Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Russia. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,300 other islands and islets on the east coast of the Baltic Sea. Its capital city of Tallinn, along with the city of Tartu, are the country's two largest urban areas. The Estonian language, of the Finnic family, is the official language and the first language of the majority of nearly 1.4 million people. Estonia is one of the least populous member states of the European Union.
Present-day Estonia has been inhabited since at least 9,000 BC. 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. After centuries of foreign rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Poland, Sweden, and the Russian Empire, a distinct Estonian national identity gained new momentum with the Age of Awakening in the mid-19th century. This culminated in the 1918 Estonian Declaration of Independence. Democratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but the country was repeatedly invaded and occupied, and ultimately annexed into the USSR. Throughout the de facto Soviet occupation, from World War II until 1991, Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile. Following the 1988–1990 "Singing Revolution" against Soviet rule, full independence was restored on 20 August 1991, and the country joined NATO and the European Union in 2004.
Estonia is a developed country with a high-income, advanced economy, and Eurozone membership. It is a democratic unitary parliamentary republic, with a single-tier local government system consisting of 79 municipalities. Estonia is among the least corrupt countries in the world and ranks very high in international rankings for education, human development, press freedom, online public services, and the prevalence of technology companies.
Name
The name Estonia (Estonian: Eesti [ˈeˑstʲi] ⓘ) has been connected to the Aesti, a people first mentioned by Roman historian Tacitus around AD 98. Some historians believe he was referring to the Balts, while others think the name applied to all inhabitants of the eastern Baltic Sea region. Scandinavian sagas and Viking runestones referring to Eistland are the earliest sources known to use the name in its modern geographic meaning.
History
Prehistory
The oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement on the banks of Pärnu that dates to the early 9th millennium BC, making it at least 11,000 years old.
The earliest human habitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to the Kunda culture. Around 5300 BCE, ceramics appear of the neolithic period, known as Narva culture. The Comb Ceramic culture emerged around 3900 BC, bringing traces of early agriculture and sophisticated religious art. Starting from around 2800 BC the Corded Ware culture appeared; this included new activities like primitive farming and animal husbandry.
The Bronze Age started around 1800 BCE, and saw the establishment of the first hill fort settlements. A transition from hunter-fisher subsistence to single-farm-based settlement started around 1000 BC, and was complete by the beginning of the Iron Age around 500 BC. The large amount of bronze objects indicate the existence of active communication with Scandinavian and Germanic tribes.
Viking Age
The middle Iron Age produced threats appearing from different directions. Several Scandinavian sagas referred to major confrontations with Estonians, notably when in the early 7th century "Estonian Vikings" defeated and killed Ingvar Harra, the King of Swedes. Similar threats appeared to the east, where East Slavic principalities were expanding westward. In c. 1030, Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kievan Rus' attempted to subjugate the Chuds(as East Slavic sources called Estonians and related Finnic tribes) in southeast Estonia and captured Tartu. Chuds (Sosols) destroyed this foothold in 1061. Around the 11th century, the Scandinavian Viking era around the Baltic Sea was succeeded by the Baltic Viking era, with seaborne raids by Curonians and by Estonians from the island of Saaremaa, known as Oeselians. In 1187 Estonians (Oeselians), Curonians or/and Karelians sacked Sigtuna, which was a major city of Sweden at the time.
Estonia could be divided into two main cultural areas. The coastal areas of north and west Estonia had close overseas contacts with Scandinavia and Finland, while inland south Estonia had more contacts with Balts and Pskov. The landscape of Ancient Estonia featured numerous hillforts. Prehistoric or medieval harbour sites have been found on the coast of Saaremaa. Estonia also has a number of graves from the Viking Age, both individual and collective, with weapons and jewellery including types found commonly throughout Northern Europe and Scandinavia.
In the early centuries AD, administrative subdivisions began to emerge in Estonia. Two larger subdivisions appeared: the parish (Estonian: kihelkond) and the county (Estonian: maakond), which consisted of multiple parishes. A parish was led by elders and centered on a hill fort; in some rare cases a parish had multiple forts. By the 13th century, Estonia comprised eight bigger counties: Harjumaa, Järvamaa, Läänemaa, Revala, Saaremaa, Sakala, Ugandi, and Virumaa; and six minor smaller, single-parish counties: Alempois, Jogentagana, Mõhu, Nurmekund, Soopoolitse, and Vaiga. Counties were independent entities and engaged only in a loose cooperation against foreign threats.
Medieval Estonians' spiritual and religious practices before Christianization were often noted for their animistic beliefs. There is historical evidence about sacred groves, especially groves of oak trees, having served as places of "pagan" worship.
Crusades and the Catholic Era
In 1199, Pope Innocent III declared a crusade to "defend the Christians of Livonia". Fighting reached Estonia in 1206, when Danish King Valdemar II unsuccessfully invaded Saaremaa. The German Livonian Brothers of the Sword, who had previously subjugated Livonians, Latgalians, and Selonians, started campaigning against the Estonians in 1208, and over the next few years both sides made numerous raids and counter-raids. A major leader of the Estonian resistance was Lembitu, an elder of Sakala County, but in 1217 the Estonians suffered a significant defeat in the Battle of St. Matthew's Day, where Lembitu was killed. In 1219, Valdemar II landed at Lindanise, defeated the Estonians in the Battle of Lyndanisse, and started conquering Northern Estonia. The next year, Sweden invaded Western Estonia, but were repelled by the Oeselians. In 1223, a major revolt ejected the Germans and Danes from the whole of Estonia, except Reval, but the crusaders soon resumed their offensive, and in 1227, Saaremaa was the last maakond (county) to surrender.
After the crusade, the territory of present-day south Estonia and Latvia was named Terra Mariana; later on it became known simply as Livonia. Northern Estonia became the Danish Duchy of Estonia, while the rest was divided between the Sword Brothers and prince-bishoprics of Dorpat and Ösel–Wiek. In 1236, after suffering a major defeat, the Sword Brothers merged into the Teutonic Order becoming the Livonian Order. In the next decades there were several uprisings against the Teutonic rulers in Saaremaa. In 1343, a major uprising encompassed north Estonia and Saaremaa. The Teutonic Order suppressed the rebellion by 1345, and in 1346 the Danish king sold his possessions in Estonia to the Order. The unsuccessful rebellion led to a consolidation of power for the upper-class German minority. For the subsequent centuries Low German remained the language of the ruling elite in both Estonian cities and the countryside.
Reval (Tallinn), the capital of Danish Estonia founded on the site of Lindanise, adopted the Lübeck law and received full town rights in 1248. The Hanseatic League controlled trade on the Baltic Sea, and overall the four largest towns in Estonia became members: Reval, Dorpat (Tartu), Pernau (Pärnu), and Fellin (Viljandi). Reval acted as a trade intermediary between Novgorod and western Hanseatic cities, while Dorpat filled the same role with Pskov. Many artisans' and merchants guilds were formed during the period. Protected by their stone walls and membership in the Hansa, prosperous cities like Reval and Dorpat often defied other rulers of the medieval Livonian Confederation.
Post-Reformation Era
The Reformation began in central Europe in 1517, and soon spread northward to Livonia despite some opposition by the Livonian Order. Towns were the first to embrace Protestantism in the 1520s, and by the 1530s the majority of the landowners and rural population had adopted Lutheranism. Church services were now conducted in vernacular language, which initially meant Low German, but already from the 1530s onward the regular religious services were held in Estonian.
During the 16th century, the expansionist monarchies of Muscovy, Sweden, and Poland–Lithuania consolidated power, posing a growing threat to decentralised Livonia weakened by disputes between cities, nobility, bishops, and the Order.
In 1558, Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia (Muscovy) invaded Livonia, starting the Livonian War. The Livonian Order was decisively defeated in 1560. The majority of Livonia accepted Polish rule, while Reval and the nobles of northern Estonia swore loyalty to the Swedish king, and the Bishop of Ösel-Wiek sold his lands to the Danish king. Tsar Ivan's forces were at first able to conquer the larger part of Livonia, however in the 1570s the Polish-Lithuanian and Swedish armies went on the offensive and the war ended in 1583 with Russian defeat. As a result of the war, northern Estonia became the Swedish Duchy of Estonia, southern Estonia became the Polish Duchy of Livonia, and Saaremaa remained under Danish control.
In 1600, the Polish–Swedish War broke out, causing further devastation. The protracted war ended in 1629 with Sweden gaining Livonia, including the regions of Southern Estonia and Northern Latvia. Danish Saaremaa was transferred to Sweden in 1645. The wars had halved the population of Estonia from about 250–270,000 people in the mid 16th century to 115–120,000 in the 1630s.
While large parts of the rural population remained in serfdom during the Swedish rule, legal reforms strengthened both serfs' and free tenant farmers' land usage and inheritance rights – hence this period got the reputation of "The Good Old Swedish Time" in historical memory. Swedish King Gustaf II Adolf established gymnasiums in Reval and Dorpat; the latter was upgraded to Tartu University in 1632. Printing presses were also established in both towns. The beginnings of the Estonian public education system appeared in the 1680s, largely due to efforts of Bengt Forselius, who also introduced orthographical reforms to written Estonian. The population of Estonia grew rapidly until the Great Famine of 1695–97 in which 70,000–75,000 people died – about 20% of the population.
During the 1700–1721 Great Northern War, the Tsardom of Russia (Muscovy) conquered the whole of Estonia by 1710. The war again devastated the population of Estonia, with the 1712 population estimated at only 150,000–170,000. In 1721, Estonia was divided into two governorates: the Governorate of Estonia, which included Tallinn and the northern part of Estonia, and the southern Governorate of Livonia, which extended to the northern part of Latvia. The tsarist administration restored all the political and landholding rights of the local aristocracy. The rights of local farmers reached their lowest point, as serfdom completely dominated agricultural relations during the 18th century. Serfdom was formally abolished in 1816–1819, but this initially had very little practical effect; major improvements in farmers' rights started with reforms in the mid-19th century.
The reopening of the university in Tartu in 1802 gave opportunities for higher education to both Baltic German and a growing number of Estonian students. Among the latter were first public proponents of Estonian nationalism, such as young poet Kristjan Jaak Peterson. At the same time, the nationalist ideas of Johann Gottfried Herder greatly influenced the Baltic German intelligentsia to see the value in the native Estonian culture. The resulting Estophile movement gave rise to the Learned Estonian Society and other scientific societies, supported Estonian-language education and founded the first newspapers in the Estonian language. They also began to value and collect Estonian folklore, including surviving pre-Christian myths and traditions. Another sign of a rising Estonian national consciousness was a mass movement in South Estonia to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy in the 1840s, following a famine and a promise for being rewarded with land.
National Awakening
By the 1850s, several leading figures were promoting an Estonian national identity among the general populace. Widespread farm buyouts by Estonians and the resulting rapidly growing class of land-owning farmers provided the economic basis for the political affirmation of the Estonian identity. In 1857, Johann Voldemar Jannsen started publishing one of the first successful circulating Estonian-language weekly newspapers, Perno Postimees, and began popularising the denomination of oneself as eestlane (Estonian). Schoolmaster Carl Robert Jakobson and clergyman Jakob Hurt became leading figures in a nationalist movement, encouraging Estonian farmers to take pride in their language and ethnic Estonian identity.