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In 1227
the German crusading order of the Sword Brethren
defeated the last Estonian stronghold. The people
were Christianized, colonized, and enserfed. Despite
attempts to restore independence, Estonia was
divided among three domains, and small states
were formed. Tallinn joined the Hanseatic League
in 1248.
Despite
successful Russian raids and invasions in 1481
and 1558, the local German barons continued to
rule Estonia and since 1524 preserved Estonian
commitment to the Protestant Reformation. Northern
Estonia submitted to Swedish control in 1561 during
the Livonian Wars, and during 1582-83 southern
Estonia (Livonia) became part of Poland's Duchy
of Courland.
In 1625,
mainland Estonia came entirely under Swedish rule.
In 1631, the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf granted
the peasantry greater autonomy, opened the first
known Estonian-language school in Tallinn, and
in 1632 established a printing press and university
in the city of Tartu. Sweden's defeat by Russia
in 1721 resulted in the Uusikaupunki Peace Treaty,
and Russian rule was then imposed in what became
modern Estonia. Nonetheless, the legal system,
Lutheran church, local and town governments, and
education remained mostly German until the late
19th century and partially until 1918.
By 1819,
the Baltic provinces were the first in the Russian
empire in which serfdom was abolished, allowing
the peasants to own their own land or move to
the cities. These moves created the economic foundation
for the Estonian national cultural awakening that
had lain dormant for some 600 years of foreign
rule. Estonia was caught in a current of national
awakening that began sweeping through Europe in
the mid-1800s
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