(UNOFFICIAL) Üks süda ja üks meel Kristuse nime vastu! (Estlandic) ("One heart and one soul against christianity!") | |||
| Anthem | "Syytage tõrvikud" | ||
| Capital | Kaleva | ||
| Largest city | Riga | ||
| Other cities | Valjala, Tartu, Narva, Vesselinn, Pärnu, Viljandi | ||
| Language official |
Estlandic | ||
| others | Swedish, Finnish, Latgalian, Livonian, Flemish | ||
| Religion main |
Maausk | ||
| others | Christianity, Judaism | ||
| Ethnic Groups main |
Estlanders | ||
| others | Swedes, Finns, Livonians, Latgalians, Flemids | ||
| Demonym | Estlandic | ||
| Government | Duchy | ||
| Duke | |||
| Established | 1343 | ||
| Independence | from Denmark, Livonian Order | ||
| declared | 1343 | ||
| recognized | 1345 | ||
| Currency | Kroner | ||
Estland was a small northern European state founded after the Livonian War in the 1300s, which saw the indigenous pagan population of Estland overthrow the German overlords emplaced by the earlier Northern Crusades. Estland developed an early and strong national identity centred around paganism and resistance to the encroachment of Christian states like the Teutonic Order. Initially a Swedish vassal, it subsequently gained greater status within the Kalmar Union and later moved into closer association with Lithuania.
As a result, for the first few centuries of its existence, Estland was a state, as historians have written, "whose raison d'etre was the pursuit of a foreign policy of pagan grievance". It allied closely with similarly isolated Hussite states in the 15th and 16th centuries, successfully escaping diplomatic isolation and playing a major role in the collapse of a united, Catholic Christendom.