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| Prehistoric | |
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The first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Proto-Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population and formed various Baltic tribes. The first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009.[8]
[edit] Tags:Lt,Indo-european,Last Glacial Period,Proto-indo-europeans,Baltic Tribes,Annals Of Quedlinburg, | |
| Medieval | |
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Trakai Island Castle
Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, who was crowned as King of Lithuania on 6 July 1253.[6] After his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, overtaking former Slavic principalities of Kievan Rus'.
By the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia.[9] The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The ruling elite practiced religious tolerance and borrowed Chancery Slavonic language as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents.
Battle of Grunwald and Vytautas the Great in the centre
In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Poland's offer to become its king. Jogaila embarked on gradual christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity.
After two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its territorial expansion, centralization of the state was begun, and the Lithuanian nobility became increasingly prominent in state politics. Thanks to close cooperation, the armies of Lithuania and Poland achieved a great victory over the Teutonic Knights in 1410 at the Battle of Grunwald, one of the largest battles of medieval Europe.[10][11][12]
After the deaths of Jogaila and Vytautas, the Lithuanian nobility attempted to break the union between Poland and Lithuania, independently selecting Grand Dukes from the Jagiellon dynasty. But, at the end of the 15th century, Lithuania was forced to seek a closer alliance with Poland when the growing power of the Grand Duchy of Moscow threatened Lithuania's Russian principalities and sparked the Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars and the Livonian War.
[edit] Tags:Russia,Ce,Belarus,Poland,Russian,Mindaugas,Ukraine,Christian Crusades,Teutonic Knights,Livonian Order,Chancery Slavonic,Latin,Battle Of Grunwald,Vytautas The Great,Jogaila,Pagan,Livonian War, | |
| Modern | |
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The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was created in 1569. As a member of the Commonwealth, Lithuania retained its institutions, including a separate army, currency, and statutory laws.[13] Eventually Polonization affected all aspects of Lithuanian life: politics, language, culture, and national identity. From the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries, culture, arts, and education flourished, fueled by the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. From 1573, the Kings of Poland and Grand Dukes of Lithuania were elected by the nobility, who were granted ever increasing Golden Liberties. These liberties, especially the liberum veto, led to anarchy and the eventual dissolution of the state.
During the Northern Wars (1655–1661), the Lithuanian territory and economy were devastated by the Swedish army. Before it could fully recover, Lithuania was ravaged during the Great Northern War (1700–1721). The war, plague, and famine caused the deaths of approximately 40% of the country's population.[14] Foreign powers, especially Russia, became dominant in the domestic politics of the Commonwealth. Numerous factions among the nobility used the Golden Liberties to prevent any reforms. Eventually, the Commonwealth was partitioned in 1772, 1792, and 1795 by the Russian Empire, Prussia, and Habsburg Austria.
The largest area of Lithuanian territory became part of Russian Empire. After unsuccessful uprisings in 1831 and 1863, the Tsarist authorities implemented a number of Russification policies. They banned the Lithuanian press, closed cultural and educational institutions, and made Lithuania part of a new administrative region called Northwestern Krai. These ruthless Russification policies failed owing to extensive network of book smugglers and secret Lithuanian home schooling.
After the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), when German diplomats assigned what were seen as Russian spoils of war to Turkey, the relationship between Russia and the German Empire became complicated. The Russian Empire resumed the construction of fortresses at its western borders for defence against a potential invasion from Germany in the West. On 7 July 1879 the Russian Emperor Alexander II approved of a proposal from the Russian military leadership to build the largest "first-class" defensive structure in the entire state – the 65 km2 (25 sq mi) Kaunas Fortress.[15] Between 1868 and 1914, approximately 635,000 people, almost 20% of the population, emigrated from Lithuania.[16] Large numbers of Lithuanians went to the United States in 1867–1868 after a famine.[17] A Lithuanian National Revival laid the foundations of the modern Lithuanian nation and independent Lithuania.
[edit] Tags:Renaissance,Elected By The Nobility,Golden Liberties,Liberum Veto,Anarchy,Great Northern War,Plague,Famine,The Commonwealth Was Partitioned,Russian Empire,Prussia,Uprisings In 1831,1863,Russification,Northwestern Krai,Russo-turkish War (1877–1878),German Empire,Kaunas Fortress, | |
| 20th century | |
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The original 20 members of the Council of Lithuania after signing the Act of Independence of Lithuania, 16 February 1918.
Map showing changes in the territory of Lithuania from the 13th century to the present day.
During World War I, the Council of Lithuania (Lietuvos Taryba) declared the independence of Lithuania on 16 February 1918, and the re-establishment of the Lithuanian State. Lithuania's foreign policy was dominated by territorial disputes with Poland and Germany. The Vilnius Region, and Vilnius, the historical capital of Lithuania, (and so designated in the Constitution of Lithuania) were seized by the Polish army during Żeligowski's Mutiny in October 1920 and annexed two years later by Poland. For 19 years Kaunas became the Temporary capital of Lithuania. The Polish occupation of Vilnius was greatly resented by Lithuania; there were no diplomatic relations between the two states for most of the period between the two world wars.
Acquired during the Klaipėda Revolt of 1923, the Klaipėda Region was ceded to Germany after a German ultimatum in March 1939. During the interwar period, the domestic affairs of Lithuania were controlled by the authoritarian President, Antanas Smetona and his party, the Lithuanian National Union, who came to power after the coup d'état of 1926.
The Soviet Union returned Vilnius to Lithuania after the Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland in September 1939.[18] In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Lithuania in accordance to the secret protocols of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.[19][20] A year later Russia was attacked by Nazi Germany, leading to the Nazi occupation of Lithuania. The Nazis and their collaborators murdered around 190,000 Lithuanian Jews[21] (91% of the pre-war Jewish community) during the Holocaust.
After the retreat of the German armed forces, the Soviets re-established the annexation of Lithuania in 1944. It followed with massive deportations of citizens to Siberia,[22] complete nationalisation and collectivisation and general sovietization of everyday life. From 1944 to 1952 approximately 100,000 Lithuanian partisans fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet system. An estimated 30,000 partisans and their supporters were killed, and many more were arrested and deported to Siberian gulags. It is estimated that Lithuania lost 780,000 people during World War II.[23]
The advent of perestroika and glasnost in the late 1980s allowed the establishment of Sąjūdis, an anti-communist independence movement. After a landslide victory in elections to the Supreme Soviet, members of Sąjūdis proclaimed Lithuania's independence on 11 March 1990, becoming the first Soviet republic to do so. The Soviet Union attempted to suppress the secession by imposing an economic blockade. Soviet troops attacked the Vilnius TV Tower and killed 14 Lithuanian civilians on the night of 13 January 1991 (January Events).[24][25] On 31 July 1991 Soviet paramilitaries killed seven Lithuanian border guards on the Belarusian border in what became known as the Medininkai Massacre.
On 4 February 1991, Iceland became the first country to recognise Lithuanian independence. After the Soviet August Coup, independent Lithuania received wide official recognition and joined the United Nations on 17 September 1991. The last Soviet troops left Lithuania on 31 August 1993 – even earlier than they departed from East Germany. Lithuania, seeking closer ties with the West, applied for NATO membership in 1994. After a transition from a planned economy to a free market one, Lithuania became a full member of NATO and the European Union in the spring of 2004 and a member of the Schengen Agreement on 21 December 2007.
[edit] Tags:Vilnius,Soviet Union,Soviet Republic,Nato,Schengen Agreement, | |
| Geography | |
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Main article: Geography of Lithuania
Lithuania is located in Northern Europe. It covers an area of 65,200 km2. Thus it is roughly the same size as the American state of West Virginia, and larger, in terms of total area, than the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland.
The Geographic Centre of Europe is in Lithuania
Lithuania lies between latitudes 53° and 57° N, and mostly between longitudes 21° and 27° E (part of the Curonian Spit lies west of 21°). It has around 99 kilometres (61.5 mi) of sandy coastline, of which only about 38 kilometres (24 mi) face the open Baltic Sea and which is the shortest among the Baltic Sea countries; the rest of the coast is sheltered by the Curonian sand peninsula. Lithuania's major warm-water port, Klaipėda, lies at the narrow mouth of the Curonian Lagoon (Lithuanian: Kuršių marios), a shallow lagoon extending south to Kaliningrad. The main and largest river, the Nemunas River, and some of its tributaries carry international shipping.
Lithuania lies at the edge of North European Plain. Its landscape has been smoothed by the glaciers of the last ice age. Lithuania's terrain is an alternation of moderate lowlands and highlands; its maximum elevation is Aukštojas Hill at 294 metres (965 ft) in the eastern part of the country. The terrain features numerous lakes, Lake Vištytis for example, and wetlands; a mixed forest zone covers nearly 33% of the country. The climate ranges between maritime and continental, with wet, moderate winters and mildly hot summers.
After a re-estimation of the boundaries of the continent of Europe in 1989, Jean-George Affholder, a scientist at the Institut Géographique National (French National Geographic Institute) determined that the Geographic Centre of Europe is located at 54°54′N 25°19′E / 54.9°N 25.317°E / 54.9; 25.317 (Purnuškės (centre of gravity)).[26] The method used for calculating this point was that of the centre of gravity of the geometrical figure of Europe. This point is located in Lithuania, specifically 26 kilometres (16 mi) north of its capital city, Vilnius.
[edit] Tags:/,Northern Europe,Baltic Sea,Denmark, | |
| Climate | |
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Main article: Climate of Lithuania
Aukstaitija National Park
Lithuania's climate, which ranges between maritime and continental, is relatively mild. Average temperatures on the coast are −2.5 °C in January and 16 °C (61 °F) in July. In Vilnius the average temperatures are −6 °C (21 °F) in January and 16 °C (61 °F) in July. During the summer, 20 °C (68 °F) is common during the day while 14 °C (57 °F) is common at night; in the past, temperatures have reached as high as 30 °C (86 °F) or 35 °C (95 °F). Some winters can be very cold. −20 °C (−4 °F) occurs almost every winter. Winter extremes are −34 °C (−29 °F) in coastal areas and −43 °C (−45 °F) in the east of Lithuania.
Sand dunes of Curonian Spit (UNESCO World Heritage Site)
Lithuanian countryside
The average annual precipitation is 800 millimeters on the coast, 900 mm in the Samogitia highlands and 600 millimeters in the eastern part of the country. Snow occurs every year, it can snow from October to April. In some years sleet can fall in September or May. The growing season lasts 202 days in the western part of the country and 169 days in the eastern part. Severe storms are rare in the eastern part of Lithuania but common in the coastal areas.
The longest measured temperature records from the Baltic area cover about 250 years. The data show that there were warm periods during the latter half of the 18th century, and that the 19th century was a relatively cool period. An early 20th century warming culminated in the 1930s, followed by a smaller cooling that lasted until the 1960s. A warming trend has persisted since then.[27]
Lithuania experienced a drought in 2002, causing forest and peat bog fires.[28] The country suffered along with the rest of Northwestern Europe during a heat wave in the summer of 2006.
Reported extreme temperatures in Lithuania by month are following:[29]
Extreme temperatures in Lithuania (°C)
Month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Highest Temperatures
+12.6
+16.5
+21.8
+28.8
+34.0
+35
+37.5
+36
+32
+26
+18.5
+15.6
Lowest Temperatures
-40.5
-42.9
-37.5
-23.0
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z³ote monety |