History UsefulNotes / Estonia

[[folder:A brief summary of history]] Estonians are one of the several Finnic tribes that settled in northeastern Europe. Their earliest ancestors have been living in the region since the last Ice Age, later mixing with the Finno-Ugric arrivals from the east. By the 11th century, the Estonian land was made up of loosely related "counties" (an unified state hadn't been formed yet) and [[UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge Vikings]] from the islands were occasionally raiding neighboring areas. In the 13th century, the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Northern Crusades]] with the goal to Christianize Europe's last pagans in the Baltics led to Estonia, after a long resistance, being taken over by the [[UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} Germans]] and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Denmark}} Danes]] (the latter ended up selling their part to the Germans and bailing due to an near-successful uprising in 1343). The Livonian Order, a branch of UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights, created the "Order State" on Estonian and UsefulNotes/{{Latvia}}n territory (collectively known as Livonia) that lasted for the rest of TheMiddleAges, during which Tallinn developed into an important trading hub as part of the UsefulNotes/HanseaticLeague.

Being free again, the [[TheNineties 1990s]] were a period of rapid modernizing and making up for lost time while reclaiming Estonia's place in Europe. It opened talks with UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion and UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} and joined both in 2004, as well as the Eurozone in 2011. After a long period of economic growth, Estonia more or less got through the Great Recession and has carved itself a niche as a "wired" and tech-savvy country. [[/folder]]


[[folder:Some notable Estonians]]
[[index]]
* Music/{{Kerli}}, a singer
* Arvo Pärt, a composer
* Hannah Ild, a house and trance artist
* Neeme Järvi, a conductor, has worked with several orchestras around the world
* Lennart Meri, writer, a politician and the second President of Estonia, involved in the restoration of independence
* Sven Lõhmus, a music producer
* Metsatöll, a folk metal band
* Syn Cole, an electronic music producer
* Ilon Wikland, an artist, has illustrated most of Creator/AstridLindgren's books
* Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, a Baltic German explorer, led the expedition that discovered Antarctica
* Creator/MenaSuvari, an actress of partial Estonian descent
* Vanilla Ninja, a pop group that achieved reasonable success in Europe during the mid-2000s
* Kristina šmigun-Vähi, a skier, multiple time Olympic champion
* UsefulNotes/OttTanak, rally driver who won the 2019 drivers' title in the UsefulNotes/WorldRallyChampionship
* UsefulNotes/MarkkoMartin, former WRC rally driver
* Kelly Sildaru, multiple time X-Games champion and medalist in freestyle skiing
* Wrestling/GeorgeHackenschmidt, {{Professional Wrestl|ing}}er who, in 1905, became the first-ever [[http://www.wrestling-titles.com/world/world-h.html World Heavyweight Champion]].[[note]]Not to be confused with the Wrestling/BigGoldBelt.[[/note]]
* Johann Urb, an American-Estonian model and actor
* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingKitty900 FlyingKitty]], [=YouTuber=] that mainly does {{YouTube Poop}}s inspired by ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' and songs.
[[/index]]

During the Stalinist era, masses of Estonians were deported to Siberia and a [[LaResistance guerrilla movement]] called the "Forest Brothers" attempted to fight back against the Soviets. Things somewhat normalized after Khrushchev came to power; Estonia's first TV channel, ETV, started broadcasting in 1955 and both Tallinn and other regions saw quite a bit of development. On the other hand, the Moscow-endorsed immigration of a number of mostly Russian-speaking people from other Soviet states to Estonia (both as workforce and due to the "Sovietization" policy) also took place. During the 1980 UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, the sailing events were held in Tallinn - the Estonians deliberately bid for this, partly as a chance to call more international attention to the occupation.

When the Nazis reached Estonia some people hoped that the country would be freed with their arrival, but instead it was made part of the "Ostland" province for the next couple of years. The remaining Baltic Germans were evacuated to Germany and the Holocaust was carried out, with most of the Estonian Jewish population, who had enjoyed cultural autonomy in the independence period, either fleeing the country or killed. The cities of Tallinn and Narva were also seriously damaged by bombing during the war. After the Germans started retreating, Estonians made yet another attempt at restoring independence, but the country was annexed by the Soviet Union again.

The new Estonian state became a democratic parliamentary republic, occasionally struggling at first. One of the first in several changes and reforms was the distribution of the estates of the former nobility among the peasants (and the war veterans). There was a communist coup attempt in 1924 that was foiled.

By the 19th century Enlightenment ideas, as well as educated Baltic Germans' interest in Estonian cultural heritage, gave way to the "national awakening". Events like a movement for Estonian-language education, publication of the epic ''{{Literature/Kalevipoeg}}'' and the first Song Festival developed the Estonian national identity and eventually led to a demand for an independent state. Hot on the heels of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and UsefulNotes/TheRussianRevolution, elections for a provisional government and the following declaration of independence on February 24, 1918 resulted in Estonians fighting - and winning - the War of Independence, with a peace treaty signed with Russia in 1920.

After the Reformation, the Order fell and Estonia found itself as part of UsefulNotes/{{Sweden}} as a result of the Livonian War in 1561 (with southern Estonia briefly controlled by the UsefulNotes/PolishLithuanianCommonwealth). This period is remembered for advances in education (like the founding of Estonia's oldest university in Tartu) and for common people getting more rights. In UsefulNotes/TheGreatNorthernWar, Sweden lost its Baltic territory, including Estonia, to the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Russian Empire]]. Under both Swedish and Russian rule, the German nobility managed to keep most of its privileges, although serfdom ended decades earlier in the Baltic region than in most of the Russian Empire.

[[folder:A brief summary of history]] Estonians are one of the several Finnic tribes that settled in northeastern Europe. Their earliest ancestors have been living in the region since the last Ice Age, later mixing with the Finno-Ugric arrivals from the east. By the 11th century, the Estonian land was made up of loosely related "counties" (an unified state hadn't been formed yet) and [[UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge Vikings]] from the islands were occasionally raiding neighboring areas. In the 13th century, the [[UsefulNotes/TheCrusades Northern Crusades]] with the goal to Christianize Europe's last pagans in the Baltics led to Estonia, after a long resistance, being taken over by the [[UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} Germans]] and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Denmark}} Danes]] (the latter ended up selling their part to the Germans and bailing due to an near-successful uprising in 1343). The Livonian Order, a branch of UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights, created the "Order State" on Estonian and UsefulNotes/{{Latvia}}n territory (collectively known as Livonia) that lasted for the rest of the Middle Ages, during which Tallinn developed into an important trading hub as part of the UsefulNotes/HanseaticLeague.

[[folder:A brief summary of history]] Estonians are one of the several Finnic tribes that settled in northeastern Europe. Their earliest ancestors have been living in the region since the last Ice Age, later mixing with the Finno-Ugric arrivals from the east. By the 11th century, the Estonian land was made up of loosely related "counties" (an unified state hadn't been formed yet) and [[UsefulNotes/TheVikingAge Vikings]] from the islands were occasionally raiding neighboring areas. In the 13th century the Northern Crusades with the goal to Christianize Europe's last pagans in the Baltics led to Estonia, after a long resistance, being taken over by the [[UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} Germans]] and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Denmark}} Danes]] (the latter ended up selling their part to the Germans and bailing due to an near-successful uprising in 1343). The Livonian Order, a branch of UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights, created the "Order State" on Estonian and UsefulNotes/{{Latvia}}n territory (collectively known as Livonia) that lasted for the rest of the Middle Ages, during which Tallinn developed into an important trading hub as part of the UsefulNotes/HanseaticLeague.

[[folder:A brief summary of history]] Estonians are one of the several Finnic tribes that settled in northeastern Europe. Their earliest ancestors have been living in the region since the last Ice Age, later mixing with the Finno-Ugric arrivals from the east. By the 11th century the Estonian land was made up of loosely related "counties" (an unified state hadn't been formed yet) and vikings from the islands were occasionally raiding neighboring areas. In the 13th century the Northern Crusades with the goal to Christianize Europe's last pagans in the Baltics led to Estonia, after a long resistance, being taken over by the [[UsefulNotes/{{Germany}} Germans]] and the [[UsefulNotes/{{Denmark}} Danes]] (the latter ended up selling their part to the Germans and bailing due to an near-successful uprising in 1343). The Livonian Order, a branch of UsefulNotes/TheTeutonicKnights, created the "Order State" on Estonian and UsefulNotes/{{Latvia}}n territory (collectively known as Livonia) that lasted for the rest of the Middle Ages, during which Tallinn developed into an important trading hub as part of the UsefulNotes/HanseaticLeague.

In 1991, Estonia regained independence, and had been building up to this during the Glasnost/Perestroika era with a campaign of... [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singing_Revolution singing]]. Estonia has always had a strong folk music tradition, and protests expressed themselves universally in song.

(For what it's worth, the US and EU never recognized the annexation and Estonia sees itself today as the same state that became independent in 1918.)

Estonia ('''Estonian:''' ''Eesti''), officially known as the '''Republic of Estonia''' ('''Estonian:''' ''Eesti Vabariik''), is a Northern European country and the northernmost of the three Baltic states, which were the first to break away from the Soviet Union. The Estonian language is a Finno-Ugric language, closely related to Finnish, more distantly related to Sami (Laplandic) and Hungarian, and not related to any major European languages.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingKitty900 FlyingKitty]], [=YouTuber=] that mainly does WebAnimation/{{YouTube Poop}}s inspired by ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' and songs.

* Alan Walker's 2016 music video ''Faded'' is filmed in various abandoned locations in Estonia.

* Creator/ChristopherNolan's ''Film/{{TENET}}'' is the first major Hollywood film to be shot partially in Estonia, although as [[CaliforniaDoubling doubling]] for Ukraine.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyingKitty900 FlyingKitty]], [=YouTuber=] that mainly does WesternAnimation/{{YouTube Poop}}s inspired by ''Franchise/GrandTheftAuto'' and songs.