Overview
Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. Latvia borders Russia to the east and Belarus to the southeast and shares a maritime border with Sweden to the west.
The country covers an area of 64,573 km² (24,932 sq mi) with a population of 1.83 million. Its capital and largest city is Riga, and the country has a temperate seasonal climate.
People and Language
Latvians are the titular nation and comprise 65.5% of the country's population. They belong to the ethnolinguistic group of the Balts and speak Latvian. Russians are the most prominent minority in the country, making up almost a quarter of the population, with 37.7% of the population speaking Russian as their native tongue.
Government and International Standing
Latvia has been a democratic unitary parliamentary republic since restoring its independence on 21 August 1991. The country is a developed nation with a high-income, advanced economy ranking 39th in the Human Development Index.
Latvia is a member of numerous international organizations, including:
- European Union and Eurozone
- NATO
- Council of Europe
- United Nations
- Council of the Baltic Sea States
- International Monetary Fund
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- World Trade Organization
Etymology
The name Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes that formed the ethnic core of modern Latvians. These tribes included the Curonians, Selonians, and Semigallians, along with the Finnic Livonians. Henry of Latvia coined the latinizations "Lettigallia" and "Lethia," which inspired variations on the country's name in Romance and Germanic languages.
Early History
Around 3000 BC, the Proto-Baltic ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals. By 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia—the Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, and Semigallians—along with the Finnic tribe of Livonians.
Medieval Period
Although the local people had contact with the outside world for centuries, they became more fully integrated into the European socio-political system in the 12th century. The first missionaries, sent by the pope, sailed up the Daugava River in the late 12th century seeking converts, though the local people did not convert to Christianity as readily as the church had hoped.
At the beginning of the 13th century, Germans ruled large parts of what is currently Latvia. The influx of German crusaders increased significantly in the second half of the 13th century following the decline and fall of the Crusader States in the Middle East. These conquered areas formed a crusader state known as Terra Mariana (Medieval Latin for "Land of Mary") or Livonia.
In 1282, Riga became part of the Hanseatic League, followed by the cities of Cēsis, Limbaži, Koknese, and Valmiera. Riga became an important point of east-west trading and formed close cultural links with western Europe. German settlers brought their Low German language to the region, which shaped many loanwords in the Latvian language.
Reformation and Foreign Rule
After the Livonian War (1558–1583), Livonia fell under the hegemony of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The lands were ceded to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and formed into the Duchy of Livonia. Gotthard Kettler, the last master of the Order of Livonia, formed the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia. Latgalia, the easternmost region of Latvia, became part of the Inflanty Voivodeship of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
In the 17th and early 18th centuries, Poland–Lithuania, Sweden, and Russia struggled for supremacy in the eastern Baltic. After the Polish–Swedish War, northern Livonia came under Swedish rule, with Riga becoming the capital of Swedish Livonia and the largest city in the Swedish Empire. In Latvia, the Swedish period is generally remembered positively, as serfdom was eased, a network of schools was established for the peasantry, and the power of regional barons was diminished.
Under Swedish and German rule, western Latvia adopted Lutheranism as its main religion. The ancient tribes gradually assimilated to form the Latvian people speaking one Latvian language. Meanwhile, largely isolated from the rest of Latvia, southern Latgallians adopted Catholicism under Polish and Jesuit influence.
Russian Empire Period
During the Great Northern War (1700–1721), up to 40 percent of Latvians died from famine and plague. The Treaty of Nystad in 1721 gave Vidzeme to Russia. The Latgale region remained part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1772, when it was incorporated into Russia. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was annexed by Russia in 1795, bringing all of what is now Latvia into the Russian Empire.
The emancipation of the serfs took place in Courland in 1817 and in Vidzeme in 1819. During the 19th century, Latvia experienced significant economic and construction development—ports were expanded, railways built, and new factories, banks, and educational institutions established. Riga became the largest port in the Russian Empire. During this period, the social structure changed dramatically as a class of independent farmers emerged and an urban proletariat developed.
Independence and Modern Era
After centuries of Teutonic, Swedish, Polish-Lithuanian, and Russian rule, the independent Republic of Latvia was established on 18 November 1918 after breaking away from the Russian Empire in the aftermath of World War I. The country became increasingly autocratic after a coup in 1934 established the dictatorship of Kārlis Ulmanis.
Latvia's independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II, beginning with forcible incorporation into the Soviet Union, followed by invasion and occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941 and re-occupation by the Soviets in 1944. The Soviet period lasted 45 years and resulted in extensive immigration that made ethnic Russians the most prominent minority in the country.
The peaceful Singing Revolution started in 1987 among the Baltic Soviet republics and ended with the restoration of both de facto and official independence on 21 August 1991. Since then, Latvia has been a democratic unitary parliamentary republic.