The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea are sometimes referred to as the "Baltic nations", less often and in historical circumstances also as the "Baltic republics", the "Baltic lands", or simply the Baltics.
All three Baltic countries are classified as high-income economies by the World Bank and maintain a very high Human Development Index. The three governments engage in intergovernmental and parliamentary cooperation. There is also frequent cooperation in foreign and security policy, defence, energy, and transportation.
History
Summary
After the First World War (1914–1918) the term "Baltic states" came to refer to countries by the Baltic Sea that had gained independence from the former Russian Empire. The term included Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and originally also Finland, which more recently has become grouped among the Nordic countries.
Prior to the 20th century
In the 3rd millennium BC, the inhabitants of the Corded Ware culture, who came to the current territory of the Baltic states from the south and southwest, mixed with the local Europeans who had lived there for a long time, eventually turned into Balts; in the northern part of the region, the settlers were assimilated by the Finnic peoples. In eighth and ninth centuries the Vikings rushed to the Baltic Sea coast.
In ninth and 10th centuries after the formation of neighboring Christian states of Poland and Kievan Rus the lands of the Baltic countries remained pagan until the 13th century. Kievan Rus sought to conquer them, and in the 11th century took control of some lands; Orthodoxy began to spread. In the 13th century the military orders of monks based in the lands of the Livonians and Prussians (Livonian Brothers of the Sword, the Teutonic Order, the Livonian Order) conquered most of the territory of modern-day Baltic countries and prevented the Estonians, Curonians, Latvians (Latgalians), Livonians, Prussians, Nadruvians, Selonians, Skalvians and Semigalians from creating their own states. Only the Lithuanians living farthest from the centers of German colonization succeeded in creating their own state. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania concluded the Union of Krevo with the Kingdom of Poland in 1385 and together resisted the advance of the orders to the east. During the secularization of the Teutonic Order, the Duchy of Prussia was created. In its northern part – in the lands of the Lithuanians – the Lithuanian historical area of Lithuania Minor was formed.
In 13th century Catholicism began to spread in Lithuanian lands; Estonians and most Latvians in the 16th century converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism. Due to the threat of Russia, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland formed the Union of Lublin in 1569 as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. From 16th to 18th centuries the united Polish–Lithuanian state fought with Denmark, Russia and Sweden for Estonian and Latvian lands in the Livonian and Northern wars. In the middle of 17th century, Sweden conquered and founded the governorates of Estonia and Livonia (with the exception of Courland, Latgale). After the Great Northern War, both governorates became part of the Russian Empire, during the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia also annexed Courland, Latgale, and all of Lithuania.
Estonians and Latvians, ruled by the German orders, Poland–Lithuania, Sweden, and Russia for numerous centuries, managed to preserve their language and culture. The formation of the Lithuanian nation was made difficult due to repression of the Russian imperial authorities after the suppressed uprising of 1830–1831 and the uprising of 1863–1864. In the 19th century the national movement of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians began. Although the historical, economic and cultural development of the nations of the Baltic countries were different, the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian nations were formed by the end of the 19th century. The ideas of unity between Latvians and Lithuanians have been spreading since the end of the 19th century.