New Courland: When Latvia Built an Empire (Short Animated Documentary)
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- čas přidán 5. 06. 2024
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Sources:
The Couronians and The West Indies: The First Settlements by Edgar Anderson
Balts in the Caribbean: The Duchy of Courland's attempts to colonize Tobago Island, 1638 to 1654 by Karin Jekabson-Lemains.
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I'm from Tobago, we still have a small village that is still called Courland. Latvians still visit the island every few years.
amazing
And I still didn't visited this village (I'm from Latvia :) )
Wow thats sooo great
I very often watching in the map Tobago since I started Travel 10 years ago
Beat their asses wen u see them
Imagine there are two places in the world that a Latvian citizen can choose to live in: One is a beautiful Caribbean paradise, and the other is Latvia.
Latvia is good
@@forestl7758 but it kind of sound funny if you take the weather in consideration 😂 don't get me wrong I am from Lithuania so I like our weather 😂
Latvia's in the EU, so they can choose to live in mosr of Europe.
The other day, I came across a webpage that claimed that the best place to retire to in Europe was Estonia. Must be the climate, and friendly relations with its eastern neighbour. The country that I moved to, Malta, scored poorly. Not because of the weather though.
I had a Latvian colleague once, who claimed that Latvia has the highest number of fashion models per capita. Given their social media page, and the Latvian people of the appropriate gender that they met, I would tend to agree.
Latvia has plenty of water. Let that sink in! Pun intended.
''The island of Despair'' A perfect place for a latvian such as myself.
ahaha that's so funny, dont self criticize too much
lmao
I visited Latvia a month ago and also thought that was very fitting.
@@AVKnecht Yeah, Latgale is where nightmares go to feel like dreams.
I enjoyed it there though. It was nice, I might come back
Latvia to major European powers: "Hey there fellow colonisers".
*Great Powers of Europe:* No.
Latvia enjoyed most of its entire life being part of empires.
@@panduwidagdo7051 So did Prussia. The US had an empire too, albeit briefly. At the time of their empire they had spent more time as a British colony than as an independent state. It doesn't exclude them from being colonisers themselves.
@@walsh9080 Latvia and Latvians cant be considered colonizers since Courland was owned and run by Prussians (Read Germans) not Latvians. Jacob was Prussian who didint even speak Latvian. German was the language of the state and highest positions in the state was taken by Germans. Latvians in Courland was 2nd rate citizens, so thats that.
@@l.s.1235 Ah I did not know that. Thanks for letting me know :)
That moment when you realize that latvia had a larger colonial empire than Austria-Hungary
No no, you got a point
The Habsburg actually had colony in Adaman islands before they shut down ostende kompanie
Didnt austria hungary have a treaty port in china? Thats like a tie isnt it?
@@MasonGreenWeed Latvia still had a bigger one
ha screw you austria and hungary
Such a shame. I would have loved if there was still a small Latvian speaking island in the middle of the Caribbean
yeah that would be interesting
That would make perfect holiday destination for Latvians such as myself.
They would have spoken german, not latvian
German speaking islands. German was the official language of Courland. Latvian did not exist at that time.
Proto Latvian did of course, natives spoke their own language, just ruling class were Germans, around that time Bible was translated into Latvian by Lutheran Pastor Ernests Gliks.
*Courland:* I can has empire??
*Russia & Sweden:* You can be annexed into our empires.
the power of courland and ulm would oblitare the world
@@grigss3027 I'm an Ulmer And would love an empire
@@grigss3027 - imagine if they were able to ally Ryukuu.
@@chillaxo9863 By our powers combined...
@@joujou264 *We could achieve greatness*
Ulmpire & Kurreich
Random European nation in 1650 when it purchases a rock in the Caribbean: "Professional colonial Empire".
Hey man were still proud of that rock today
Imagine the scene in american spycho: but now Bates is desiring the bussiness card of Latvia, professional colonizer.
*Laughs in Rockall*
OPM colonizes one island, how very eu4 of you :)
It's actually a lovely green island. I have lived here for 5 years and I work as a Massage Therapist
So, you're telling me that the British owned the Gambia because a Latvian duke just pointed at a map and said,
"I want that one"
yes, yes indeed
Oooo lawd 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
yes
he wasnt latvian
Yep
Oh look, there’s this small and far away island known as “Island of Despair” that the Spanish, the Dutch and the English failed to colonize, all of them being much more powerful nations than we are.
How about we give it we try?
What could possibly go wrong?
If you ever read Latvian literature, you will understand why they would feel at home there
Well.... given their geographical location in Europe harsh conditions wouldn't be anything new for them. that being said, they did succeed in the end... kind off
@@therodyman700 I don't think the homelands weather is a very good indication of their ability to colonize other places. Otherwise the famously moderate weather of Britain would've been a big inhibitor to say colonizing India.
It might have worked if it hadn't been for those pesky Swedes. The great powers might all have preferred Courish control to allowing one of the others to have this immensely valuable island.
Dont knock it till you try it lol
As Latvian I did not expect this at all from you, anyways cheers mate!
As lithuanian i did not expect this too, but then you think for a second having an island in carribean doesn't make a country an empire
As a estonian, i am jealous of your great empire
@@karl-erikpolitanov5833 Baltic gang rise up
@@karl-erikpolitanov5833 well im jelous that you have Livonian empire
Same
When you show her the Courland Empire:
Ohhh its soo biggg!!!
Hah, I'm going to like this because I sure dont have a small peen
Courland empire wasn't even that big.
Matthias Corvinus r/woooosh
IKR? That's what she said
Oof
"Island of Despair"
Then Latvia shouldn't have much of a problem colonising it
Latvia in Tobago: *Aaah the despair, feels just like home.*
@@bluemoondiadochi 😭😭😭💀💀
*You vs The guy she tells you not to worry about:*
You: Courland
The guy she tells not to worry about: Latvia
@@gifigi6006 hi
Me: I wanna colonies for myself
Mother: We have colonies at home
Colonies at home:
Little does everyone know if it weren't for the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth--Swedish war Latvia would have conquered the world. Oh well, no fun for us, I guess.
Baltics are not a conquering people, they are a conquered people. They lack the essence of Germanic conquerors. (Even in the Middle Ages, you were cannon fodder for Slavs, SLAVS, for God's sake.)
@@quqbalam5089 Heh while its true balts might not be conquerors, but they are hell of defenders( Oh but wait Lithuania was the biggest country in Europe ). Balts were not conquered by neither Norsemen nor slavs, for both it was a huge pain in the ass,they might win a battle and make em pay tribute but pretty much as soon as they left tribute stopped coming and balts threw them out. Next army that came was defeated, you can just read it up in scandinavian sagas about the though time they were getting while fighting balts.
Most of the baltic peoples only fell in 13 century during Northern crusades where it took almost a century for Europes best knights to fully pacify it and even then it meant killing almost all males who could carry a sword, especially during Courland uprising of 1255 - 1260. And in most cases they were able to do that as they used the tribal infighting that persisted( atleast in Latvia) while it gave Lithuania the reason to unite,kick Teutons in the balls and forge the biggest country in Europe at that time. So balts were not boot lickers,, their problem was lack of unity( infighting) and being far to small in number.
Quq Balam
Ya that’s why Germany had so many great colonies. “For Slavs” Russia is like 30 times the size of Germany.
@@quqbalam5089 r/whooosh
@@tomc6255 imagine walking up in kaliningrad and someone hits you with "labdien"
*someone releases video about Latvia*
*all latvians with internet access* : im gona wach it!
It do be like that.
Tā tas ir, un tā tam būt.
Tieši tā.
Holy fuck its actually true
lmao
Glory to the Latvian Empire!
Slavu latviešiem!
God bless Latvian Empire . 💒
Powered by - potatoes
YES WE SHALL RISE AGAIN 🇱🇻
biolotoxin459 powered by rupjmaize
Potato gives strength, this time enough for colony
Hey we have tons of potatos in Lithuania we dont even know where to put them
@@nothingisnothingisnothing5361 put them in Latvia
nothingisnothing isnothing Hey, it’s your neighbour, Belarus
give us potato immediately or we will reverse the grand duchy of lithuania into grand duchy of belarus
i have a UNO reverse card
@@placeholder8768 Please don't try scaring us or else... We shall steal the damn potatoes you have!
Most channels does incidents like the second world war or cold war. I love those too but sometimes, it's great to see some lesser known facts that this channel gives us.
I like how you call ww2 and the cold war "incidents"
@@Dhjaru Yea they were just happy little accidents I guess...
I was thinking about writing things like Cuban missile crisis but I changed my mind but forgot to change the word
Mirror details anyway
agree
You seem to misunderstand the meaning of the word "puppet state". A "puppet state" is fully (albeit unofficially) controlled by another state. Courland was a "vassal state". It was officially dependent on the Polish Crown, but de facto governed itself. Thus, it was an opposite of a "puppet state".
Good point. The Poles allowed their vassals great autonomy.
It was not a polish vassal
@@farmfarming2275 It was
@@jurisprudens it was a Lithuanian vassal.
@@farmfarming2275 Nice joke
Interestingly, the Knights of Malta also established a shortlived colony in the Caribbean.
They also had various outposts in Northern Africa and other places too. Also after they lost Malta they were offered Gotland by the Swedish crown which they refused.
Need more info
As a Latvian... this makes me feel patriotic.
Latvia: My colonies
Poland: OUR colonies
Actually Courland was a region administered by Lithuania. Poland didn't have much involvement
@J C no one held a gun to their heads so they'd learn polish lol, they polonized themselves. Just like in the cities in the west people spoke german
@@compatriot852 Lithuania by people who have never heard Lithuanian language
@@compatriot852it was administered by Poland though
They also made a final attempt at a colony near modern Toco on Trinidad. But eventually, both islands ended up in British hands
To be fair to the Latvians, tbe islands were juggled around a lot between European powers.
Imagine listening to reggae in Latvian!
@@wandaperi Trinidad music is soca
1:50
Third time's charm...
Third partition of PLC,
Third Reich,
Third French republic
references...
Please, fill the list!
Partition, not participation. Was quite confused at first
Third Mexican Empire
Third World War
Third Hellenic Republic
Third Bulgarian Empire
I am a Latvian myself. Heard about this in school. How random lol.
“Which raises the question: why wasn’t there a continuous Latvian speaking population in the Caribbean then?”
Ah, yes. I ask myself this question most days.
Bcs then latvian realy wasnt a language,mostly spoken was german,polish,russian etc
@@erlandsabols1985 there was a language, they (Latvians) still spoke a Baltic dielect, that most Latvians of today would understand. German, Polish was spoken by the aristicrats/upper class. The farmers or peasants were 100% Baltic/Latvians.
me too
Because the colonialism was perpetrated by Germans. Not ethnic Latvians
@@gerardobrian5983 I don't know why people think this. Germany did not exist until the 1870's and many different languages were spoken throughout the former HRE
Literally no one expects Latvian language in Africa.
Neither in the Caribbean
It would be rather German, but yeah
Sviatoslav S. Noone expects the Spanish Inquisition
@@affentaktik2810
I expected this comment.
Sviatoslav S. But you didnt expect the spanish inquisition did ya?
You know, actually also Romania tried to colonise Terra del Fuego in Argentina.. We had one exile entreprenour colonist and adventurier called Julius Popper in the 19th Century :)
1:07 "Courland didn't use the Latvian flag at this point, it's just for illustrative purposes, please don't yell at me"
It's a bit sad he didn't choose the naval flag of the Duchy - a black crab on a dark red field. That's a pretty cool flag.
Flag was black crab on red square-FLAG OF cOURLAND FLEET
Nice to see a high quality channel that covers such obscure history stuff that nobody knows
This isnt high quality. Most of his work isnt.
Oh, yes it is. His Research ist great, and his simple drawing technique ist amazing.
As a latvian I thank you very much. Not many people know about this
Latvia: Well, I'm something of a colonizer myself
Her: Thats cool latvia kun, i'm really into Empires though.
@Valentín Freymóðsson That would fix our declining population i guess
@Valentín Freymóðsson I'd actually be suprised if they wanted to even come here
Jacob also tried to convince the Polish king Vladislav IV to create sort of joint venture colony with The Commonwealth and The Papal State in northern part of South America.
1:10 how interesting that Flevoland already existed back then, instead of it being claimed from the sea in the 20th century 👀
He got not owning Limburg by then right at least.
Already glad he atleast made some effort. The Netherlands landmap changed every 100 years xd sometime the sea won sometimes we won
1:22 *Tries colonising an island with mainly criminals*
🇦🇺: Didn’t work out for you? Worked fine for me.
I've lived in the Caribbean most my life and never knew this to be a part of Tobagonian history. Its a beautiful island, with an interesting history.
In Tobago history books there is 1 page about this since 1970-ies.Thanks to Latvian historian Edgars Andersons who was professor in California university -SAN JOSE
Now all I could hope for is a DLC for Age of Empires III with Courland/Latvia as a playable nation.
Latvian empire? Now that is SPOOKY
damn im from kurland and i didn't even know this.
Lol
Tiešām? Mani vēstures skolotāji nekad nevarēja par to beigt runāt
In most Ex-yugoslavs country Kurland means Penisland. I know childish thing, made me chuckle anyway
@@hueylongdong347 EVERY MAN A KINGGGGGGGG
Damn I'm not from Kurland and I knew some of this
That's really impressive, I gotta admit
Wanna go to prison?
Courland: Yay I have colonies
Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth:
Our Colonies
I knew my latvian potatoes today would give me happiness.
From the Caribbean. Even I didn't know this. It would be insane if Tobagans spoke Latvian...lmao.
as a Latvian I am proud of our colonial empire! (It’s our nations birthday today as im writing this too!!)
“glory to slavery im so edgy🤓🤓🤓”
@@Antimony145 what? just because i love my country doesn’t mean im emo or a nerd??
@@Antimony145 where are you from? i bet your country did not have a colonial empire
@@Antimony145 womp womp
@@peter_griffin42069 since your young i dont blame u for not knowing, but u shouldnt be proud of your countrys enslavement of thousands of people and colonialism is just naturally immoral theres no other way around it
history always delivers this should be an achievement in eu4 release courland have a core in gambia and tobego
Kurland is a formable.
The easiest way is to be livonian order and convert to Protestant
@@welp4576 yes in eu 4 its spelled kurland and in my prussia campaign i released it as a vassal
I don't know why but "The Island of Despair" sounds exactly like a place the Latvians would like to settle...
latvians live in despair even now.
It's rare for history channel to cover subjects I have never heard of, but this is one of them.
You have to do a video on the glorious Swedish overseas empire. the world couldn't contain its greatness.
This is why history was always my favorite subject
Meanwhile in an Alternative Timeline, Carnival, Calypso and Soca Music are sang in Latvian
Yikes.
It's nice to see a genuinely concerned, pragmatic ruler for once, had Jacob been granted a more powerful nation, he could have been a great figure.
Thanks @HistoryMatters for shining a light on the not so talked about parts of the history book, just so everyone can feel proud of their mation and ancestors
Was always curious about this, thank you for making this episode
Really? There are people knowing about that obscure stuff? 😂 Sounds almost, just almost like irony. 😉
I’m a Latvian. kind of proud of the almighty Jacob in the 17th century. Almost succeded
Courland was not Latvia or a Latvian state. The Latvians living there - though they were the majority - did not have much of a say and the duke probably didn't speak any Latvian.
Latvian (which could be called Latvian) didn't exist until mid-19th century so..
Which he said in the video.
@@timsonins that's not possible
He used Latvian peasants and artisans as settlers though
I’ve been waiting for someone to talk about this
Imagine if Sweden didn't annexed Latvia. I know that their empire will not go to far but it will be cool.
it probably wouldnt make more of a difference bc russia would annex courland soon
Everyone gangsta till the Trinidadians start speaking Latvian
Imagine Latvia having a party island in Caribbean
There we're 6 ethnic group's involved in the colonial attempt-Livonian's + Latgalian's + Latvian's + Ruthenian's + Lithuanian's + The Polish.
Super big fan of your channel, wil become a patreon patron when I can, never ever stop, every single video is fascinating and funny as hell
by far the best history channel on youtube, and more or less the only one with original content
R.I.P. Greatest colonial empire to ever exist!
Must add there was also a proposal to the pope to colonise Australia by Latvians however do to the religious differences it was postponed and when the old pope died his successor was not interested in such agreement.
Coronian hits different now
Fun fact: The colonial naval ensign of Courland appears to have been a black crab on a dark magenta field, a very...interesting ensign to say the least!
Tell the Story of Abram Petrovich Ganniball the Africa Slave that became a Noble in the Russian Empire and who was the grand grandfather of the great writer Alexander Pushkin!
As a Latvian seeing Latvia in title makes me patriotic
same
This video is exactly what I needed after hearing about a Baltic country having an overseas colony
Oh damn, didn't expect this. We don't often get mentioned anywhere, cheers mate.
Colonization 101
Step one) Ensure your homeland is strong, well defended and populous enough to discourage invasion from rivals.
Island of Despair sounds like the name of some kind of Fantasy prison.
I mean,there was a Pruson called "Fortress of Oblivion".
Courland:Colonizes tobago.
Spain,Netherlands,England:HES THE ONE
Great video as always 👍
Greeting from Latvia. Makes us proud.
Why would it make you proud? Was a German duchy ruled by a German nobility.
@@teslaliveus745 "Why would it make you proud?" We suplied food wood and other necesities for this to work.
"Was a German duchy ruled by a German nobility." And we see the german people as brotherly people. Also almost all europian rulers where foreigners to the lands they ruled.
@@gunarsmiezis9321 I wouldn't say most, but a lot did indeed have foreign rulers. Which is why I also specified the nobility being foreign, which was a rarity.
@@teslaliveus745 still makes us feel as among the big boys :D
@@robmik83 we're not, and that's a good thing. Never enslaving your fellow man is a good thing. Never fighting a war of aggression is a history one can be proud of.
Wow I literally had no idea - and I studied history
watched this again after 1 year. History Matters is so good.
Amazing and well made video as always!
This is really interesting. Part of my dissertation I focused on the Fort on James Island (now Kunta Kinteh Island) in the River Gambia, which was first built by the Duke of Courland.
Thats the legacy of Courland's colonies two old forts and few cannons. Maybe a flag pole too cant remember.
As a British-Tobagonian I lost my shit when I saw Tobago mentioned in the video!
Love You Simple History!
RadFTW A British person living in Trinidad and Tobago
@RadFTW Born in Britain to a Tobagonian family???
Trinidad and Tobago rarely gets mentioned in any context when you're not looking for it.
So this was a pleasant surprise.
Thank you for making this video! Greetings from Latvia! Paldies! ;)
That color switch around 2:56 was hilarious, btw.
Courland at that time was under control of the Polish crown. So also a Polish colony
Obscure colonial empires are always fun :)
Excellent stuff, as always
I've seen every video this man posted. How am I now just seeing this
Having an island in carribean doesn't make you an empire
Latvia: You know sometimes you have to live in a dream world not in cruel reality
It's not much but it's honest work
3:00 fantastic map animations as always
🇹🇹 great video as always
Trini here 🙋🏾♂️
Is this the Halloween special? Quite a interesting topic to scare people
Curland's map is very similar to that of Eritrea so I thought it was going to be a a video about Eritrea being a colony of Lithuania at some point.
00:01:13 Interesting map of the Dutch Republic. You correctly left out most of the current southern provinces of the Netherlands, but did include Flevoland, which would remain open see for more than 300 years.
Amazing Video
This color change 2:59 :)
Despite being in present-day Latvia, I wouldn’t consider Courland to be a Latvian state. Courland did not view itself as an ethnically Latvian state. German was the official language, its dukes were of the house of Kettler (a German family), and was run by Baltic German nobility ruling over the majority Latvian-speaking peasants. Latvia and Estonia were not independent countries until 1918 and there respective languages were not official until then. Germans arrived in the Baltics with the conquest of the region by the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century. Thereafter, Baltic Germans were the ruling class of the region, first under the State of the Teutonic Knights and Terra Mariana, but later serving the Poles, Swedes, and Russians. Because of this, it is inaccurate to say “Latvia had a colonial empire”.
Yeah, it was more Polish than Latvian.
Latvia/Courland wasnt an Apartheidstate. Germans interacted and intermarried with local Latvians throughout the centuries. If you learned German, also a Latvian could imrpove his status in society.
Almost every single empire has a ruling class ethnically distinct of the peasant class. Should Qing Dynasty be considered a predecessor of modern Mongolia rather than China? Or 18th century England a German rather than English/British state due to the Hannoverian royal family on the throne?
Because nothing sounds more Latvian than "Despair".
I appreciate The fact That you pronounced Tobago properly❤🇹🇹