Livonia , German Livonia , lands on the east coast of the Baltic Sea north of Lithuania; The name was originally applied by the Germans in the 12th century to the territory of the Livs, a Finno-Ugric people whose settlements were centered on the estuaries of the Western Dvina and Gauja rivers , but eventually were used for almost all modern areas of Latvia and Estonia. During the 13th century, Greater Livonia, inhabited by several Baltic and Finnish tribes, was conquered by the United States and Christianized Order of the Brothers of the Sword (founded 1202; after 1237 Order of German Knight from Livonia). The conquered territory was organized into the Livonian Confederation, which consisted of church states, free cities and regions directly ruled by the knights. After 1419, when the various political elements united into a common legislative council, the knights and their vassals became the dominant estate. They thrived in particular by supplying grain for the Baltic trade, but disagreed politically; and mutual suspicion and conflicts of interest prevented them from pursuing their rivalry with the other goods ( ie the bishops and the autonomous) to overcome cities). Up to the mid-16th century, in Livonia the problems of religious disunity that arose from the spread of Protestantism and peasant discontent, acute .
when Russia invaded the area (beginning of Livian War , 1558–83) to prevent this Poland-Lithuania failed due to no longer defend its dominance. They dissolved their order and dismembered Livonia (Union of Wilno , 1561). Lithuania included the territory of the knights north of the Western Dvina ( ie Livonia); Courland, the area south of the western Dvina, became a Polish Fiefs . Sweden , which had also acquired a stake in the area, conquered northern Estonia. This territorial division remained in effect until 1621, when Sweden Riga and Jelgava (Mitau, the capital of Kurland), and then all of Estonia and Northern Latvia ( ie the region Vidzeme or Livonia) won by the Poles. State of Lithuania (Armistice of Altmark, 1629).
Sweden retained these territories for almost a century and defended them against both Poland (Polish-Swedish War, 1654–60) as well as against Russia (Russian-Swedish War, 1654–61). After the Great Northern War Sweden joined them but 1721 to Russia (Treaty of Nystad ), also as a result of partition of Poland Latgale (1772) - the south-eastern part of Livonia retained by Poland in 1629 was - and Courland (1795) annexed. Historical Livonia was then divided into three governments within the Russian Empire: Estonia ( ie the northern part of ethnic Estonia), Livonia ( ie the southern part of ethnic Estonia and the north Latvia ) and Kurland . After the October Revolution in Russia (1917), Latvia and Estonia proclaimed their independence; They were incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1940, but under German occupation from 1941 to 1944.