Page 65 - The Baltic Capitals & St. Petersburg

Historical Overview of Lithuania

Early History

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modern Poland and one from modern Denmark. Excavations have shown that these groups
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times. The one thing both groups had in common was that in about 2000 BCE they were
overrun in by a Balt people, the ancestors of modern Lithuanians. Like Latvia to the north,
Lithuania became part of the Amber Road and traded with Greece and Roman during the
classical period.

By 1009 AD Lithuania was making a name for itself in the outside world—literally. 1009
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head and killed for attempting to convert the pagan king to Christianity. This might seem an
extreme response to an early missionary, but the Lithuanians were suspicious not only of the
new religion, but also of a possible spy from the other side. By this time, the original Balts had
split into two tribal groups, the Samogitians and the Aukstaitijas, and neither wanted to tip
the balance of power.

Northern Crusade

In the late-1100s, Christian Europe began to try to convert the region in earnest. In 1193 Pope
Celestine III called for a crusade against the northern pagans, which resulted in the seizure of
Livonia (today’s Estonia and Latvia) by German crusader knights and Danish troops. By this
time, the Lithuanian leader Mindaugas had managed to unite the two Lithuanian tribes under
his authority. He cleverly sought to avoid the crusaders by converting to Catholicism, but the
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the crusader orders that threatened to descend from Riga (in modern Latvia).

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Crown Princess Jadwiga of Poland in 1386. Jogaila converted to Christianity and was named to
King of Poland in addition to Grand Duke of Lithuania, beginning an alliance that was to last
400 years. Most of the Grand Duke’s tribe, the Aukstaitijas, formally converted to Christianity
a year later and the Samogitians followed suite in 1413. (Because the Samogitians did not
formally convert until the 1400s, Lithuania is often cited as the last European country to
become Christian.)

Lithuanian-Polish Alliance and Commonwealth

It was in the 1400s that Lithuania began a golden age of prosperity and expansion. Unlike
Estonia and Latvia, which were under the control of foreign powers such as Germany,
Lithuania was a partner with Poland. Together the two nations stretched their reach east and
south and created an empire that included parts of modern Russia, Ukraine, and Slovakia.
The wealth from this empire allowed the capital city, Vilnius to grow to a population of over
25,000 in the 16th century, which at the time made it one of Europe’s larger cities.

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