Riga - Early Origins History Overview

Modern Riga is on the grounds of an ancient settlement established by the Finnic tribe Livs.The city's river, the Ridzene was originally called the Riga River and it thought that the this where the city derived its name. Historians generally agree that Riga's modern origins can be attributed to Gernan traders and Relgious crusades that travelled to Latvia in the 12th century. It is known that the merchants established a trading post within the Liv settlement in 1158 and a that an Augustinian Monastery was built there in 1190.

In 1201 the Arcbishop of Hamburg landed 1500 armed Christian crusaders in Riga board 23 ships and declared Riga to be a city. In 1282 Riga joined the Hanseatic League - an informal political and trade union of Northern German and Baltic cities. This gave Riga economic stabilty and military stability until the 16th century.

In 1581, Riga joined the Polish and Lithuanian Commonwealth but was occupied three years after the start of the Thirty Years War in 1918 by Sweden. In 1656 the army Russian Army unsuccesfully laid siege to the city during its war wirh Sweden.

A further Russian Swedish war in 1710 resulted in Russia invading Riga and in 1721 by treaty, it became Russian terrority. By 1900 Riga, in industrial terms, was the third biggest city in Russia. In 1891 Russia imposed its own language on Latvia (which had previously had been Germanic in an administrative context) even though they made up only 6% of the population. continued below.

Recent History

In 1917 as a result of WW1 and the Russian Revolution, Germany Invaded Riga, but the occupation ended on November 11th 1918 when the Armistice Treaty forced the Germans and Russian to leave the Baltic States and give them their independence. Riga became the Capital of Latvia. In the following two decades Riga flourished and increased its economic and political relationships with Western Europe and distanced itself from Russia.

In 1940 after the the outbreak of WW2 the Soviets occupied Riga and Latvia followed by the Germans in 1941. During the three year German occupation, the indigenous Germans (about 25% of Riga's population) were forcibly repatriated to Germany. The Latvian Jewish community were forced into the Makavas Ghetto and then the Kaizerwald concentration camp. At the end of the war when the Soviets occupied the country Latvia had lost around a third of its population.

The Soviets deported many Latvian to Russia and Siberia for alleged collaboration with the Nazis and replaced them with Russians and other non Latvians from Eastern Europe. By 1975 only 45% Riga's population where Latvians.

Following the fall of communism on September 6th 1991 Russia slowly withdrew its military forces over three years.

Since Latvia's independence it has rapidly developed as an industrial centre, with an increasing amount of investment from European and Americamcompanes, with service industries and tourism growing significantly.