"The Baltics: Nationalities And Other Problems"
The Baltics area is fraught with cross ethnic mergings, conquerings by
different groups, and control by both small groups like the Teutonic and
Livonian knights and by larger entities like the nations of Sweden, Poland,
and Russia during the roughly eight centuries of Baltic history. There is
no ideal way to depict these very diverse groups of people and areas, so
this is an attempt to first look at the area as a whole as it developed, in
the briefest kind of way, then shoot forward in time to examine each of the
three Baltic countries separately prior to World War II and after, and then
an examination of the situation as it is today and in the recent past of
the past two decades.
...
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the Germans, while the Letts tended to push northward into Livonia."(1)
The area we now call the Baltics remained sparsely populated and
predominantly non-Christian until about the middle of the 13th century,
when the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Knights began the first
incursions into the region. "The first invaders of these regions were the
Danes, who conquered the northern half of Estonia in the twelfth and early
thirteenth centuries. German merchants and missionaries had meanwhile
penetrated into Livonia, where a bishopric was established at Riga in 1201.
From then onwards the greater part of areas now occupied by the states of
Latvia and Estonia gradually fell under the dominion first of the Knights
of the Sword, and then of the Order of Teutonic Knights, to whom, in 1346,
the Danes sold their share of Estonia. These Orders colonized the territory,
converted the inhabitants to Christianity, and made them their serfs." (2)
"In Lithuania, on the other hand, the ...
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to those of Finland. As
regards religion, the Lithuanians are almost entirely Roman Catholic; the
Latvians and Estonians are mainly Protestant. Estonia and Latvia look to
the Baltic, and have maritime and fishing interests; Lithuania is almost
entirely an inland and agricultural country - her only port (Klaipeda, or
Memel) has a preponderant German population." (6)
"After the death of Vytautas in 1430, Lithuania rapidly fell into a
position of dependence on Poland, with which country she had already been
nominally connected under a personal union since 1386." (7) That had been
accomplished by the Poles co-opting a Lithuanian Prince, Jogaila, to avoid
their kingdom being ...
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""The Baltics: Nationalities And Other Problems"." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 27 Oct. 2004. Web. 22 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Baltics-Nationalities-And-Other-Problems/16557>
""The Baltics: Nationalities And Other Problems"." Essayworld.com. October 27, 2004. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Baltics-Nationalities-And-Other-Problems/16557.
""The Baltics: Nationalities And Other Problems"." Essayworld.com. October 27, 2004. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Baltics-Nationalities-And-Other-Problems/16557.
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