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The Baltic States are bordered on the west and north by the Baltic Sea, which gives the region its name; on the east, Russia; on the southeast, Belarus; and on the southwest, Poland and a Russian exclave. Sandstone, shale, and limestone make up the underlying geology, as demonstrated by mountainous uplands that alternate with low-lying plains and bore silent witness to the glacial era’s impact. Glacial deposits such as eskers, moraines, and drumlins are abundant, disrupting the drainage system and resulting in regular flooding. There are around 7,000 lakes in the Baltic region and numerous peat bogs, swamps, and marshes.
History
Throughout their history, the territories that are today autonomous Baltic countries have had various regional and imperial ties. When the Russian Empire expanded in the 18th century, the main part of the area of the three contemporary states was incorporated for the first time into the same political entity.
At the end of the Great Northern War in 1721, Sweden gave Estonia and most of Latvia to the Russian Empire. After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, the Russian Empire absorbed the majority of what is now Lithuania.
Until 1918, when Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania gained independence from the Russian Empire, many Baltic countries were under Russian rule. The three countries remained independent until World War II broke out, and the Stalinist Soviet Union invaded, seized, and annexed all three countries in 1940.
After Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia in 1941, the Red Army invaded again in 1944–1945, and the Soviet Union regained sovereignty of the three nations until 1991.
From 1989–to 1991, the Soviet occupation of the Baltic republics came to an end when the newly elected parliaments of the three countries declared the Soviet occupation unconstitutional, culminating in the full restoration of the three countries’ independence in August 1991.
The Conquest of Estonia And Latvia
The invasion of the Estonians and Kuronians’ coastal districts by Scandinavian Vikings began in the 9th century. By the turn of the millennium, East Slav pressure had also emerged. The southeastern part of modern-day Estonia was conquered as early as 1030, though the struggle lasted for over a century. Estonians defeated an East Slav army in 1132, and they assaulted Pskov in 1177.
East Slav raids also impacted the Balts’ territory. The Galindians and Jotvingians were mainly overrun and somewhat absorbed, while the latter survived until the 14th century in East Slavic chronicles. Raiding parties have been known to venture into Latgalian territory on occasion.
The Crusading Order of the Brothers of the Sword, founded in 1202 by Bishop Albert of Buxhoevden, bore the brunt of the German assault in the region. The Knights of the Teutonic Order, an allied organisation, emphasised the Prussian regions, which were acquired between 1236 and 1283.
German incursions prompted Lithuanian tribes living in the most isolated locations to organise effective resistance. The battleground shifted to Samogitia, a region that lay between the German possessions in Prussia and their gains in Latvia. The Lithuanians and Semigallians defeated the Brothers of the Sword in Saule in 1236, not far from today’s Siauliai, Lithuania.
The German authorities subjugated the indigenous populace but were not strong enough to Germanize them. Even in East Prussia, the indigenous population was wiped out only under drastically different circumstances by the end of the 17th century. This could have been due to plagues and cultural absorption.
Apart from the Teutonic Order’s domain in East Prussia, the German Baltic entities were weak on the inside. Internecine fighting was rampant, as it had been in feudal Western Europe.
Independent Lithuania
Lithuanians residing in deep forests and swamplands, which were less accessible, were able to withstand foreign assaults and maintain their independence. Mindaugas, a chieftain, united various tribes into a Lithuanian governmental entity in 1236. He converted to Roman Christianity in 1251 and was coronated by a papal legate in 1253, bringing him into the western political hierarchy. However, he was slain ten years later, and the Lithuanians returned to their ancestral nativistic paganism.
The Union of Lublin founded the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania in July 1569. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries until it was destroyed by neighbouring countries in 1772–1795, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuania’s land.
On the 16th of February 1918, when World War I concluded, Lithuania’s Act of Independence was signed, establishing the modern Republic of Lithuania. Lithuania was occupied twice during World War II, first by the Soviet Union and later by Nazi Germany.
When the Germans were retreating toward the war’s conclusion in 1944, the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania. Armed resistance by Lithuanians against the Soviet occupation persisted until the early 1950s.
Lithuania approved the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania on March 11, 1990, a year before the Soviet Union was officially disbanded, making it the first Soviet country to declare independence.
Conclusion
The World Bank classifies all three Baltic countries as high-income economies with a very high Human Development Index. The three governments practise intergovernmental and parliamentary collaboration, and foreign and security policy, defence, energy, and transportation are where the two countries frequently collaborate.
