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Starting in the 11th century, the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic
were settled by
Germans (and to a lesser extent by
Dutch,
Danes and
Scots) in the course of the
Ostsiedlung.
The
Polabian Slavs were gradually assimilated by the Germans.
Denmark
gradually gained control over most of the Baltic coast, until she lost much of
her possessions after being defeated in the 1227
Battle of Bornhöved. |
In the 13th to 17th centuries, the strongest economic force in Northern
Europe became the
Hanseatic league, which used the Baltic Sea to establish trade routes
between its member cities. |
Main trading routes of the Hanseatic League.
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In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth,
Denmark and
Sweden fought
wars for Dominium Maris Baltici ("Ruling over the Baltic Sea").
Eventually, it was the
Swedish Empire that virtually encompassed the Baltic Sea. In Sweden the sea
was then referred to as Mare Nostrum Balticum ("Our Baltic Sea").
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In due time many German, Scandinavian and Dutch families
settled in the Baltic states and those families transformmed to a kind
of upperclass in this area. For many families ended this area with the
end of the 2nd world war when they had to flee for the Russina army. |
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