The Cossack uprisings were a series of military conflicts between the Cossacks and the states claiming dominion over the territories they lived in, namely the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. The conflict resulted from both states' attempts to exert control over the independent-minded Cossacks. While the early uprisings were against the Commonwealth, as the Russian Empire gained increasing and then total control over the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) lands where most of Cossacks lived, the target of Cossack uprisings changed as well.