 However, upon Nader Shah's death in 1747, both kingdoms broke away from Iranian rule, and they were unified as one kingdom by the energetic Georgian king Erekle II in 1762.In 1783, Erekle and the Russians signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, by which Kartli-Kakheti formally and nominally abjured dependence on Iran, and the kingdom was declared a Russian protectorate, with prerogatives in the conduct of Georgian foreign affairs given to the Russians.By this, and the consequences of the invasion and re-subjugation of Georgia into Iran in 1795, Russia eventually found itself able, through a chain of events, to easily annex eastern Georgia in the early 19th century.