 At the same time, as more Russian troops came to be stationed in the region, their own perceived needs (owing to the difficulty of shipping materials back from Russia proper) tempted them in turn to raid native villages, further enraging the natives and producing cycles of retaliation.The Circassians fought the Russians longer than all the other peoples of the Caucasus from 1763–1864.The Russian military tried to impose authority by building a series of forts, but these forts in turn became the new targets of raids and indeed sometimes the highlanders actually captured and held the forts.