LITHUANIA: The Medieval Superpower

during the 15th century the grand duchy of lithuania had found itself to be the biggest state in all of europe [Music] the consolidation of these lands began in the late 12th century when the first ruler mindogas was crowned as the catholic king of [Music] lithuania [Music] yet the rapid territorial expansion started at the late reign of the grand duke itaminas the sons algheras and kastutas became victorious against the golden horde empire at the battle of blue waters as a result lithuania took over principality of kiev and became direct neighbours of moscow in 1368 algherdas with the support of the principality of tavr the chief rival of dmitry donskoi had engaged in a series of raids in the territories around moscow later besieging moscow itself with the dawn of succeeding rulers the power struggle ensued yogailah the son of algardas imprisoned kastutas and his son with us but in 1392 vidotas with the teutonic aide managed to sign a treaty in which he recovered all of the former testitus lands [Music] continued his grandfather's vision and in 1398 joined forces with the mongolian armies to conquer and share southern territories north of the black sea inspired by his successful campaign vitotas and yogaila won support from the pope for organizing a crusade against mongols the political move also demonstrated that lithuania had fully accepted christianity and was defending the religion the campaign resulted in a crushing defeat at the battle of roscoe river yet still another war followed in 1410 this time against the teutonic order which set off one of the biggest battles in medieval europe the most sizable one being the battle of grunwald in 1480 ivan iii considered himself an heir to the fallen byzantine empire and defender of the orthodox church expanding his territories and in 1480 with the defeat of ahmad khan in the great stand on the aguru river ended the supremacy of the tartar yoko the lithuanians felt increasingly pressured by the russian empire [Music] eventually in 1569 lithuanians partially accepted polish demands and entered into alliance with the union of lublin forming the polish lithuanian commonwealth [Music] in 1577 ivan iv took advantage of the commonwealth's internal strife and invaded livonia quickly taking almost the entire territory [Music] at the same time russian rule expanded towards siberia in 1599 sigismund iii at one time the king of both the commonwealth and sweden lost sweden to gustav the first however the king did not give up on regaining his swedish throne from then on most of his policies would revolve around his attempt to conquer sweden even though commonwealth nobility had little will for such a long and bloody conflict as the years went by the united commonwealth round started to dwindle as powerful neighboring empires mercilessly claimed their lands kingston is love the last monarch of the polish lithuanian commonwealth enacted a series of reforms to enhance poland's military societal and political systems [Music] angered by what was seen as radical republican reforms emperors catherine ii invaded poland in 1792 invited by the pro-russian alliance amongst polish nobles who wished to restore the privilege they had lost polish patriot tadaos took command of the polished armed forces and declared the nationwide general uprising against poland's foreign occupiers the uprising was crushed by november 1794 the three conquering powers signed a treaty to divide the region in 1797 the date which marked the end of polish supremacy in europe you

Channel: Tadas Miloncius

Views: 24,688

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Id: iqZt6V1totg

Length: 6min 58sec (418 seconds)

Published: Mon May 31 2021