|
First mentioned
in a medieval German manuscript, the Quedlinburg
Chronicle, on February 14, 1009, Lithuania became
a significant state in the Middle Ages. The official
crowning of Mindaugas as King of Lithuania on
July 6, 1253 marked Lithuania's birth, as warring
dukes united to support his reign. Later during
the early years of the Gediminas (1316 - 1430),
the nation grew into a multi-ethnic Grand Duchy
of Lithuania, which also incorporated the lands
of modern Belarus and Ukraine. By the 15th century,
the Grand Duchy stretched across Eastern Europe
from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
When Grand
Duke Jogaila was crowned King of Poland on February
2, 1386, Lithuania and Poland joined in a personal
union, as both countries were ruled by the same
Jagiellon dynasty. In 1569, Poland and Lithuania
formally merged into a single state called the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1795, the Commonwealth
was dissolved by the third Partition of Poland,
which ceded its lands to Russia, Prussia and Austria.
90% of Lithuania was incorporated into the Russian
Empire and 10% into Prussia
On February
16, 1918, Lithuania re-established its independence.
From July, 1918 until November of that year, Monaco-born
King Mindaugas II was the titular monarch of Lithuania,
until the country's parliament opted for a republican
form of government. From the outset, territorial
disputes with Poland (over the Vilnius region
and the Suvalkai region) and Germany (over the
Klaip?da region, German: Memelland) preoccupied
the foreign policy of the new nation. During the
interwar period, the constitutional capital was
Vilnius, although the city itself was annexed
by Poland (see History of Vilnius for more details).
The Lithuanian government at the time was seated
in Kaunas, which officially held the status of
temporary capital.
In 1940,
at the beginning of World War II, the Soviet Union
occupied and annexed Lithuania in accordance with
the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It later came under
German occupation during which around 190,000
or 91% of Lithuanian Jews were killed, making
one of the worst death rates of the Holocaust.
Along with the retreat of the German army, Lithuania
was re-occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945. During
the 1940-1954 period of the Soviet occupation
and national resistance, Lithuania lost over 780,000
residents; with an estimated 120,000 to 300,000
of that number killed or exiled to Siberia by
the Soviets, while others choosing to emigrate.
Fifty years
of communist rule ended with the advent of glasnost,
and Lithuania, led by Sajudis, an anti-communist
and anti-Soviet independence movement, proclaimed
its renewed independence on March 11, 1990. Lithuania
was the first Soviet republic to do so, though
Soviet forces unsuccessfully tried until August
1991 to suppress this secession, including an
attack at Vilnius TV Tower on the nigth of January
13, 1991 that resulted in the death of 13 Lithuanian
civilians. The last Russian troops left Lithuania
on August 31, 1993 - even earlier than those in
East Germany.
On February
4, 1991, Iceland became the first country to recognize
Lithuanian independence, and Sweden the first
to open an embassy in the country. The United
States of America never recognized the Soviet
claim to Lithuania or to the other two Baltic
republics.
Lithuania
joined the United Nations on September 17, 1991.
On May 31, 2001, Lithuania became the 141st member
of the World Trade Organization. Since 1988, Lithuania
has sought closer ties with the West, and so on
January 4, 1994, it became the first of the Baltic
States to apply for NATO membership. On March
29, 2004, it became a full and equal NATO member
and on May 1, 2004, Lithuania joined the European
Union.
|
