History of Riga

Mar 06, 2007 05:03:37

History of the City of Riga part I Scandinavian and Russian traders and raiders used the Latgal, or Liv, fishing village on the site of modern Rīga for centuries before German traders first discovered it in the mid-12th century. In 1201 Bishop Albert von Buxhoevden from Bremen founded the first German fort in the Baltics here, as a bridgehead for the crusade against the northern heathens. He also founded the Knights of the Sword, who made Rīga their base for subjugating Livonia. Colonists from northern Germany followed, and Rīga became the major city in the German Baltic, thriving from trade between Russia and the West and joining the Hanseatic League in 1282. The city's coat of arms still combines the key of Bremen with the towers of Hamburg - the two most instrumental cities in its founding. Furs, hides, honey and wax were among the products sold westward from Russia through Rīga. Power struggles between the church, knights and city authorities dominated the country's history between 1253 and 1420. Rīga's bishop, elevated to archbishop in 1252, became the leader of the church in the German conquered lands, ruling a good slice of Livonia directly and further areas of Livonia and Estonia indirectly through his bishops. The church clashed constantly with knights, who controlled most of the remainder of Livonia and Estonia, and German merchant-dominated city authorities, who managed to maintain a degree of independence from 1253 to 1420. Sweden captured Latvia in 1621 and during this period Rīga was, effectively, the second city of Sweden. It was during this time that the city first expanded beyond its fortified walls. In 1710 Russia snatched Latvia from Sweden's grip and Rīga grew into an important trading and industrial city. Its population jumped to 28,000 in 1794 and 60,000 by the 1840s. While the old part of the city remained a preserve of Rīga's approximately 30,000 Germans, around it grew suburbs of wider, straighter streets with wooden houses, inhabited by the largest Russian community in the Baltic provinces as well as a growing number of Latvians.