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1 History

In 1158 AD Baltic-German traders founded a commercial settlement at Riga in Livland or Livonia. In 1201 German Archbishop Albert of Buxhoeveden-Bremen and Riga granted Riga city rights. Riga as well as Livonia and Prussia came under the protection of the Holy Roman (German) EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire ( German: Heiliges Romisches Reich was a political conglomeration of lands in western and central Europe in the Middle Ages. Emerging from the eastern part of the Frankish realm after its division in the Treaty of Verdun ( 843), it l, which included archbishops among its subordinate rulers. At the time of Martin LutherFor other people named Martin Luther see: Martin Luther (disambiguation Martin Luther (originally Martin Luder ( November 10, 1483 February 18, 1546) was a German theologian of the Christian religion and an Augustinian monk whose teachings inspired the Pr Livonia and PrussiaThe word Prussia ( German: Preussen (Preussen Polish: Prusy Lithuanian: Prusai Latin: Borussia has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia became Protestant.

A member from 1282 of the powerful Hanseatic LeagueThe foundations of the Hanseatic League an alliance of trading cities that for a time in the later Middle Ages and the Early Modern period maintained a trade monopoly over most of Northern Europe and the Baltic, can be seen as early as the 12th century. of northern European trading cities, Riga employed German as its official language of administration until the imposition of Russian in 1891Events January 1 ? Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany January 20 James Hogg becomes the first native Texan to be governor of that state. January 29 Liliuokalani proclaimed Queen of Hawaii March 9 ? 12 ? Powerful storm off England?s south coast; (all birth, marriage and death records are in German until then). In 1900 Riga's population of 282,943 was composed of rougly 50% Baltic GermanThe Baltic Germans calling themselves Balts and occasionally referred to as German Balts Baltendeutsche, Balten and Deutschbalten respectively), were the ethnically German inhabitants of that area on the Eastern shore of the Baltic Sea which forms today ts, a quarter Latvians, and a quarter Russians.

After a period as a free city (1561-1581) Riga came under the rule of first the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth and then SwedenThe Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige in Swedish) is a Nordic country in Scandinavia, in Northern Europe. It is bordered by Norway on the west, Finland on the northeast, the Skagerrak and the Kattegat on the southwest, and the Baltic Sea and the Gulf (1621-1710) and subsequently Russia. After the region's terrible losses during the Great Northern War (1700-1721), Riga enjoyed rapid growth as a leading port and later industrial city of the rising Russian empire, its population doubling in the latter half of the 18th century and again in the first half of the 19th, and more than quadrupling in 1850-1900.