HISTORY OF LATVIA

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The Baltic peoples first settled in Latvia around 2000.B.C.. An agrarian society, isolated from most of Euorpe, they nevertheless traded amber with the Mediterranean, Scandinavia and Germany. Beginning in 1201, German crusaders subjugated and Christianized Latvia and founded Riga as a German city. The collapse of the German crusading orders in 1562 brought incessant warfare. Finally in 1710, Russian conquered Latvia and then held it for two centuries. In 1918, Latvia became independent and remained so until forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. Mass deportations began. Conquered by the Germans in 1941, re-annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945, Latvians struggled to maintain their cultural and linguistic autonomy for the next half a century. On August 21, 1991, Latvia regained its independence from the Soviet Union. Latvia today is a member of the United Nations, NATO, European Union, OECD, ECB, IMF and other leading world organizations. Latvia's national day is November 18. In 2018 Latvia will celebrate 100 years since it became an independent state.

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