Are you familiar with the Baltic States?

Have you ever heard about the Baltic States and wondered if this is part of Africa or a piece of land in the Polar North, where trolls live to this day? Read on to get a glimpse of the Baltic States!


The Baltic States are three brother countries Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, on the Baltic Sea and forms part of the Northern Europe and all three are Parliamentarian Republics.

Firstly, let´s catch on on what does the name `Baltic´means. The three brother states got this name after the Baltic Sea - ´Mare Balticum´. Now, the origin of the name has several stories behind it and no one knows which is the ´true one´. One version says, it might be derived from the German word ´belt´ for the Danish straits or from the Latin balteus, which means belt, also. Yet another possibility is that the name comes from the Indo- European root ´bhelt´which is ´baltas´and ´balts´in both Lithuanian and Latvian.

Now, that we have started talking about the languages, Lithuanian and Latvian languages belong to the Baltic language branch, which is part of the Indo - European language group, whereas Estonian - belongs to the Finno - Ugric branch of the Uralic languages. When  the ´L´countries peoples can understand each other in a way that Latin languages can, the Estonians can understand Finnish way better than the languages of their neighbors.

In spite of similarities of their origin and geographical position Lithuania on one hand and Latvia, and Estonia on the other, have had different historical paths up until the XXth century. Lithuania was first the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which later formed a Commonwealth with Poland (Rzeczpospolita), whereas Latvia and Estonia never had their official states before the XXth century. Meanwhile, the latter two countries were ruled by German elite for more than 700 years.

After the First World War the three countries gained Independence for the period until the Second World War when they were occupied by the Soviets and remained under the Soviet flag until 1991. Now these countries  are enjoying a great deal of economical growth during the twenty-some years of freedom as well as being part of the European Union EEA and Schengen among many other.

To get more in depth information about the Baltic States just keep up with The Baltics Blog!






References:

http://www.britannica.com/place/Baltic-states
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Baltic_states_flag_map.svg