History of Riga

The history of Riga, the capital of Latvia, begins as early as the 2nd century with a settlement, the Duna urbs, at a natural harbor not far upriver from the mouth of the Daugava River. Later settled by Livs and Kurs, it was already an established trade center in the early Middle Ages along the Dvina-Dnieper trade route to Byzantium. Christianity had come to Latvia as early as the 9th century, but it was the arrival of the Crusades at the end of the 12th century which brought the Germans and forcible conversion to Christianity; the German influence instituted over the city lasted until independence—and is still preserved today in Riga's Jugendstil architecture.

From the 13th century to the birth of nationalism in the 19th and independence in the 20th, Latvia's and Riga's history are intertwined, a chronicle of the rise and fall of surrounding foreign powers over the Latvians and their territory. As a member of the Hanseatic League, Riga's prosperity grew throughout the 13th–15th centuries—with Riga to become a major center of commerce and later, industry, of whatever empire it found itself subject of.

Today, Riga and its environs are home to close to half of Latvia's inhabitants.

Founding of Riga

The Daugava River (Western Dvina, Dúna in Old Norse) has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Viking's Dvina-Dnieper navigation route via portage to Byzantium. A sheltered natural harbor 15 km upriver from the mouth of the Daugava—the site of today's Riga—has been recorded as an area of settlement, the Duna Urbs, as early as the 2nd century, when ancient sources already refer to Courland as a kingdom. It was subsequently settled by the Livs, an ancient Finnic tribe who had arrived during the 5th and 6th centuries, about the same time that Riga began to develop as a center of Viking trade during the early Middle Ages.