culture Amber Road and Aesti Baltic Finns: Livonians, Vends Latgalians, Curonians, Selonians, Semigallians Middle ages Principality of Jersika, Principality of Koknese Livonian Crusade, Livonian Brothers of the Sword, Livonian Order Archbishopric of Riga, Bishopric of Courland Terra Mariana Early modern period Livonian War Kingdom of Livonia Duchy of Livonia, Duchy of Courland and Semigallia Polish–Swedish war (1600-1629), Second Northern War Swedish Livonia, Inflanty Voivodeship Great Northern War Governorate of Livonia, Courland Governorate Modern Latvia Latvian National Awakening, New Current German occupation, Latvian Riflemen, United Baltic Duchy, Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic War of Independence Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany, Occupation of Latvia by Soviet Union 1944–1945 Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic Popular Front of Latvia Singing Revolution Restoration of Independence Republic of Latvia Chronology Latvia Portal  v • d • e  Around the beginning of the third millennium BC (3000 BC) the proto-Baltic ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.[10] The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals.[11] By 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia: Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians[citation needed] (in Latvian: kurši, latgali, seli and zemgali), as well as the Livonians (libieši) speaking a Finno-Ugric language. [edit] The Medieval period Although the local people had had contact with the outside world for centuries, they were more fully integrated into European society in the 12th century.[12] The first missionaries, sent by the Pope, sailed up the Daugava River in the late 12th century, seeking converts.[13] The local people, however, did not convert to Christianity as readily as hoped.[13] German crusaders were sent into Latvia to convert the pagan population by force of arms.[14] At the beginning of the 13th century large parts of today's Latvia were conquered by Germans.[13] Together with Southern Estonia these conquered areas formed the crusader state which became known as Terra Mariana or Livonia. In 1282 Riga, and later the cities of Cesis, Limbaži, Koknese and Valmiera, were included in the Hanseatic League.[13] From this time, Riga became an important point of east-west trading.[13] Riga, the centre of the eastern Baltic region, formed close cultural contacts with Western Europe[citation needed]. [edit] The Reformation period The 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries were a time of great change for the inhabitants of Latvia, including the reformation, the collapse of the Livonian state, and the time when the Latvian territory was carved up among foreign powers. After the Livonian War (1558–1583), Livonia (Latvia) fell under Polish and Lithuanian rule.[13] The southern part of Estonia and the northern part of Latvia were ceded to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and formed into the Ducatus Ultradunensis (Pardaugavas hercogiste). Gotthard Kettler, the last Master of the Order of Livonia, formed the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia[citation needed]. Though the duchy was a vassal state to Poland, it retained a considerable degree of autonomy and experienced a golden age in the 17th century. Latgalia, the easternmost region of Latvia, became a part of the Polish district of Inflanty. The 17th and early 18th centuries saw a struggle between Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden and Russia for supremacy in the eastern Baltic. After the Polish–Swedish War (1600–1611) northern Livonia (including Vidzeme) came under Swedish rule. Fighting continued sporadically between Sweden and Poland until the Truce of Altmark in 1629[citation needed]. In Latvia, the Swedish period is remembered as labie zviedru laiki or "the good Swedish times," when serfdom was eased, a network of schools was established for the peasantry, and the power of the regional barons was diminished[citation needed]. Several important cultural changes occurred during this time. Under Swedish and largely German rule, western Latvia adopted Lutheranism as its main religion[citation needed]. The ancient tribes of the Couronians, Semigallians, Selonians, Livs and northern Latgallians assimilated to form the Latvian people, speaking one Latvian language. Throughout all the centuries, however, no such thing as a Latvian state existed so the borders and definitions of who exactly fell within that group are subjective at best. Meanwhile, largely isolated from the rest of Latvia, southern Latgallians adopted Catholicism under Polish/Jesuit influence. The native dialect remained distinct, although it acquired many Polish and Russian loanwords[citation needed]. [edit] Latvia in the Russian Empire The Capitulation of Estonia and Livonia in 1710 and the Treaty of Nystad, ending the Great Northern War in 1721, gave Vidzeme to Russia (it became part of the Riga Governorate)[citation needed]. The Latgale region remained part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as Inflanty Voivodeship until 1772, when it was incorporated to Russia. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia became an autonomous Russian province (the Courland Governorate) in 1795, bringing all of what is now Latvia into the Russian Empire. All three Baltic provinces preserved local laws, the local official language and their own parliament, the Landtag[citation needed]. During the Great Northern War (1700–1721), the Baltic area was once again the scene of great devastation, with Peter's scorched-earth policy, famine, and plague being responsible for the catastrophic loss of human life: as much as 40% of the population in Latvian lands were killed.[15] In 1710, the plague reached Riga, where it was active until 1711 and claimed the lives of about half the population.[16] The promises Peter the Great made to the Baltic German nobility at the fall of Riga in 1710, confirmed by the Treaty of Nystad and known as "the Capitulations", largely reversed the Swedish reforms[citation needed]. The 18th century was one of the hardest for the peasantry, who were virtually treated as chattels and had no rights or education[citation needed]. Peasants were obliged to work on feudal lords' lands as many as six days per week, leaving one day to look after their own farms[citation needed]. As a solution to their problems, many of the peasants turned to alcohol, which the local barons willingly provided, hoping to addict and exploit the peasantry for further economic gain[citation needed]. These times were known as "Škidras Maizes laiki" or the days of liquid bread[citation needed]. The emancipation of the serfs took place in Courland in 1817 and in Vidzeme in 1819[citation needed]. In practice however, the emancipation was actually advantageous to the landowners and nobility[citation needed]. This was because it dispossessed the peasants of their land without compensation, forcing them to return to work at the estates "of their own free will". During the 19th century, the social structure changed dramatically[citation needed]. A class of independent farmers established itself after reforms allowed the peasants to repurchase their land, but many landless peasants persisted[citation needed]. There also developed a growing urban proletariat and an increasingly influential Latvian bourgeoisie. The Young Latvian (Latvian: Jaunlatvieši) movement laid the groundwork for nationalism from the middle of the century, many of its leaders looking to the Slavophiles for support against the prevailing German-dominated social order[citation needed]. The rise in use of Latvian language in literature and society became known as the First National Awakening. Russification began in Latgale after the Polish led the January Uprising in 1863: this spread to the rest of what is now Latvia by the 1880s[citation needed]. The Young Latvians were largely eclipsed by the New Current, a broad leftist social and political movement, in the 1890s. Popular discontent exploded in the 1905 Russian Revolution, which took a nationalist character in the Baltic provinces. [edit] Declaration of Independence “Poland & The New Baltic States” map from a British atlas in 1920, showing still-undefined borders in the situation after the treaties of Brest and Versailles and before the Peace of Riga. Karlis Ulmanis. World War I devastated the territory of would-be Latvia, along with other western parts of the Russian Empire. Demands for self-determination were at first confined to autonomy, but the Russian 1917 Revolution, treaty with Germany at Brest-Litovsk, and allied armistice with Germany on November 11, 1918 created a power vacuum. The People's Council of Latvia proclaimed the independence of the new country in Riga on November 18, 1918, with Karlis Ulmanis becoming the head of the provisional government[citation needed]. The War of Independence that followed was part of a general chaotic period of civil and new border wars in Eastern Europe. By the spring of 1919, there were actually three governments — Ulmanis' government; the Soviet Latvian government led by Peteris Stucka, whose forces, supported by the Red Army, occupied almost all of the country; and the Baltic German government of United Baltic Duchy headed by Andrievs Niedra and supported by the Baltische Landeswehr and the German Freikorps unit Iron Division. Estonian and Latvian forces[citation needed] defeated the Germans at the Battle of Wenden in June 1919, and a massive attack by a predominantly German force — the West Russian Volunteer Army — under Pavel Bermondt-Avalov was repelled in November. Eastern Latvia was cleared of Red Army forces by Latvian and Polish troops in early 1920[citation needed]. A freely elected Constituent assembly was convened on May 1, 1920 and adopted a liberal constitution, the Satversme, in February 1922.[17] This was partly suspended by Ulmanis after his coup in 1934, but reaffirmed in 1990. Since then, it has been amended and is the constitution still in use in Latvia today. With most of Latvia's industrial base evacuated to the interior of Russia in 1915, radical land reform was the central political question for the young state. In 1897, 61.2% of the rural population had been landless; by 1936, that percentage had been reduced to 18%.[18] By 1923, the extent of cultivated land surpassed the pre-war level. Innovation and rising productivity led to rapid growth of the economy, but it soon suffered from the effects of the Great Depression. Latvia showed signs of economic recovery and the electorate had steadily moved toward the centre during the parliamentary period[citation needed]. on May 15, 1934, Ulmanis staged a bloodless coup, establishing a nationalist dictatorship that lasted until 1940.[19] After 1934, Ulmanis established government corporations to buy up private firms with the aim of "Latvianising" the economy.[20] By 1940, Latvia's economy under Ulmanis ranked second in Europe.[21] [edit] Latvia in World War II See also: Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany, The Holocaust in Latvia, Latvian partisans, and Latvian resistance movement "TWO WORLDS": Anti-Sovietism propaganda board, Latvia, Summer, 1941. Early in the morning of August 24, 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a 10-year non-aggression pact, called the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The pact contained a secret protocol, revealed only after Germany's defeat in 1945, according to which the states of Northern and Eastern Europe were divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".[22] In the North, Latvia, Finland and Estonia were assigned to the Soviet sphere.[22] Thereafter, Germany and the Soviet union invaded their respective portions of Poland. Most of the Baltic Germans left Latvia by agreement between Ulmanis' government and Nazi Germany after the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.[23] In total 50,000 Baltic Germans left by the deadline of December 1939, with 1,600 remaining to conclude business and 13,000 choosing to remain in Latvia.[23] Most of those who remained subsequently left for Germany in the Summer of 1939, when a second resettlement[citation needed] scheme was agreed.[24] On October 5, 1939, Latvia was forced to accept a "mutual assistance" pact with the Soviet Union, granting the Soviets the right to station between 25,000 and 30,000 troops on Latvian territory.[25] On June 16, 1940, Vyacheslav Molotov presented the Latvian representative in Moscow with an ultimatum accusing Latvia of violations of that pact. When international attention was focused on the German invasion of France, Soviet NKVD troops raided border posts in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.[26][27] State administrators were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres,[26] in which 34,250 Latvians were deported or killed.[28] Elections were held with single pro-Soviet candidates listed for many positions, with resulting peoples assembly immediately requested admission into the USSR, which was granted by the Soviet Union.[26] Latvia, then a puppet government, was headed by Augusts Kirhenšteins.[29] Latvia was incorporated into the Soviet Union on August 5, 1940 as The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Soviets dealt harshly with their opponents – prior to the German invasion, in less than a year, at least 27,586 persons were arrested; most were deported, and about 945 persons were shot[citation needed]. While under German occupation, Latvia was administered as part of Reichskommissariat Ostland. Latvian paramilitary and Auxiliary Police units established by occupation authority participated in the Holocaust as well.[19] More than 200,000 Latvian citizens died during World War II, including approximately 75,000 Latvian Jews murdered during the Nazi occupation.[19] Latvian soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict, including in the Latvian Legion of the Waffen-SS, most of them conscripted by the occupying Nazi and Soviet authorities[citation needed]. [edit] Soviet era Main articles: Occupation of Latvia by Soviet Union 1944–1945, Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, and Stalinism In 1944 when the Soviet military advances reached the area heavy fighting took place in Latvia between German and Soviet troops which ended with another German defeat. During the course of the war, both occupying forces conscripted Latvians into their armies, in this way increasing the loss of the nation's "live resources". In 1944, part of the Latvian territory once more came under Soviet control. The Soviets immediately began to reinstate the Soviet system. After the German surrender it became clear that Soviet forces were there to stay, and Latvian national partisans, soon to be joined by German collaborators, began their fight against another occupier – the Soviet Union.[30] Anywhere from 120,000 to as many as 300,000 Latvians took refuge from the Soviet army by fleeing to Germany and Sweden.[31] Most sources count 200,000 to 250,000 refugees leaving Latvia, with perhaps as many as 80,000 to 100,000 of them recaptured by the Soviets or, during few months immediately after the end of war,[32] returned by the West.[33] The Soviets reoccupied the country in 1944–1945, and further mass deportations followed as the country was forcibly collectivised and Sovieticised.[19] On March 25, 1949, 43,000 rural residents ("kulaks") and Latvian patriots ("nationalists") were deported to Siberia in a sweeping repressive Operation Priboi in all three Baltic states, which was carefully planned and approved in Moscow already on January 29, 1949.[34] Between 136,000 and 190,000 Latvians, depending on the sources, were imprisoned, repressed or deported to Soviet concentration camps (the Gulag) in the post war years, from 1945 to 1952.[35] Some managed to escape arrest and joined the partisans[citation needed]. In the post-war period, Latvia was forced to adopt Soviet farming methods and the economic infrastructure developed in the 1920s and 1930s was eradicated[citation needed]. Rural areas were forced into collectivisation.[36] An extensive programme to impose bilingualism was initiated in Latvia, limiting the use of Latvian language in official uses in favor of using the official language, which was Russian. All of the minority schools (Jewish, Polish, Belorussian, Estonian, Lithuanian) were closed down leaving only two languages of instructions in the schools- Latvian and Russian.[37] An influx of labourers, administrators, military personnel and their dependents from Russia and other Soviet republics started. By 1959 about 400,000 persons arrived from other Soviet republics and the ethnic Latvian population had fallen to 62%.[38] Because Latvia had still maintained a well-developed infrastructure and educated specialists it was decided in Moscow that some of the Soviet Union's most advanced manufacturing factories were to be based in Latvia. New industry was created in Latvia, including a major machinery factory RAF in Jelgava, electrotechnical factories in Riga, chemical factories in Daugavpils, Valmiera and Olaine, as well as some food and oil processing plants.[39] However, there were not enough people to operate the newly built factories[citation needed]. In order to expand industrial production, skilled workers were transferred into the republic from all over the Soviet Union, decreasing the proportion of ethnic Latvians in the republic.[40] [edit] Restoration of independence In the second half of 1980s Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev started to introduce political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union, called glasnost and Perestroika. In the summer of 1987 the first large demonstrations were held in Riga at the Freedom Monument- a symbol of independence. In the summer of 1988 a national movement, coalescing in the Popular Front of Latvia, was opposed by the Interfront. The Latvian SSR, along with the other Baltic Republics was allowed greater autonomy, and in 1988 the old pre-war Flag of Latvia was allowed to be used, replacing the Soviet Latvian flag as the official flag in 1990. In 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a resolution on the "Occupation of the Baltic states", in which it declared that the occupation was "not in accordance with law," and not the "will of the Soviet people". Pro-independence Popular Front of Latvia candidates gained a two-thirds majority in the Supreme Council in the March 1990 democratic elections. On May 4, 1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR adopted the Declaration On the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia, Latvian SSR was renamed Republic of Latvia. However, the central power in Moscow continued to regard Latvia as Soviet republic in 1990–1991[citation needed]. In January 1991, Soviet political and military forces tried unsuccessfully to overthrow the Republic of Latvia authorities by occupying the central publishing house in Riga and establishing a Committee of National Salvation to usurp governmental functions[citation needed]. During the transitional period Moscow maintained many central Soviet state authorities in Latvia. Barricade in Riga to prevent the Soviet Army from reaching the Latvian Parliament, July 1991. In spite of this, seventy-three percent of all Latvian residents confirmed their strong support for independence on March 3, 1991, in a nonbinding advisory referendum[citation needed]. A large number of ethnic Russians also voted for the proposition[citation needed]. The Popular Front of Latvia had advocated that all permanent residents be eligible for Latvian citizenship. However, universal citizenship for all permanent residents was not adopted subsequently; not all those who had voted in support of independence received citizenship in the new Latvian state and became non-citizens. (The majority of non-citizens have since become naturalized cit