Back تاريخ إستونيا Arabic Historia d'Estonia AST Estoniya tarixi Azerbaijani Эстония тарихы Bashkir Гісторыя Эстоніі Byelorussian Гісторыя Эстоніі BE-X-OLD История на Естония Bulgarian এস্তোনিয়ার ইতিহাস Bengali/Bangla Història d'Estònia Catalan Dějiny Estonska Czech

History of Estonia

Fragments of the Wanradt–Koell Catechism (1535), the first book printed in Estonian

The history of Estonia forms a part of the history of Europe. Human settlement in what is now Estonia became possible 13,000–11,000 years ago, after the ice from the last glacial era had melted, and signs of the first permanent population in the region date from around 9000 BCE.[1]

The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Northern Crusades in the 13th century.[2] After the crusaders had conquered the area by 1227, Estonia was ruled initially by the King of Denmark in the north (until 1345), and until 1559 by the Teutonic Order, and by the ecclesiastical states of the Holy Roman Empire, which from 1418 to 1562 covered the whole of Estonia, forming a part of the Livonian Confederation. After 1559, Estonia became part of the Kingdom of Sweden until 1710, when the Tsardom of Russia (Muscovy) conquered the entire area during the Great Northern War of 1700–1721. Throughout this period the local local German-speaking nobility enjoyed significant autonomy, and High German (earlier also Low German and Latin) served as the main language of administration and education.

Public education systems founded during prior Swedish rule made Estonia and Finland the two most literate areas of Russian Empire (map of 1897 census literacy data)

The Estophile Enlightenment Period (1750–1840) led to the Estonian national awakening in the middle of the 19th century. In the aftermath of World War I (1914–1918) and the revolutions of 1917 that brought the end to the Russian Empire, Estonia was declared an independent democratic republic in February 1918. In the Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920) the newly proclaimed state successfully fought against the Soviet Russian Bolshevist invasion, and in the February 1920 Russian-Estonian Peace Treaty the Soviet Russia recognised Estonian independence in perpetuity.

During World War II (1939–1945) the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Estonia in June 1940 and illegally annexed the country.[a] In the course of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany occupied Estonia in 1941; the Soviet Army reoccupied Estonia in 1944. Estonia regained its independence in August 1991 and joined the European Union and NATO in 2004.

  1. ^ Esselmond, Tom (26 August 2011). "Spirituality in Estonia - the world's 'least religious' country". BBC.
  2. ^ "Country Profile – LegaCarta". Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  3. ^ Fried, Daniel (14 June 2007). "U.S.-Baltic Relations: Celebrating 85 Years of Friendship". U.S. State Department.
  4. ^ "Motion for a resolution on the Situation in Estonia". European Parliament. 21 May 2007. Retrieved 19 September 2009.
  5. ^ Socor, Vladimir (25 May 2005). "U. S. SENATE, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CONDEMN OCCUPATION OF BALTIC STATES". The Jamestown Foundation.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

Developed by StudentB