In the second half of the 19th century the Russian Empire was fighting the peoples of the Caucasus in an expansionist war, known as the Caucasian war. One of the outcomes of the war was that many native peoples of the Caucasus were forcefully expelled to the Ottoman Empire. An estimated 5,000 Chechen families were expelled to the Ottoman Empire. In March 1903, the Ottoman authorities sent the first 700 Chechen families to the region of Transjordan. The Chechens settlers chose to settle non-populated areas most suitable for agriculture and close to water sources. So they founded the city of Zarqa, Jordan's second biggest city.