Latvia

Overview

Latvia's relatively diminutive size means that even if time is short a great deal of the country can be seen even if as a series of short excursions from the capital, Riga.

It is highly likely however that the visitor will want to spend much of the trip in the capital, at the very least for the UNESCO World Heritage protected centre. The styles of architecture are a major feature of Riga with amongst the best collection of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe. There are also a few wooden buildings remaining, which are certainly worth seeing.

Apart from Riga, those interested in the beach should go to Jurmala, which can be coupled with some hiking in the region. The Abava River Valley has some pretty little towns or perhaps the visitor would like to explore Tervete forest or go skiing in Sigulda.

History

Since 9 000 BC ancient peoples of unknown origin had inhabited Latvia but by 3 000 BC the ancestors of the Finns had settled the region. A millennium later pre-Baltic tribes had arrived and within time evolved into the Baltic Couranian Latgallian Selonian and Semigallian groups. These tribes eventually formed local governments independently from the Finno-Ugric Livian tribe until the thirteenth century when they were conquered by the Germans who renamed the territory Livonia.

German sailors shipwrecked on the Daugava River in 1054 had inhabited the area which led to increasing German influence. Founded by the Germanic Bishop Alberth of Livonia in 1201 Riga joined the Hanseatic League in 1285 and shared important cultural and economic ties to the rest of Europe. However the new German nobility enserfed the peasantry and accorded non-Germanic peoples only limited trading and property rights.

Subsequent wars and treaties ensured Livonia's partition and colonization for centuries. The Commonwealth's successes during the Livonian Wars (1558-1583) united the Latvian-populated duchies of Pardaugava Kurzeme and Zemgale but the Polish-Swedish War (1600-1629) granted Sweden acquisition of Riga and the Duchy of Pardaugava minus Latgale leaving Latvia again split ethnically. In turn victory over Sweden in the Great Northern War (1700-1721) gave Russia control over the Latvian territories. From 1804 onwards a series of local decrees gradually weakened the grip of German nobility over peasant society and in 1849 a law granted a legal basis for the creation of peasant-owned farms.

Until the 1860s there still was little sense of a Latvian national...more