The Baltic Sea separates the area in the west from Sweden, and the core of the country now belongs to Latvia, a country in northern Europe bordering Estonia. The capital is Latvia, a city founded by Germanic crusaders who conquered this area in the 12th and 13th centuries and founded the state of Livonia. Livonian, Latvian, "Latvija" or "Livijas Republika" is the Letmo, or the land of Northern Europe.

The Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have historically fallen under Scandinavian and Russian domination. Baltic states, Latvia was divided by Poland and Sweden, and expansionist Russia annexed all of Latvia at the end of the 18th century. Neighbouring Latvia borders Estonia to the north, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea to the south and Latvia and Lithuania to the east.

Latvia was divided in 1561, Courland (south of the western Dvina) became an autonomous duchy under the sovereignty of a Lithuanian ruler, and Lithuania (north of the river) was annexed. Baltic states and became part of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea region of Estonia.

The Polish-Lithuanian community, also known as Polish Livonia, comprised the south-eastern region of Latvia, which we now know as Latvia. The eastern part of Livonia, called Latvian Gaul, remains and survives today as the "Ligale" region of Latvia and the eastern half of western Dvina.

Livonia coincided roughly with the central region of modern Latvia, known as Vidzeme, and was an area with varying borders between the 13th and 18th centuries. Latvian Gaul, Latvia and Estonia today are part of the so-called "Baltic Province" of Livonia, a region in the Baltic Sea.

The Latin form of Livonia gradually referred to southern Estonia, which came under minimal Germanic influence. Baltic language of Indo - European, the nobility was German in parts of Flivonia, and the Baltic barons refer to the Finnish language, which was retained by the people of what is now Estonia and is now called Latvian. Latin form "Livonia," which gradually refers to south-eastern Estonia, which is under limited or minimal Germanic influences.

The Russian Empire divided the conquered territory into its hands in 1710, with Osel annexed to the Riga province and the rest of Latvia. On the basis of the Vilnius Treaty, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was ceded and became part of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and parts of Latvia and Estonia. Together, however, Lithuania and Latvia now cover a small ethnographic area, to which no Baltic-speaking people has ever been reduced.

On 18 November 1918, the Latvian People's Council declared full independence in Riga and Karlis Ulmanis became head of the provisional government. Initially, the demand for self-determination was limited to the autonomy of a free Latvia, freed from Russia. The Constituent Assembly of Latvia, elected in April 1920, met in Riga on 1 May and declared independence on 2 May 1920. The Russian government renounced all claims against Latvia and the Soviet peace treaty was signed, thereby renouncing Latvia's claims against the Russian Empire and all of Lithuania and Estonia.

Latvian gunmen, however, quickly occupied most of Latvia on 2 January 1919 and founded the Socialist Republic of Latvia, with a national government led by Karlis Ulmanis holding the port city of Liepaja, which he shared with an increasing number of Free Corps soldiers. Today's Estonia and Latvia quickly came under the control of the German Empire, which ruled the heart (and later the whole of Latvia) of Latvia and ruled it from the capital Riga. The German rule over the territory continued, but the diocese of Livonia was elevated to the status of archdiocese, which cemented the new order in the Baltic states as domination of the territory. Latvia was conquered in 1230 by the German knights of a Teutonic Order, who joined the Russian Empire in 1335 and then followed the Lithuanian knights, Tatars and Baltic knights, who were merged in 1237 into the Gendarmerie and finally the French Knights "Order.

The nobility ruled the rural areas of Latvia and Estonia, but only in the capital Riga, and only for a short time.

The demise of the White Armies in the Baltic States brought a decisive relief to the nation states of Estonia and Latvia, which were now able to concentrate on defending their eastern borders. The Red Army withdrew from Latvia after being attacked by the Estonians from the north. Livonia remained under Russian rule until the end of World War II, when it was divided into the newly independent state of Latvia and Estonia. After the dissolution of all the Livonian knights in 1561, Southeast Estonia remained a part of Poland and Lithuania, from which it became the Duchy of Courland.