Riga: A History (part 3)

The Hanseatic League, Holy Roman Empire, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Swedish and Russian Empires

In 1282, Riga became a member of the Hanseatic League. The Hansa was a bit like a medieval version of the European Union and it was instrumental in giving Riga economic and political stability, thus providing the city with a strong foundation which endured the political conflagrations that were to come.

The Hansa didn’t last however and Riga became an object of desire from foreign governments. For 20 years it held the status of a free imperial city within the Holy Roman Empire before the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took over as part of the Treaty of Drohiczyn.
After the Swedish defeated the Polish in the war of 1621, Riga came under their influence.

Riga 1650

Riga, was the largest city in the Swedish Empire until 1710 and managed to retain a large amount of autonomy from Sweden. In 1710 however, Peter the Great's eyes turned towards the city and after a long siege the city, which was also suffering a plague, surrendered and became part of the Russian Empire, although it retained many of the privileges it had enjoyed under the Swedes.
Under the Russians, Riga became an Industrialized port city. By 1900 it was the 3rd largest city in the Empire after Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Peter the Great

Despite the switch from Swedish to Russian control and othr changes over the years, Riga remained a mainly German city. The German population made up nearly half of the people and German was the cities official language until 1891 when Russian took over. More and more Latvians moved to the city during the mid 19th century. Riga became a centre for the Latvian National Awakening. The strong Nationalistic movement was followed by the socialist New Current which led in part to the 1905 revolution.

Krisjanis Valdemars and Krisjanis Barons

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