| Chapter 1: | A Brief Account of Formative Historical Events That Shaped Social and Agrarian Relations Until the Mid-Eighteenth Century in Livonia |
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A new cultural, social, political, religious, and military order was established in Livonia, but it was precarious and brittle in its nature. The initial military operations of the German crusaders, the Schwertritterorden, suffered some significant setbacks, but eventually succeeded in the subjugation and forced conversion of the tribes of the indigenous Baltic heathens to Christianity. The entire crusading mission came to a faltering halt in 1236. The catastrophic defeat of the Schwertritterorden (“sword brethren”) at the Battle of Saule decimated their numbers and severely reduced the military capability of the German crusaders in Livonia. This defeat of the Schwertritterorden threatened the entire German crusading and colonizing mission in Livonia and led to a forced amalgamation with the German military order operating in Prussia—der Deutsche Orden—which had been founded in Palestine in 1190. The outcome of this amalgamation had the desired effect—namely, that of strengthening and consolidating the Christian mission as well as the German foothold in Livonia.
German Colonization: Positive and Negative Aspects
Tiefer konnte die Menschheit wohl nicht fallen, und tödlicher die Freyheit unmöglich verwundet warden [sic]. Nun waren Ordensbrüder, die doch in dem eigentlichen Verstande Priester sind, und predigen und bekehren sollten, Peiniger, die ohne Bildung des Volkes ein Land besaßen, daß sie unterrichten wollten; und Barbaren, diejenigen die nach Liefland kamen die Religion Jesu zu verkündigen. O Zeit, O Menschheit!56
—Heinrich Johann von Jannau
The nature of German colonization, considered in the framework of the eighteenth-century agrarian and social reform discourse, resulted in a permanent and enduring ethnic division of society. The introduction of Christianity into the territories inhabited by the indigenous Latvian, Liv, and Estonian populations was accompanied by a limited form of German colonization that had profound consequences for the social, economic, and political modes of ownership and organization in this region.