Tallinn, Estonia – A Brief History

Starting off as a small settlement in the 12th century, the city – and its expansive harbor strategically place in the Gulf of Finland – was snatched up in 1219 by Waldemar II of Denmark. It wasn’t until then, though that Tallin was officially given its name – a combination of “Taani,” meaning “Danish,” and “Linn,” meaning “city.”

But as I said, Tallin contains a very beautiful and strategic harbor and the rest of the world – especially Russia – couldn’t keep their hands off of it. Mighty as it was, Estonia would have been a great catch for Russia, considering the majority of Russia’s coastline was under 30 feet of ice year round.

But it wasn’t yet in the cards for Russia, because the Vatican was feeling restless in those days. Already in 1202, the Pope has sanctioned a crusade against the “northern heathen”, and the nature-lovin’ pagans in Estonia were a prime target. The intimidating organization of the Teutonic Knights came from Germany to conduct the Pope’s bidding, but it wasn’t until 1346 that Denmark finally sold the city to the German warriors.

Once the check cleared in Denmark, the knights seemed to lose focus in Estonia. Rather than spending their time in spiritual awakening and catholic baptisms, the Teutonic Knights spent all of their energy building up the harbor and developing trade relations to line their chain-mail pockets with.

Most of the poor locals ended up moving inland, only to find that most of the good land had been taken by nobles (knights mostly…who no doubt for the locals right to work).

Now, when I say “good land,” I say that with quite a bit of delicacy. In all of Norway, for example, only 3% of the land is fertile enough for farming, and that number can’t be much higher in neighboring Sweden. Why everyone fought so viciously over these lands seems somewhat curious then, but I suppose that greed for land never need much backing logic.

Estonia and the other Livonian countries (Latvia, etc.) spent 30 years fighting with Sweden before Sweden’s Ivan the Terrible finally claimed the country as his own in 1561.

Despite the hostile take-over, things improved in Estonia under Swedish rule. The first Estonian University – Tartu University – was established in 1632 and for the first time, universal education was also introduced.

Nevertheless, Russia still managed to take over Estonia in 1721 under the rule of Peter the Great. Estonia briefly gained independence in 1921 – just in time for the Great Depression and later World War II. The prospect of Nazi rule make the Teutonic Knights look like a bunch of school girls, and Estonia quickly became part of Russia again in 1940.

Then, in 1976, Estonia pleaded with the U.S. Congress to help release them from Russian rule. In 1991, Estonia finally did gain its independence as the U.S.S.R. crumbled.