Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter I. An Historic Survey of the Cultural Conditions of the Baltic Lands
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
and Westphalia, the abode of the great tribe of hardy Saxons, who gave
Charlemagne so much trouble in subjugating and christianising them.
In 1201 Riga was founded by Bishop Albrecht. Just as the Saxons
had themselves been converted to Christianity by fire and sword, so
they turned the same methods prevalent in that time, upon the Letts,
and Ests. The Pope of Rome gave them his blessing and under his
auspices the Holy Livonian Order of the Brother-Sword-Bearers was
formed with a view to stamping out paganism in the Baltic lands. These
fighting monks cannot be regarded as Conquistadores, as they were
imbued with the high religious ideas of that time. They had to give a
triple oath of life-long obedience to their superiors, and swear to poverty
and chastity. In their fortresses and castles they lived an austere life
of prayer, and waged battle whenever they were called upon to fight.
It was a hard task to convert the Baltic pagans, and in the fifteenth
century crusades were preached in northern Germany under the auspices
of Rome for the Christianising of the Baltic shores. These efforts helped
the Order of the Livonian Sword-Brothers to foster emigration from
Germany and to become a powerful State, which, however, had to
defend itself against insurrections and the growing weight of Moscovia,
Poland and Sweden. The Livonian Order of the
Brother-Sword-carers, under the leadership of the Herrmeister Walter von
Plettenberg, inflicted many a defeat upon the Moscovians, but Ivan the
Terrible succeeded in devastating and subjugating the land. The State
of the Livonian Order was hard pressed on three sides by the
Moscovians, Poles and the Swedes until in 1561, the last Herrmeister
Gotthard Kettler had to surrender the Order, albeit, securing for himself
Courland as Temporal Dukedom, suzerain to the Crown of Poland.
The Dukedom was held throughout the Kettler and later, the Biron
dynasties.
The Livonian Order as already stated ceased to exist in 1561. Livonia
at first became a Polish province, thence, after a series of fierce wars
between Poland and Sweden it passed into the hands of the latter;
and subsequently was lost to Russia by Charles XII in the XVIII
century, after his disasterous campaign against Peter the Great, by the
Peace of Nystadt in 1721. Later, in 1795, after the third partition of
Poland, which, as already mentioned, held suzerainity over the Duke of
Courland, the Duke had to abdicate, and the Diet of the Nobles
petitioned the Empress Catherine to incorporate the province into Russia.
From these incessant wars between three great Powers surrounding the
ancient State of the Livonian Order, it appears that each considered its
possession as a condition sine qua non for further development,
especially the Moscovian Tzars, and Peter the Great, who, finding it
imperative to „open a window towards the west of Europe“ deemed it
necessary to possess that territory for the further development of the
State, as the geographical position of these provinces is such that their
position as an outlet to the sea, or as an essential prolongation of the
coast-line, was indispensable to the growth of a first-class Power in
the north.
During the progress of the last Great War, the Baltic Provinces
were occupied by Germany, but after her defeat, and the Armistice,
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
