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History of the Baltic Region
Being an inland sea, the Baltic
Sea had a similar influence on the
history of the region as the Mediterranean,
making the interaction between people
living on the coasts more intense.
However, the Baltic Sea had never
witnessed a dominance of one particular
nation or empire, like Antiques Romans
had in the South; although the Vikings
and later on, in the 17th century,
Swedes were pretty close to achieve
that. Instead the region was often
dominated by a number of at the time
strong nations – in 16th century
it was Sweden, Poland and Denmark;
Russia, making serious attempts to
join them, finally reached the leading
role in the region in the18th century,
although always threatened in this
position by Prussia.
The fifth significant role was played
by Germans. First it were Teutonic
Knights that once ruled in Livonia
(today’s Estonia and Latvia),
later the Hanseatic League (an alliance
of German trading guilds in German
and German-dominated areas that from
late Middle Ages to the 17th century
influenced economically towns of Baltic
Sea). In late 19th century German
Empire controlled the southern part
of the region; both World Wars with
the Germans were fought also here.
After the WWII, until the fall of
communist states in Europe, the Baltic
Sea was a border between military
blocks (NATO and Warsaw Pact), with
neutral Sweden as a buffer.
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