The Esths were a Finnic-speaking tribe, living in present-day Estonia. They are classified as Baltic (or Western) Finnics, a subgroup of Finno-Ugrians, as distinct from the Volga (or Eastern) Finnics. The Esths are among the ancestors of modern Estonians (see Estonians: nationality). To the south were the LiVS, also Finnic speaking, and the Letts, a Baltic-speaking people.
ORIGINS
The ancestral Finnics are thought to have reached the Baltic region by 3000 b. c.e. Perhaps as early as the first century c. E. they had formed loosely organized states. The Aestii, a people mentioned by the Roman historian Tacitus in the first century C. E., although probably Baltic speaking, may be the source of their name. Or Esths is possibly derived from the Baltic root meaning “Speckled.” Another possible source is a Germanic term for “east.”
LANGUAGE
The Estonian language is in the Balto-Finnic group of Finnic in the Finno-Ugric language family and is closely related to Finnish. it has two main dialects: a northern dialect, used in most of Estonia and the basis of the modern literary language, and a southern dialect spoken south of Tartu. The earliest writings in Estonian date from the 16th century.
HISTORY
Those Esths living along the coast by the ninth century were at risk from attacks by Vikings and other raiders during the early Middle Ages, they too launched maritime raids on other peoples, crossing the Baltic in longboats. inland Esths felt pressure from the Rus, who expanded from the east. in 1030 Yaroslav i founded Tartu among them southwest of Lake Peipus in eastern Estonia. Yet the Esths generally maintained their independence until soon after the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries.
Father Meinhard arrived in the region in the 1160s, practicing among the LiVS. In 1198 Pope innocent iii sanctioned the first Baltic crusade. Bishop Albert von Buxhoevden of Bremen arrived in 1199 and founded Riga to the south in present-day Latvia in 1201. The next year he founded the military and religious order Brothers of the sword to Christianize Baltic lands. The Brothers of the sword pacified the Livs by 1207, thereby creating a new tax base for the Catholic Church and making soldiers for the conquest of the remaining tribes. Esths as well as Baltic-speaking Letts moved onto what had been Liv territory. In 1214 the Brothers of the Sword defeated the Letts. The Esths turned to Russia for support against German expansion. Albert joined with Denmark in a final push for domination. The Danes attacked the Esths in the north, and the Germans in the south. By 1219 the mainland Esths had been conquered. Valdemar ii of the Danes built Reval castle (at modern Tallinn) on the Gulf of Finland in 1219. The last remaining Esth stronghold, on the island of saaremaa northwest of Riga in the Baltic sea, held out for eight more years until 1227.
In 1237 the Brothers of the Sword united with the Teutonic Knights, who held lands among the Balts to the south in present-day northern Poland; they became known as the Livonian order to Teutonic Knights. in 1282 Riga joined the Hanseatic League of northern Germany, a collection of merchants in the Baltic region, and assumed a central role in east-west trade and control of trade with local tribes.
In 1346 the Danes sold their territorial holdings to the order. The Esths remained under the rule of the knights and the Hanseatic merchants until the order’s dissolution in 1561. At that time the nobility of northern Estonia, including Revel, submitted to the protection of the Swedish Crown; Poland retained southern Estonia, including Tartu. By 1645 Sweden ruled all of Estonia. In the 1670-80s Sweden introduced reforms, reducing privileges of the nobility over the Esths and Livs. In 1721 Sweden ceded Estonia to Russia by the Peace of Nystadt, at which time the Russian emperor Peter the Great restored the former privileges of the nobility. Estonian history henceforth is tied to that of Russia until independence in 1991.
CULTURE (see also Finno-Ugrians)
The Esths consisted of agrarian as well as fishing, hunting, and gathering peoples. The sea and inland waterways as well as the woodlands provided valuable resources. Even before the arrival of outsiders and the establishment of the Hanseatic League the Esths were part of a trade network involving many Baltic peoples.
Many peoples played a part in the history of Estonia. But because the Esths were the dominant ancient tribe in Estonia, their identity evolved into that of the Estonians.
World History
