Page 59 - The Baltic Capitals & St. Petersburg

The ancestors of today’s Estonians arrived in the area over 5000 years ago. They were a
Finno-Ugric people related to others who populated Finland, Lapland, and Hungary, with
societies based on hunting and nature-centered religions. The Romans were most likely the
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rather than controlled by them. Later the Vikings of the 9th and 10th centuries also seemed
to bypass Estonia in their conquests; although present in the area, they were much more
interested in trade routes to Kiev.

Northern Crusade

But by the end of the 12th century, Estonia’s days of being overlooked by the rest of Europe
were unfortunately at an end. Until this point many locals had practiced a form of paganism
that worshipped the natural world. (Estonians and Finns were both described by the
Scandinavians as experts of wind-magic, a useful skill to know in a maritime society.) In
1193 Pope Celestine III called for a crusade against the northern pagans, and as one of the last
remaining unconverted countries, Estonia became a target. Soon the German “Knights of the
Sword” had captured nearby Riga (in present-day Latvia) and were using it as a base from
which to raid Estonia. Despite setbacks like the German victory at the castle of Otepaa in 1208,
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_Z VPP[ _SP ʭRS_ RZTYR QZ] YPL]Wd dPL]^ -d _SP XTO ^ 0^_ZYTL bL^ OTaTOPO MP_bPPY
the Danish-controlled north and the German-controlled south, and not long afterwards the
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During the following three hundred years the conquered Estonians continued to practice many
of their own pagan rituals in secret, to speak their own language, and to occasionally rebel
against the Danish and the Germans. As part of the wider Christian Europe (in name at least)
the Cathedrals and churches acted as centers of learning and trade. Soon towns and even small
cities began to grow—the country’s capital, Tallinn dates from about this time. (The name
“Tallinn” is derived from the Estonian words Taani linn meaning “Danish town”.) Tallinn
itself gained a measure of importance under the new rulers when it joined the Hanseatic
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The Livonian War

The German-speaking aristocracy would largely control Livonia (today’s Estonia and Latvia)
until the mid-1500s, when Estonia once again came to the attention of a powerful pan-
European force—Ivan the Terrible. As his Tatar cavalry swept through the Baltics, other
threatened nations sought to stop his onward momentum by joining in what was later named
the “Livonian War”. Poland, Demark, and Sweden all sent reinforcements and troops. In the
end Sweden retained power in Estonia, and governed there from the late 16th through the 17th
centuries, a time later remembered as a prosperous golden age.

It was under Swedish rule that modern Estonia was united as a single country, that maritime
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era was short-lived. By 1700 the defeated nations—Denmark, Poland, and Russia—were once

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