Wen | September
Edited | September
After U.S. House speaker Pelosi "visited" Taiwan, a small European country followed suit, and a high-level government delegation followed suit.
However, the "sneaking visit" of the country's top level did not splash a little splash in the international community, and the mainland was surprisingly calm, but only suspended exchanges and cooperation with this country and watched him play a one-man show.
This small European country is Lithuania, as a once-generous European power, but to this day he dresses himself up and down as a jumping beam clown in the eyes of a big country.
Why did Lithuania, which was once glorious, become what it is today?
Pelosi
The emergence of Lithuania
In the 14th century, Lithuania was the largest country in Europe. During this period, both Poland and Ukraine were occupied by Lithuania.
Lithuania is also considered the geographical center of Europe, having been the guardian of the Catholic North and possessing a splendid ancient culture.
But such a country, after more than two hundred years of prosperity, fell into a long-term decline.
Today's Lithuania covers an area of 60,000 square kilometers, the same as the area of the mainland city of Harbin, with a population of less than three million, and not as large as the population of the second-tier cities on the mainland.
Lithuania
During the Roman period in Europe, Lithuania was only a small tribe, and the people here supported themselves by handicrafts and agriculture.
The Roman nobles at that time were very fond of amber, so they opened an amber road at sea to transport these stones for the Roman nobles.
Roman scholars of this period, when documenting the Amber Road, mentioned that the tribes along this sea route included Lithuania, which had not yet become a state. At this time, Lithuania had not yet appeared in its own writing, and there was no way to record their history.
During this period, Lithuania was often harassed by thieves along the coast, and the Lithuanians, who could not defeat these pirates, could only seek help from the strong, so they asked for help from the Duchy of Kievan Rus next door.
Principality of Kievan Rus'
The Principality of Kievan Rus was founded by the Vikings, and at its peak, most of Europe was under his jurisdiction.
But unfortunately, such a powerful country was finally destroyed by Genghis Khan, who was called the "Whip of God" by Europe, and his descendants were easily destroyed.
The current Grand Duke of Kievan Rus, with a tribute from Lithuania, promised to expel the pirates and protect the safety of the Lithuanians.
Although Lithuanians were granted, the soldiers sent by the Kyvan Rus' Principality were not very well protected by Lithuania.
Naturally, the Lithuanians defected, and they began to lead the surrounding pirates to rob Kievan Rus' living supplies.
Now Lithuanians
In the 13th century, Lithuania finally gave birth to an organization with military power.
A passing missionary gave the organization a name, Lithuania, and from this time the word Lithuania appeared in the chronicles compiled by quedlinburg abbey.
Establishment of Lithuania
In 1200, a figure who was about to change Lithuania appeared, Mindaugas, as the first Grand Duke in Lithuanian history, he himself established the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Mindaugas's birth background and family situation are not well documented in the literature, but it is certain that Mindaugas was born better and was a high duke of a European country.
Now Lithuanians
This also gave Mindaugas the capital to rise, and in the following decades, Mindaugas murdered political opponents through a series of means, married sisters and gained power, and finally unified the Lithuanian Principality.
After the establishment of the Duchy of Lithuania, Mindaugas's enemies became the Knights.
Because Lithuania was the last non-Catholic country in all of Europe, it had been hovering between Orthodox and Catholic.
However, the Catholic Church lost patience with Lithuania's "grass-on-the-wall" attitude and sent the Knights to attack Lithuania. At the beginning of the war, the well-equipped Knights fought with the Lithuanian army.
Mindaugas converted to Roman Catholicism and accepted the coronation of Pope Innocent IV as king
However, the sent Knights were not familiar with the land, and got lost on the way back after the attack, entered the swamp, and happened to be seen by the Lithuanian army.
In the battle known as the Battle of Sul, the Lithuanian army won a complete victory.
In 1250 Mindaugas was baptized by the Catholic Church in order to maintain his rule, and after Mindaugas was baptized, Innocent, then Pope, recognized Mindaugas as king of Lithuania and coronation ceremony was held.
Mindaugas died in September 1263. After Mindaugas' death, the supreme rule of Lithuania changed hands several times, and in 1386 Jogaila became the ruler of Lithuania.
The Anjou dynasty in its heyday
However, at this time, Lithuania's comprehensive national strength was not prominent compared with that of neighboring countries, and lithuania's territory had not changed much since the death of Mindaugas.
After becoming the Grand Duke of Lithuania, in order to expand the territory of Lithuania, Jagaila married the Polish queen Jadwiga, after all, the Polish queen at this time was young and easier to control.
Jadwiga was a descendant of the Lion King Louis VIII, whose son Charles founded the Anjou dynasty, also known as the "Plantagenet Dynasty".
The Anjou dynasty was vast and encompassed the Kingdoms of Poland, Naples, Sicily and Hungary. But in Louis I's generation, the dynasty had no male heirs and only two daughters.
Jadwiga
Louis I of Hungary and Poland, who maintained dynastic rule, allowed his two daughters to inherit the territory of Hungary and Poland. After the death of Louis I of Hungary-Poland in 1982, Jadwiga became the owner of Polish soil.
In 1384, at the age of 11, Jadwiga was crowned Queen of Poland by the Catholic Church, surrounded by the people. Whoever man became the husband of Jadwiga at this time would have the right to rule Poland.
Jagaila set his sights on this opportunity, as the Polish nobles at the time did not want Queen Jadwiga to marry a Habs prince, fearing that their rights would be affected.
So the Polish nobles, under the self-recommendation of Jagail, chose the low-strength and weak Lithuanian Grand Duke as the queen's husband, so that they did not have to worry about their aristocratic status changing.
Jogaila
In 1386, Jogaila married Jadwiga, and in order to inherit the Polish throne, Jagailo passed the Catholic test, accepted their baptism, and successfully became the king of Poland, and Lithuania became the Catholic "guardian of the north".
Lithuania allied itself with Poland after its marriage to Jadwiga in Jogaila, a move that strengthened Lithuania's overall national strength and accelerated Lithuania's expansion.
In the 15th century, Lithuania became one of the largest countries in Europe, and history has recorded:
"Lithuania stretches from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea coast in the south, and the territories of European countries such as Latvia, Poland, and Russia were once under the jurisdiction of Lithuania."
In 1410, The Ruler of Lithuania, Grand Duke Vytautas, led an army to defeat the Teutonic Knights in a battle known as the Battle of Greenwald.
Portrait of the Greenwald Will Stand
The Teutonic Knights were the military organization of the Holy Roman Empire and were one of the three most famous orders of the Knights.
Prior to the Battle of Greenwald, all the members of the Teutonic Order were from Germany, but after the Battle the Order also accepted The Poland and Lithuanians.
The war cost the Knights reparations, and Lithuania's national power reached its peak, making Lithuania one of the Great Powers of Eastern Europe for a time.
In 1569 Lithuania merged with Poland to form the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This period was the most powerful period in Lithuania and lasted for nearly two hundred years.
In September 1610, Poland and Lithuania, which formed a commonwealth, captured Moscow, the capital of Russia, and installed a Polish prince as the new Tsar of Russia.
The land within the orange line is the polish-Lithuanian territory of the two countries in 1569, and the green area is the most important territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1434
The decline of Lithuania
Two years later, however, Russia counterattacked and expelled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth troops from Moscow. And in 1655, Russian troops invaded the capital of Lithuania and occupied Vilnius.
Because the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth adopted a system of aristocratic elections, this led to the struggle of the upper class for power and profit, which hindered the development of the country's economy.
So by the 18th century, the weakening Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was beginning to be divided between Tsarist Russia, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria.
The first partition in 1772 resulted in the loss of 35% of the territory and 33% of the population of the Confederation, and became a protectorate of the three countries.
Caricature of the partition of the Polish Commonwealth of Lithuania
The second partition completely reduced the Federation to a vassal state of Tsarist Russia. The third partition in 1795 left the Commonwealth in history.
Modern Lithuania
Although after three partitions, almost all of Lithuania's territory fell into the hands of Tsarist Russia, the Lithuanians did not abandon their faith, and they awakened their national consciousness.
Between 1830 and 1864, Lithuanians participated in several Polish uprisings for national independence. But that doesn't help.
By world war I, lithuania was occupied by Germany. In February 1918, Lithuania took back the territory of the country, declared its independence, and made this day their first independence day.
Now Lithuanians
After the defeat of Germany, independent Poland wanted to restore the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, but the equally independent Lithuania began to support Soviet power.
Poland, however, disagreed with Lithuania's approach and sent troops to capture Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Lithuania had to locate its capital in Kaunas.
After the beginning of World War II, Lithuania was forced by Germany's power to cede part of its territory to Germany.
Not to be outdone, the Soviet Union attacked Vilnius to negotiate with Lithuania, which agreed to the Soviet union's offer.
In October 1939 Lithuania took back the capital from the Soviet Union. After taking back its capital, Lithuania continued to do "wall-headed grass" and did not take sides, which made the Soviet Union and Germany very dissatisfied.
Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania
After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War in 1941, Lithuania was soon occupied by a fierce German army. After germany's defeat, the Soviet Union incorporated Lithuania under its wing.
Although it joined the Soviet Union, in the course of Lithuania's history, there were many grudges with the Soviet Union. So after the decline of the Soviet Union, Lithuania was the first to stand out from the Soviet Union.
On March 11, 1990, Lithuania declared its independence, but the Soviet Union did not recognize it at the time, but in September of the following year the Soviet Union did recognize Lithuania's independence. As a result, March 11 also became the second Independence Day of Lithuania.
After Lithuania left the Soviet Union, in order to join the European Union, it also shut down the nuclear power plants that it "inherited" from the Soviet Union.
On 1 May 2004, Lithuania joined the European Union
This move left Lithuania with only foreign energy to maintain its own energy supply such as electricity. But Lithuania imports energy from Russia.
However, after Lithuania joined the European Union, it was taken care of by European and American countries, which allowed Lithuania's economy to grow rapidly since 2000.
However, after the financial crisis in 2008, Lithuania's economy suffered a severe setback, with the unemployment rate of the local population as high as 17.8%, although after surviving this period, the Lithuanian economy has grown, but it is not comparable to before the financial crisis.
After the crisis, Lithuania lost a large number of people, which caused a shortage of labor in Lithuania. In order to restore its country's economy, Lithuania urgently needs the help of the United States, so Lithuania has become a "small follower" of the United States.
Lithuania
Even if there is not much conflict of interest with China, in order to maintain friendly relations with the United States, Lithuania has repeatedly helped Taiwan Province of China to speak.
Even if diplomatic relations with China fall to a freezing point, Lithuania must stubbornly maintain "diplomatic relations" with Taiwan Province of China, show its loyalty to the United States, and strive for economic assistance from the United States.
In 2019, lithuanian security services, referring to China as a "national security threat" in their report, said that if China participates in their nation-building, it will raise national security problems in Lithuania.
In November 2021, Lithuania allowed Taiwan to set up a "representative office in Lithuania and Taiwan" and turned a blind eye to warnings from the mainland.
Seeing Lithuania's response, the mainland cut off economic and trade cooperation between the two countries and recalled and repatriated their ambassadors in May.
Lithuania
After Pelosi "sneaked" to Taiwan Province in August this year, senior Lithuanian government officials also followed her steps and organized a delegation to "visit" Taiwan, trampling on the one-China principle, seriously interfering in China's internal affairs, and undermining China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The mainland's Foreign Ministry has also publicly condemned this action by Lithuania. In response to this move by the top level of the Lithuanian government, a corresponding "return gift" was also made, and cooperation and exchanges with Lithuania were suspended.
End
The reason why Lithuania dares to be tough in China is partly because the proportion of trade between the two countries is not high, and partly because Lithuania is in the fox and tiger, and with the support of the United States, it openly makes a decision with us.
Looking back at the history of Lithuania, it is not difficult to see when Lithuania's "wall-headed grass" behavior originated, and it is estimated that it is also a means of life-saving for such a small country.
Lithuania's ups and downs will have less impact on the mainland, after all, Lithuania's influence in the international community is limited, and European countries will not echo Lithuania's remarks.
What Lithuania has done is also to curry favor with the United States and will not have any bad influence on China. Perhaps when we are stronger than the United States, Lithuania will once again curry favor with us by "suppressing" the United States.