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From its info structure to now, Historic Riga, the key-words :
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| 12th century German conquest. After having conquered Slavic lands (Today eastern Germany and western Poland), the Germanic expansionists turned their attention to the eastern Baltic. | |||||||||||||
| 1201 The Germanic expansionists achieved their conquest little until Albert von Buxhoevden was appointed Bishop of Riga in 1201. Info structure of the town of Riga. | |||||||||||||
| 1202 Bishop Albert established The Knights of the Sword to conquer the territories which belonged to Liv people, to the Cours, to the Zemgals, to the Selonians and to the Latgals (former counties of Latvia). | |||||||||||||
| 1237 After several difficulties, the Knights of Sword became known as The Livonian Order. | |||||||||||||
| 1282 Riga became member of the Hanseatic League of traders which controlled commerce on the Baltic and on the North Sea and brought prosperity to German-dominated Hanseatic towns. | |||||||||||||
| 1561 Riga became free after the collapse of the Livonian Order. | |||||||||||||
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1581 Riga lost its
freedom and from this date the town would be run by
different foreign successors : 1581 The Polish king Stephan Bathory 1621 The Swedish king Gustav Hadolf 1710 The Russian tsar Peter the Great |
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| In the beginning of the 18th century Riga became a very important harbor and town of trade and then in the 19th century, a big industrial city. | |||||||||||||
| 18th of November 1918 Independence of Latvia | |||||||||||||
| 1920 Soviet Russia signed peace treaties with the parliamentary Republic of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania recognizing their independence in perpetuity. | |||||||||||||
| 1939-1945 The beginning of the World War 2 commences an era of Soviet Occupation and then Nazi Occupation. | |||||||||||||
| 1945-1991 Soviet rule. | |||||||||||||
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In
the late First
steps to the New Independence
began
with the Soviet leader
1980's Mikhail Gorbatchev who encouraged "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (restructuring) in the USSR. |
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| 1989 The Singing Revolution. It dealt with Baltic people who gathered at to sing previously banned national songs and give voice to their longing for freedom. | |||||||||||||
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1991 - 21th
of August
Independence
of Latvia.
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| For ensure an economic stability, Latvia (and it’s the same for both other Baltic States too) is desperate to join NATO and the European Union (EU) but this race towards Europe is not so easy to achieve in the early 1990's because of Russian pressure. However : | |||||||||||||
| January 1998 Signature of the US-Baltic Charter of Partnership in which it gave its support to Baltic integration into western institutions, including NATO. | |||||||||||||
| October 1999 Accession talks with the EU. | |||||||||||||
| Finally, we see that full membership for the Baltic States should be achieved in 2004. Meanwhile, the people of the Baltic countries have finally started harmonizing their laws with those of Europe, for example we can quote the abolition of the death penalty (in Latvia, the death penalty was only abolished for ordinary crimes in 1999).Moreover, it's in 1999 that Estonia and Latvia joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). | |||||||||||||
| Design concept and content by: Anne-Claire DUFOUR, France |
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| mail webmaster at: patricialtd@aol.com to report problems, broken or bad links | |||||||
| Copyright (c) 2000 - 2007 Patricia LTD - - Revised 9 March 2007 | |||||||
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