"Tartary" is an older name used by Europeans to refer to a vast region covering Inner Asia, Central Asia and North Asia. The toponym is derived from the Medieval ethnonym Tartars, which was applied to various Mongol semi-nomadic empires. Since the Manchus' rise to prominence in 1644, the name "Tartars" became applied to them as well, and Manchuria (and Mongolia) became known to the Europeans as the "Chinese Tartary"."Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise" (La Haye: H. Scheurleer, 1736)</ref> Accordingly, when La Pérouse charted most of the strait between Sakhalin and the mainland "Chinese Tartary" in 1787, the body of water received the name of the Strait (or Channel, or Gulf) of Tartary.