Grand Duchy of Lithuania

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The Grand Duchy of Lithuania also known as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus' and Samogitia is the name of the principality that at times covered the territory of present day Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Transnistria, spreading from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

Later in it's existence it was, for nearly two centuries, part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with separate laws, an army and treasury. This changed only with the three Partitions of Poland, (1772, 1793 and 1795), which saw the Grand Duchy divided between Russia and Prussia.

Table of contents

1 History
2 Military
3 Religion
4 Culture
5 Legacy
6 Sources
7 External links

History

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania began its rise to great power status under the reign of Mindaugas beginning in 1238. The duchy expanded both south and west, annexing large quantities of former Rus lands in both directions. Expansion reached its height under Gediminas who created a strong central government and succeed in creating and empire that spread from the Black to the Baltic sea. The ease with which Lithuania built up an empire can be accredited to the Mongols and their weakening of all the Rus lands. Lithuania was in an ideal position to take advantage of the weakness the East Slavs. While almost every other state around it had been pillaged or defeated by the Mongols, the hordes never reached as far north as Lithuania and its territory was left untouched. Lithuania's expansion was also only possible because of the very weak control the Mongols had over the areas they had conquered. (Ruthenia was never incorporated directly into the Golden Horde. Instead, it was always a vassal state with a fair degree of independence.) The rise of Lithuania occurred at the ideal time when they could expand while meeting very little Ruthenian resistance and only limited opposition from the Mongols.

The Lithuanian Empire was not one built upon military aggression. The Grand Duchy's existence always depended upon diplomacy just as much as upon arms. Most cities it annexed were never defeated in battle but agreed to be vassals of Lithuania. Since most of them were already vassals of the Golden Horde or of Muscovy this decision was not one of giving up independence but rather of exchanging one master for another. This can be seen in the case of Novgorod, it was often brought into the Lithuanian sphere of influence and became an occasional dependency of Lithuania, but Lithuanian armies never attacked the city. Rather Lithuanian control was the result of internal factions within the city looking to escape domination by Moscow. This method of empire building was, however, quite unstable. Changing internal politics within a city would often see it pull out of Lithuania's control, as happened on a number of occasions with Novgorod and other Rus cities.