Lithuania, located on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, is associated with Latvia and Estonia to the north, and is known as the Baltic States. In 1989, the French National Geographic Institute determined that the geographical center of Europe was located on the outskirts of Lithuania's capital. Lithuania's area is only 65,000 square kilometers, which is not as large as the area of Chongqing Municipality, and it can be said that it is a small country. But historically, Lithuania was once the largest country in Europe and dominated Eastern Europe for a time. Now that Lithuania has become a country of bullets and has completely turned to the West, what is going on?
One, the geographical center of Europe, the country that arose in the cracks
Lithuania is geographically the geographical center of Europe, which makes sense nationally and culturally. Lithuania's Baltic sea region is the meeting place of three major European peoples: to its east are the Slavic peoples, who believe in Orthodox Christianity; to the north are the Nordic peoples, that is, the Vikings, who once conquered the entire North Sea coast; and to the west are the Germans, who established Germany, France and other countries. The peoples of Northern and Western Europe are Catholic.
Thus, the southern shore of the Baltic Sea is the center of the distribution of European nationalities. This unique geographical location has gradually made the Baltic Sea one of the "powder kegs" in Europe. Of course, the formation of the Lithuanian nation was also formed by the integration of many aspects. The original Baltic peoples were dominated by fishing and hunting, and about 2500 years ago, an agrarian people from southern Europe entered the Baltic sea coast, accelerating the social progress of the region. By the beginning of the Middle Ages, goths, Vandals, etc. migrated to this area. The three major ethnic groups of fishing, hunting, nomadism and farming were integrated here, and eventually the Lithuanian nation was formed.
The formation of the Lithuanian state was related to the pressure of foreign invasion. In the 9th century, the Rus' invaded the plains of Eastern Europe and established the vast Kievan Rus' and was the first dynasty in Russia. Lithuania also became the target of the Rus' attack. In Western Europe, the Papal Crusades failed, and many Knights were forced to move to Europe. The continued expansion of these knights on the south shore of the Baltic Sea posed a serious threat to the Lithuanian nation.
In short, Lithuania was at the crossroads of European nationalities and threatened by the surrounding ethnic groups. The Lithuanian nation itself is also formed by the fusion of several major ethnic groups in the surrounding areas. Under the pressure of the surrounding ethnic groups, Lithuania formed a unified nation, a unified state. Thus, this country was born in the midst of war, living between the cracks. Once the country's power declined, Lithuania would become the object of others' partition.
Two, slipping from the peak, the sadness of the merger
In 1219, the 21 dukes of Lithuania and the surrounding 5 dukes united, laying the foundation for the formation of the Lithuanian state. Subsequently, Mindaugas gradually became the head of Lithuania. In 1251, Mindaugas was baptized and the Kingdom of Lithuania was founded. In the early days of Lithuania's existence, it exerted great power in foreign wars, defeating the Livonian Knights at the Battle of Carrouse in 1270 and the Battle of Ezcluckle in 1279.
During the reign of Gediminas, Lithuania entered an era of rapid expansion. He established a strong centralized power and constantly waged wars against the outside world. At that time, the Rus' state was divided, and the Mongols took the opportunity to sweep across the eastern European plains and establish the Golden Horde. The division and decline of the Rus' Principality provided an opportunity for Lithuanian expansion. In 1321, Lithuania captured the Principality of Kiev and occupied the western part of Rus' This move had a huge impact on the East Slavic peoples. Under the influence of Lithuania, the Rus' people of Kiev gradually converted to Catholicism, and their language developed into Ukrainian, giving rise to a new ethnic group.
In the 14th century, the Grand Duchy of Moscow gradually rose, and under the leadership of successive Grand Dukes, Moscow defeated the Mongols and began to unify the Rus' state. The rise of the Muscovite Principality doubled the pressure on Lithuania and Poland, and the two countries united again in order to fight their enemies together. In 1385, Vytautas of Lithuania signed a treaty with Poland, marrying Queen Jadwiga of Poland. Subsequently, Poland gave Lithuania a part of the land, which further expanded Lithuania's territory.
Map of the Principality of Lithuania
In 1395, the Khan of the Golden Horde was defeated by Timur and lost his position. So Khan got lost and sought Lithuanian help and promised to cede the land to Lithuania. Subsequently, Lithuania began to send troops to Crimea and built a castle. By this time, Lithuania's territory had reached the Baltic Sea in the north and the Black Sea in the south. Subsequently, Lithuania formed a "crusade" and launched an attack on the Golden Horde. However, at the Battle of the Vorskola River in 1399, Lithuania suffered a crushing defeat.
After the failure of the Lithuanian Crusade, the Teutonic Knights took the opportunity to attack Lithuania in the west, and Lithuania further united with Poland. In 1410, the combined Polish-Lithuanian army won a decisive victory over the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald. Since then, the Muscovite principality has risen rapidly. In 1487, Moscow annexed Novgorod, becoming the largest country in Europe at the time. From 1492 to 1508, Ivan III of Moscow launched another attack on southern Lithuania, recovering some of the lands of the Principality of Kiev.
Under the pressure of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Lithuania and Poland chose to unite further. In 1569, the two countries formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which suddenly became the largest country in Europe. However, this union was the greatest sacrifice of Lithuania. First, the union was not completely equal, but Lithuania joined the Kingdom of Poland as a whole; second, much of the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were allocated to the Kingdom of Poland, including the ukrainian region; and third, Lithuania was gradually Polishized. Therefore, this union caused Lithuania to suddenly fall from the peak to the bottom.
Third, the object of contention between Russia and Germany
The history of Lithuania is a history of the struggle between the Germans and the Slavs. In the 10th and 16th centuries, it was mainly the Teutonic Knights and the Duchy of Rus who fought for land in Lithuania; from the 16th century onwards, it was the Russian Empire and the German Empire.
After the establishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom, its national strength rose for a time and its territorial expansion began. In the early 16th century, Ivan IV of Poland, Lithuania and Russia fought a 25-year war in Latvia, which eventually defeated Tsarist Russia. Subsequently, Poland and Lithuania defeated the Russo-Russian army in the Polish-Russian War (1605-1618) and briefly captured moscow, the capital of Russia. In the history of the world, there have not been many countries that have been able to conquer Moscow. The battle marked the peak of Polish-Lithuanian national power.
But the good times were short-lived. The Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom suffered severe attrition during its long foreign wars, causing its national strength to decline. In the Polish-Russian War, the Rus' people overthrew the Grand Duchy of Moscow and established the Romanov dynasty, which eventually formed a centralized rule. Thereafter, the Russian Empire became a nightmare for Poland and Lithuania.
In 1648, a Cossack revolt broke out in Poland, and the Ukrainian nation asked Russia for help, and eventually Ukraine was incorporated into Russia. But the Ukrainian nobility soon realized that Russia had become more ferocious, regretted it, and asked to return to Poland. Since then, Poland and Russia have fought several wars for Ukraine, and finally the Dnieper River has been demarcated. In 1655, the northern hegemon Sweden invaded Poland again, causing Poland's national strength to plummet. In order to defeat Sweden, Poland had to invite Russia to help in the war. Inviting Russia was to lure the wolf into the house, and soon Poland became a vassal state of Russia.
By the 18th century, Russia, Prussia, and Austria around Poland were very powerful and had become the object of partition. In 1772, Russia, Prussia and Austria divided Poland for the first time, and Poland lost 210,000 square kilometers of land; in 1793, Russia and Prussia divided Poland for the second time, this time Poland lost 300,000 square kilometers of land, of which Lithuania was annexed by Russia; in 1795, the three countries completely divided Poland. From then on, the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom was completely destroyed.
During World War I, Germany occupied Lithuania for a time. After germany's defeat, Lithuania declared its independence, and Lithuania at this time had become a small country. At the beginning of Lithuania's independence, it became a kingdom, and soon became a republic. By the end of 1918, it was reorganized into Soviet power. In 1919, Lithuania and Belarus merged. Soon Lithuania became independent and became a bourgeois republic.
The political instability in post-independence Lithuania facilitated the invasion of the Soviet Union. In 1926, the Soviet Union concluded a non-aggression pact with Lithuania. In the same year, the fascist government came to power. In 1940, in response to the expansion of German fascism, the Soviet Union directly annexed Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. During the Soviet-German War, Lithuania was briefly occupied by Germany. In 1944, the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania in the course of counterattacking Germany, and Lithuania officially became a Soviet republic. It was not until 1990 that Lithuania declared its independence, formally freed from Soviet control and from Russian control.
Lithuania has long been invaded by Russia, so its people hate Russia. After independence, Lithuania still faced a Russian threat, especially the Russian enclave, Kaliningrad, which was still next to Lithuania, which had a large number of military bases. As a result, Lithuania chose to be "one-sided" and turned to the Western bloc, and in 2004 it joined NATO and the European Union.