Livonia

Livonia (Livonian: Līvõmō; Estonian: Liivimaa; German and Scandinavian languages: Livland; Latvian and Lithuanian: Livonija; Polish: Inflanty; archaic English: Livland, or Liwlandia; in Russian: Лифляндия, Liflyandiya) is the region that was previously inhabited by the Livonians, but in the Middle Ages it came to designate a much larger territory (Terra Mariana) controlled by the Livonian Order on the eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea, in present-day Latvia and Estonia. Its borders were the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Finland, in the northeast; Lake Peipus and Russia, in the east; and Lithuania, to the south.

History

At the beginning of the 12th century Livonia was an area of economic and political extension of the Danes and Germans, particularly the Hanseatic League and the Cistercian Order.

Around 1160, Hanseatic merchants from Lübeck established a base at the future site of Riga. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia of 1220 gives a first-hand account of the Christianization of Livonia, granted as a fief by the German king, Philip of Swabia, of the house of Hohenstaufen, to Bishop Albert of Buxhoeveden, nephew of the Archbishop of Bremen, who sailed with a convoy of ships full of armed crusaders to create a Catholic territory in the east, during the so-called Northern Crusades. Riga was founded by Albert of Buxhoeveden in 1201, who built a cathedral and became the first bishop-prince of Livonia.

The conquest of Livonia by the Germans is described in the Rhymed Livonian Chronicle.

Thus, from the beginning of the 13th century, Livonia became the Livonian Confederation, made up of five independent territories:

• The lands governed by the Livona Order, founded by Alberto de Buxhoeveden in 1202 (which merged with the Teutonic Order of Prussia in 1237) and the ecclesiastical territories:
• Riga's archbishop.
• Curland's obispate.
• the obispado of Ösel-Wiek.
• the obispate of Dorpat, where Albert's brother, Hermann, was established as a prince-bishop.

The headquarters of the Diet was in the city of Valga (now Estonia).

In 1561 during the Livonian War, Livonia became part of the Two Nations Republic. The Russian Empire recognized Polish rule of Livonia beginning in 1582. The organization of Livonia in the Commonwealth, in 1598, was:

• Wenden voivodato (Województwo wendeńskie, Cesis / Wenden);
• the voivodato of Dorpat (Województwo dorpackie, Tartu / Dorpat);
• the voivodato de Parnawa (Województwo parnawskie, Pärnu / Pernau / Parnawa).

In the 1620s, Sweden, ruled by Gustav II Adolf, conquered northern Estonia and central Latvia, including Riga, after winning the Polish-Swedish War, incorporating the two regions into the Swedish kingdom as a Swedish possession called Swedish Livonia.

The portion of Livonia remaining in the Commonwealth, which was known as Polish Livonia, or Inflanty, in the Treaty of Oliva of 1660, consisted mainly of the southern Latvian region Latgalia within the Voivodeship of Livonia with capital in Daugavpils, or Dyneburg. This division of Livonia was ratified in the Treaty of Oliva in 1660.

The Russian Empire conquered Swedish Livonia during the course of the Great Northern War and acquired the province in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. Russia annexed Polish Livonia to its territory in 1772, during the Partitions of Poland.

Livonia remained within the Russian Empire until the end of the First World War, when it was divided between the newly independent states of Latvia and Estonia. In 1918-1920, Soviet and German armies engaged in combat against Latvian and Estonian troops for control of Livonia, but their attempts were unsuccessful. The historical land of Livonia as such was divided between Latvia and Estonia since then.

Livonian is still spoken in parts of Latvia, although it is rapidly becoming extinct.