Present-day Lithuanians are descendants of the Balts, an Indo-European ethnic group that settled on the Baltic coast 4000 years ago. At the Union of Lublin in 1569, a full-scale merger between Lithuania and Poland took place. However, the ensuing centuries showed that this was insufficient to protect Lithuania from the territorial ambitions of other regional powers. At the end of the 18th century, the Joint Republic was carved up and occupied in successive partitions. Russia took possession of part of Lithuania in 1795 (the western region was claimed by Prussia) and held on to it until the early 20th century.
The Russians were driven out by the German army during World War I and the Lithuanian Council declared independence in February 1918. In 1921, Lithuania joined the League of Nations. Although the Lithuanians had settled their differences with the Russians, temporarily at least, the Poles continued to occupy Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, in defiance of Allied demarcation which had awarded the city to the Lithuanians.
The capital of the new state was therefore established at Kaunas. The Lithuanian constitution in 1922 declared Lithuania to be a parliamentary republic. However, a military coup in 1926 brought Antanas Smetona to power at the head of an authoritarian regime. The status of Lithuania was again altered following the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, whose secret protocols allowed for a Soviet takeover of all three Baltic Republics. Lithuania was occupied by the German Army in 1941 until its re-annexation by the Soviets three years later.
When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Kremlin in 1985, pressure for political and economic reform in Lithuania grew. This was spearheaded by the Sajudis, the Lithuanian Reform Movement. Moscow responded initially with selective economic sanctions, and then military deployments to deter the pro-independence elements. Despite occupying radio, TV and other key installations, the Soviet forces were forced to back down in the face of a referendum on independence which won 90 per cent support. This decisive period in recent Lithuanian history finished with the failed coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 and the effective end to Soviet Government. Lithuanian independence followed immediately, unopposed and by default.
The transition to a full market economy began; by 1995 it had been more or less completed. The long-running border dispute with Poland was settled with the signing of a friendship and cooperation treaty in January 1992, and negotiations with Russia led to the withdrawal of the remaining Russian troops in Lithuania in August 1993. Such events have led up to the country joining the EU in May 2004. EU membership has catapulted Lithuania onto the global stage, with more and more people becoming aware of the country's rich panoply of castles, lakes and forests, and more people flocking to see Vilnius, one of Europe's most enchanting cities.
Geography
Lithuania is situated on the eastern Baltic coast and borders Latvia in the north, the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation and Poland in the southwest, and Belarus in the southwest and east. The geometrical center of Europe lies in eastern Lithuania near the village of Bernotai, 25km (16 miles) north of Vilnius. The landscape alternates between lowland plains and hilly uplands and has a dense, intricate network of rivers, including the Nemunas and the Neris. 1.5 per cent of the country’s territory is made up of lakes, of which there are over 2800. The majority of these lie in the east of the country and include Lake Druksiai and Lake Tauragnas.