The Baltic Story: A Thousand-Year History of Its Lands, Seas and Peoples by Caroline Boggis-Rolfe, and: Literary History and Popular Enlightenment in Latvian Culture by Pauls Daija

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Baltic Story: A Thousand-Year History of Its Lands, Seas and Peoples by Caroline Boggis-Rolfe, and: Literary History and Popular Enlightenment in Latvian Culture by Pauls Daija Nicole Pohl Caroline Boggis-Rolfe, The Baltic Story: A Thousand-Year History of Its Lands, Seas and Peoples (Stroud: Amberley Publishing, 2019). Pp. 485; 65 illus. £25 cloth. Pauls Daija, Literary History and Popular Enlightenment in Latvian Culture (Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2017). Pp. 160. £58.99 cloth. The postcolonial lens of eighteenth-century studies has complicated our understanding of eighteenth-century Europe. Michele Espagne’s comprehension of colonialism as a lengthy process of mutual influence is one of many frameworks with which this complexity is approached. According to Espagne, the “entanglements” of countries and geopolitical regions across Europe transcended even the emerging nation states of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century—entanglements of history and cultural influences, underpinned by crosscutting dynasties, and cultural as well as trade exchanges. But even this Espagne’s “entanglement,” [End Page 391] like related frameworks of European colonialism in relation to “cultural zones,” frontiers, or border zones, cannot capture the complexity of the geopolitical and historical area of the Baltic. The Baltic Sea coastline extends to approximately 8000 km. And here begin the debates regarding the definition of this region. The umbrella term “Baltic states” is sometimes used to describe all the countries bordering the Baltic Sea, though after World War I, this region strictly included only Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Given its shared geography and economic history (the Hanseatic League), the Baltic region is also tightly connected to Germany and Scandinavia, and thus the geo-cultural zone of the North Sea. The German “Baltikum” (Balticum) refers to the regions in today’s Estonia and Latvia, where German nobility settled and ruled during the Northern Crusades and in the centuries following. The Baltic region borders Scandinavia, too, though only Estonia is part of the Nordic Council as an “adjacent area of interest.”1 The Baltic Sea States, according to the Council of Baltic Sea States, includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Russia, and Sweden—stretching across Scandinavia, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe. Given the dilemmas above, it makes sense that Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann identifies the Baltic as intersectional, where different cultural zones overlap, intersect, and encounter each other.2 Boggis-Rolfe’s The Baltic Story: A Thousand-Year History of its Lands, Seas and Peoples heroically tries to tackle this complex history of the countries that share the shoreline along the Baltic Sea, weaving into this account the history of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), with particular attention to their emergence from the rule of the Teutonic Order, the Swedish and Russian Empires, as well as the Soviet Union. It is a book that offers a detailed survey of the histories of the relevant countries and houses of nobilities, and in doing so, shows very lucidly how entangled these histories are. The book begins with the foundation and influence of the Hanseatic League that, in conjunction with the Teutonic Order, ruled the Baltic region between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. What follows then are separate sections on individual countries, such as Poland/Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Denmark-Norway, Sweden, and Russia, following their history into modern times. For readers of this journal, the chapters on the Enlightenment period are of interest. Boggis-Rolfe charts the glory, successes, and downfall of some of the most prominent states of the region. She explains how a prolonged period of peace, commercial prosperity, and reform of the absolutist monarchy in Denmark-Norway characterized the 1700s in Denmark. Its downfall occurred during the Napoleonic wars after Britain attacked Copenhagen in 1807, and Denmark allied itself with Napoleon. Eventually, as part of the Peace of Kiel in 1814, Frederik VI had to cede Norway to the King of Sweden. The chapters on Russia follow the reigns of Peter the Great and the Empress Anna Ivanova, who both sought to make Russia a prominent naval power. Charles XII’s reign in Sweden is rightly described as a transition from “triumph to disaster.” The reign of this prominent military leader, politician, and reformer saw...