The ethnic cleansing of Circassians refers to the massive annihilation, displacement, destruction and expulsion of the majority of the indigenous Circassians from historical Circassia, which roughly encompassed the major part of the North Caucasus and the northeast shore of the Black Sea. This occurred in the aftermath of the Caucasian War in the last quarter of the 19th century. The people displaced moved primarily to the Ottoman Empire and to a lesser extent Qajar Persia.