The Role of the Baltic Sea Through the Ages

This is a summary of Professor David Kirby's lecture at the University of Washington on May 28th, 1998. Kirby, of the University of London, is the author of two books, The Baltic World 1772-1993: Europe's Northern Periphery in an Age of Change, and Northern Europe in the Early Modern Period: The Baltic World 1492-1772. Kirby is considered the preeminent authority on the Baltic area.

Professor David Kirby's lecture describing the Baltic countries from the perspective of northern Europe and examining the role of the Baltic Sea brought to light interesting historical facts which help explain the current interest of the Scandinavian countries in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, in part as a continuation of the past.

The Baltic Sea has played a crucial role in integrating the Baltic Sea along its eastern shore (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) into the Western European mainstream. The sea provided access over the centuries by putting peoples together from around the Baltic. For example, the rich mix of similar architectural styles of Riga and Copenhagen points to past interaction of these peoples. Interestingly, the Baltic Sea has served as both barrier and window. In the former case, producing as isolationist mentality; while in the latter case, viewing an avenue to the West during the Soviet period.

By focusing on trade and seafaring in the Baltic Sea, Kirby painted a cyclic pattern of prosperity and poverty in the Baltic area from the north, represented by the Scandinavian countries to the southern Baltic countries of Poland and Germany.

Before the Middle Ages, the Vikings of northern Europe were masters of the sea and dominated Europe. Although they left behind an enduring legacy in the West, Viking forays into the Eastern Slavic lands are less well known. Archeological evidence shows early-Nordic-Slavic interaction and trade routes to the Arabic countries via the Rus River.

In the Middle Ages, the balance of political power shifted to the southern Baltic, where the Germanic peoples dominated trade through their access to capital and organization. In the 12th century, the Hanseatic League established trade routes throughout the Baltic countries where German hegemony reigned.

Dutch and English trade dominated the Baltic Sea starting in the 16th century. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, countries of the eastern Baltic, were primarily exploited as resources for raw materials, such as wax, grain, timber, and tar. In exchange, salt, cheap cloth, and pickled herring were imported. An exception to this rule was the 17th century Duchy of Courland (modern-day Riga) whose sizeable merchant fleet traded as far south as the colonies of West Africa.

The establishment in the late 17th and 18th centuries of the American colonies with their rich sources for tar and timber, started the decline of eastern Baltic trade importance to Europeans. The Baltic countries became a backwater for trade and were slow to industrialize. Marginalized at the periphery of Europe, Baltic coastal and inter-regional trade became crucial to the dissemination of culture and ideas.

In the northern Baltic, countries which appeared poor and impoverished to outsiders held reservoirs of their own peoples' talent potential. Once seeming to offer nothing more than a fate of inescapable poverty, in this century these countries are among the wealthiest European nations.

In the southern Baltic, a different experience existed in the lands settled by German colonizers and those under Polish, and later, Russian domination. Here serfdom extended longer that in the northern Baltics, and consequently, the people's enterprise and endeavor were stifled. (Serfdom was abolished in Lithuania as recently as 1860.) The southern Baltic lands were plagued by war and famine, with bonds of servitude shackling the mentality of Baltic people up to the late 19th century. Here, modernization in the 20th century was accompanied by the destructive political and cultural changes of the Soviet period. It is interesting to note that the quest for national identity in 1918 for Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia is currently serving these countries in adapting after the fall of the Soviet Union, an adjustment easier for them than, for example, Russia.