History of Lithuania
The first Lithuanians or liths were a branch of the ancient group known as the Baltos, whose tribes also included the original Prussians and Latvians. These Baltic tribes were not directly influenced by the Roman Empire but maintained trade contacts (Amber Route). Lithuanians built a state that lasted for a good part of the last ten centuries and Latvians became a state in the 20th century, while the Prussian tribes disappeared in the 18th century.
Lithuania's history dates back to settlements founded at least ten millennia ago, but the first written record of the name for the country dates back to AD 1009. Lithuanians, one of the Baltic peoples, later conquered neighboring lands and established the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 13th century (and also a short-lived Kingdom of Lithuania). The Grand Duchy was a long-lasting and successful warrior state. It remained fiercely independent and was one of the last areas of Europe to adopt Christianity (in the early 14th century). A formidable power, it became the largest state in Europe in the 15th century, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, by conquering large groups of East Slavs residing in Ruthenia. In 1385, the Grand Duchy formed a dynastic union with Poland through the Union of Krewo. Later, the Union of Lublin (1569) created the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth which lasted until 1795, when the last of the Partitions of Poland wiped both independent Lithuania and Poland off the political map. After the dissolution, Lithuanians lived under the rule of the Russian Empire until the 20th century, although there were several major rebellions, notably in 1830-1831 and 1863.
On February 16, 1918, Lithuania was re-established as a democratic state. It remained independent until the beginning of World War II, when it was occupied by the Soviet Union under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. After a brief occupation by Nazi Germany after the Nazi war against the Soviet Union, Lithuania was again absorbed by the Soviet Union for almost 50 years. In 1990-1991, Lithuania restored its sovereignty with the 1990 Lithuanian Declaration of Independence. Lithuania joined the NATO alliance in 2004 and the European Union under its enlargement in 2004.
Before the creation of the State
Early Colonization
The first humans arrived in the territory of present-day Lithuania in the second half of the 10th millennium BC, after the glaciers receded at the end of the last glacial period. According to historian Marija Gimbutas, these peoples came from two directions: the Jutland Peninsula and present-day Poland. They brought two different cultures, as evidenced by the tools they used. They were itinerant hunters and did not form stable settlements. In the 8th millennium BC, the climate became much warmer and forests developed. The inhabitants of present-day Lithuania traveled less and engaged in hunting, gathering, and freshwater fishing. During the VI-V millennia B.C. Various animals were domesticated and homes became more sophisticated to accommodate larger families. Agriculture did not appear until the 3rd millennium BC. due to the harshness of the climate and terrain and the lack of adequate tools to cultivate the land. Crafts and commerce also began to take shape at this time.
Northwest Indo-European speakers may have arrived with the Corded Pottery Culture around 3200/3100 BC.
Baltic tribes
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The early Lithuanians were a branch of an ancient group known as the Balts. The main tribal divisions of the Balts were the Old Prussians and Yotvingians of the western Baltic, and the Lithuanians and Latvians of the eastern Baltic. The Balts spoke forms of the Indo-European languages. Today the only remaining Baltic nationalities are the Lithuanians and Latvians, but in the past there were more Baltic groups or tribes. Some of them merged with the Lithuanians and Latvians (Samogitians, Selonians, Curonians, Semigallians), while others ceased to exist after being conquered and assimilated by the Teutonic Order State (Old Prussians, Yotvingians, Sambians, Scalvians, and Galindians)..
The Baltic tribes did not maintain close cultural or political contacts with the Roman Empire, but they did have commercial contacts (see Amber Route). Tacitus, in his study Germania, described the Aesti, inhabitants of the south-eastern shores of the Baltic Sea who were probably Balts, around AD 97. The western Balts became distinct and first known to chroniclers. from outside. In the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy knew of the Galindians and Yotvingians, and early medieval chroniclers mentioned the Prussians, Curonians, and Semigallians.
Lithuania, lying along the lower and middle basin of the Neman River, comprised mainly the culturally distinct regions of Samogitia (known for its early medieval skeletal burials), and further east Aukštaitija, or Lithuania proper (known for their early medieval cremation burials). The area was remote and unattractive to outsiders, including traders, which explains its separate linguistic, cultural, and religious identity and its late integration into general European patterns and trends.
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The Lithuanian language is considered very conservative due to its close connection to Indo-European roots. It is believed to have diverged from the most closely related extant language, the Latvian language, around the 7th century. Traditional Lithuanian pagan customs and mythology, with many archaic elements, was preserved for a long time. The bodies of the rulers were cremated until the Christianization of Lithuania: descriptions of the cremation ceremonies of the grand dukes Algirdas and Kęstutis have survived.
The Lithuanian tribe is thought to have developed into a more recognizable form towards the end of the first millennium. The first known reference to Lithuania as a nation ("Litua") comes from the Annals of the Quedlinburg Monastery, dated on March 9, 1009. In 1009, the missionary Bruno of Querfurt arrived in Lithuania and baptized the Lithuanian ruler "King Nethimer. "
Formation of the Lithuanian State
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Between the 9th and 11th centuries, the coastal Balts suffered from Viking raids, and the kings of Denmark sometimes collected tribute. During the 10th-11th centuries, the Lithuanian territories were among the lands paying tribute to Kievan Rus, and Yaroslav the Wise was among the Ruthenian rulers who invaded Lithuania (starting in 1040). Starting in the middle of the 12th century, it was the Lithuanians who invaded the Ruthenian territories. In 1183, Polotsk and Pskov were devastated, and even the distant and powerful Republic of Novgorod was repeatedly threatened by the excursions of the emerging Lithuanian war machine towards the end of the 12th century.
In the 12th century and after, there were sporadic mutual raids involving Lithuanian and Polish forces, but the two countries were separated by Yotvingi lands. At the end of the 12th century there was an eastward expansion of German settlers (the Ostsiedlung) to the mouth of the Daugava River. Military clashes with the Lithuanians occurred around this time and at the turn of the century, but for the moment the Lithuanians had the upper hand.
Since the late 12th century, there was an organized Lithuanian military force; it was used for external raids, looting and the collection of slaves. These military and pecuniary activities fostered social differentiation and triggered a power struggle in Lithuania. This initiated the formation of a primitive state, from which the Grand Duchy of Lithuania developed.
Middle Ages
The first known references to Lithuania as a nation (Litua) come from the Annals of Quedlinburg dated February 14, 1009.
The territory that currently corresponds to Lithuania dates back in its political origins to the 13th century as a medieval state, which was formed as a consequence of the threat of the crusaders, recently installed in the territory of present-day Latvia. It was first an independent grand duchy, even in 1253 it was proclaimed a kingdom, since the grand duke Mindaugas received the crown from the Pope, although the country was not Christianized. From 1316 it was governed by the Gedimínida dynasty. Since 1389 it was united with Poland by virtue of the dynastic union of the two states. In 1410, at the Battle of Grunwald (Zalgiris in Lithuanian), they defeated the Crusader army, ending a two-century attempt at German dominance.
16th to 19th centuries
The second part of the union with Poland occurred in 1569, thus becoming the largest country in Europe (the Republic of Two Nations). Under the union system of the two countries, Lithuania was able to retain its own government. Later, it was gradually weakened, although her army was the only one that came to the aid of Vienna at the time of the siege by the Turks in 1683 and saved it.
Later, in 1795, it was incorporated into Russia during the reign of Catherine II, after a process of disintegration that lasted throughout the 18th century . Although there were two major popular revolts against the Russian Empire in 1831 and 1863, he failed to free himself.
20th century
Between 1915 and 1918, during World War I, it was occupied by Germany. On February 16, 1918, it declared its independence as a result of the Russian revolution (1917), separating from the Empire of Nicholas II of Russia.
The first threat to Lithuania was an invasion by Soviet Russia, which occupied the eastern half of the country. The government, based in Kaunas, sent its army, formed under German auspices, to fight against the Bolsheviks in early 1919. Groups of German mercenaries led by Rüdiger von der Goltz helped the Lithuanians repel the Bolsheviks, who they wanted to spread the world revolution. On February 27, the Bolsheviks proclaimed the Lithuanian-Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic, but had to abandon Vilnius on April 19, due to the advance of the Polish army in the region. Since then, Lithuania has claimed Vilnius as its historical capital, although it remained under Polish control.
The Bolshevik defeat in mid-1919 meant a change of course for the German volunteers, who joined the forces of Pável Bermondt-Aválov. Bermondt had received permission and resources from Germany to take Russian prisoners of war and send them to fight the Bolsheviks, mainly in Latvia. With the Bolsheviks in retreat, the men at Bermondt took control of various regions in Latvia and Lithuania, including Riga, but the Baltic national forces managed to drive them out in late 1919.
During the Polish-Soviet War, Vilnius was captured by the Red Army. After the Battle of Warsaw, the Soviets withdrew from Poland, handing over control of Vilnius to Lithuania. Furthermore, on June 12, 1920, the Russians recognized Lithuania's independence, and its right to the Vilnius region. Belarus and Poland did not accept this.
After the brief Polish-Lithuanian war, where the Poles occupied most of the disputed territories, a ceasefire was agreed. However, the Polish general Lucjan Żeligowski did not respect it, and took control of Vilnius, declaring the Republic of Central Lithuania on October 12, 1920, a Polish puppet state. On March 22, 1922, this republic was annexed to Poland, a decision that was not recognized by Lithuania.
On March 23, 1939, Germany occupied Mémel, until then under Lithuanian control, and forced the Kaunas government to sign a non-aggression treaty. After the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, Vilnius was returned to Lithuania by the Soviets October 10.
Following the secret clause of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania on June 15, 1940, after the Lithuanian government caved in to a Soviet ultimatum. On July 21, Lithuania was included in the Soviet Union under the name of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
It was occupied by the Germans during World War II. The Lithuanians welcomed the Germans and helped lead to the persecution and extermination of the large Lithuanian Jewish population by the Nazis during the occupation, with some 100,000 Jews being killed throughout Lithuania, 70,000 in Vilnius alone.
Annexation to the Soviet Union
Around the middle of 1944, the Red Army began the capture of Lithuania. After the Battle of Memel, Lithuania came under Russian control, despite guerrilla resistance (called "misko broliai"), which lasted from the German occupation until 1953.
During the Soviet period it became the most developed part (along with Estonia) of the USSR.[citation needed]
13 km northeast of Šiauliai stands a symbol of resistance to oppression: The Hill of Crosses. Since 1961, Soviet bulldozers have constantly destroyed it, but finally it has more than 50,000 crossings.
Current independence
In 1988, the Lithuanian Perestroika Movement, Sąjūdis, was formed and won the 1989 Soviet Union legislative elections. In that year, Lithuanian was established as the official language. In 1990, Vytautas Landsbergis was elected president, proclaiming independence on March 11, 1990. There was a harsh Soviet response (military occupation of Vilnius) that forced a peaceful but unanimous popular reaction in what was called the Singing Revolution. On January 13, 1991, Soviet troops attacked unarmed citizens in an attempt to take the TV tower under military control, killing 13 people and injuring more than 200. Lithuanians and the West blamed Soviet forces for the massacre, while Soviet officials denied responsibility; In the year 2000, the politician Audrius Butkevičius, one of the leaders of the Lithuanian independence movement Sąjūdis declared that it was his forces, and not the Soviet ones, that had fired at the demonstrators, with the intention of blaming the USSR through psychological warfare. Lithuania continued on its path of independence and, as punishment, in August of the same year, Soviet special forces assassinated seven officials of the newly created Lithuanian customs, shooting all of them in the head. After the failed August 1991 coup in Moscow, the country's independence was internationally recognized and accepted by Moscow.
Since May 1, 2004, it is part of the European Union.
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