Page 56 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Estonia Latvia & Lithuania

54 INTRODUCING EST ONIA

THE HISTORY OF

ESTONIA

Historical references to Estonia date from the early 13th century, when the German
crusading knights arrived, introducing a new social order in which the Germans
dom inated for several centuries. A brief but benevolent period of Swedish rule in the
17th century was followed by Russian and German oppression, which continued
with a short-lived inter-war independence. Estonia became a republic only in 1991.

The German crusading order, the their land given away to the Knights
Brotherhood of the Sword, started and bishops. The feudal system, in
a bitter struggle for control of which the Germans owned
Estonia that lasted from 1208, manor estates and the locals
when they established their hold were obliged to work as serfs,
over Otepää, until 1211. The Danes, survived until the 19th century.
too, were contending for control. Fragment of a seal of Danish Tallinn was acquired again by the
In 1206, they tried in vain to sub- King Valdemar II Germans in 1346, when large-
jugate Saaremaa, the country’s largest and scale protests against feudal exactions forced
most prosperous island. Denmark’s King the Danes to relinquish their possessions in
Valdemar II (r.1202–41) occupied Tallinn in Estonia. During this time, many guilds and
1219, but his attempts to expand Danish merchants’ associations emerged, and towns
territory further were unsuccessful. such as Tallinn, Tartu, Viljandi and Pärnu
thrived as members of the Hanseatic League.
German Conquest Tallinn, particularly, prospered as one of
In 1227, the whole of Estonia had been Northern Europe’s largest towns.
conquered. In 1237, the Brotherhood of the
Sword was absorbed into another crusading
order, the Teutonic Knights, who controlled
Tallinn until 1238, when it was returned to
the Danes. The Knights took over a stone
castle built by the Danes and rebuilt it as the
Toompea Castle the same year. The found-
ations for a new social order were laid, with
the Germans serving as the nobility, as well
as merchants and craftsmen. The Estonians
were for cibly converted to Christianity and An impression of Tallinn’s Toompea Castle in 1227

Detail, Town Hall
1343 Peasants’ 1372 German Pharmacy door
1208 Germans capture Otepää uprising replaces Latin
in southern Estonia (St George’s as the official 1422 Tallinn Town Hall
Pharmacy opens on site,
1227 Germans conquer Night) against written where it still operates today
all of Estonia the Danes language
1200 1300 1400 1500
1346 Danes sell
1219 Danes Tallinn to 1574 First Lutheran service
seize Tallinn the Germans preached in Estonia at St
Olav’s Church in Tallinn
St Olav’s Church, Old Town, Tallinn