After the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, the Crimean Khanate, a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, formed in 1441, was made nominally independent by the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774. It was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783 as the "Taurida Governorate". The demographics of Crimea underwent dramatic changes in the centuries following the annexation. Prior to its incorporation into Russia, Crimea had been inhabited primarily by the Crimean Tatars, a Turkic people who were predominately Muslim. Furthermore, the peninsula was also populated by Pontic Greeks (Urums) and Armenians, who were mostly Christian. In the run up to the annexation and immediately after it, Russia encouraged, and later ordered, the removal of all Christians from Crimea, and resettled them on the northern shore of the Azov Sea, between Mariupol and Nakhichevan-on-Don. Empress Catherine the Great gave many of the lands that had been annexed to her advisors and friends. Native inhabitants of these lands were frequently forced out, spawning a large exodus of Tatars to Ottoman-controlled Anatolia. Russian settlers were brought in to colonise the lands that were once occupied by the fleeing Tatars. By 1903, 39.7% of the population of Crimea, excluding the cities Sevastopol and Yeni-Kale, were members of the Russian Orthodox religion. 44.6% were Muslim. In context of this survey, the identifier "Muslim" is synonymous with ethnic Crimean Tatars. Russians constituted the majority of the population in the two excluded and separately-administered cities. During and directly prior to this time, Crimea became considered the "heart of Russian Romanticism". It was popular with Russians on holiday because of its warm climate and seaside. This association continued into the Soviet period.