The Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti (1762–1801) is created in 1762 by the unification of two eastern Georgian kingdoms, the Kingdom of Kartli and the Kingdom of Kakheti, which had existed independently since the disintegration of the united Georgian Kingdom in the fifteenth century.
From the early sixteenth century, and confirmed in 1555 by the Peace of Amasya, both kingdoms come and remain under intermittent Iranian rule, until 1747 when due to the death of Nader Shah, both kingdoms under the energetic king Heraclius II, declare de facto independence and are unified.
Heraclius is able, after centuries of intermittent Iranian rule over Georgia, to guarantee the autonomy over the recently created unified kingdom throughout the chaos that erupts in Iran following the king's death there, and as well throughout the entire Zand period.
In 1783, he signs the Treaty of Georgievsk, by which he formally lays Georgia's investiture in the hands of the Russian Tsar, as well as having the nominal guarantee for protection against new Iranian attempts, or any others, to (re)conquer or attack Georgia.
By the 1790s, a new strong Iranian dynasty has emerged under Agha Mohammad Khan, who has founded the Qajar dynasty of Iran, which will prove pivotal in the history of the short-lived kingdom.
In the next few years, having secured mainland Iran, the new Iranian king sets out to reconquer the Caucasus and bring it back within the Iranian domains.
Upon formal demanding of Heraclius to denounce the treaty with Russia and to voluntarily reaccept Iranian suzerainty in return for peace and prosperity for his kingdom, which Heraclius refuses, he subsequently invades Kartli-Kakheti, capturing and sacking Tbilisi, effectively bringing it back under Iranian rule.
The following years, which are spent in muddling and confusion, end n 1801 with the official annexation of the kingdom by Alexander I within the Russian Empire during the nominal ascension of Heraclius' son Giorgi XI to the Georgian throne.
Following the Russo-Persian War (1804-1813), Iran officially cedes the kingdom to Russia, marking the start of a Russian-centered chapter in Georgian history.
