children. After the Russo-Swedish War of 1590–1595, in the Treaty of Teusina in 1595, Kainuu was made a part of the Kingdom of Sweden.