Formation of a Lithuanian State
Soldiers for the 1207 expedition into the lands along the Dvina conquered by the Germans, were enlisted from all over Lithuania (i.e., not only in the land of Lithuania itself). In 1212, Lithuanian Prince Dangerutis signed a treaty with Novgorod against Livonia. Dangerutis’ rule probably encompassed a large territory otherwise there would have been no point in Novgorod making such an agreement. In 1219, twenty-one senior Lithuanian princes signed a treaty with Volynia. Among them were Živinbudas, Dausprungas and his brother Mindaugas, Daujotas and his brother Vilikaila, and princes from Žemaitian, Deltuva, Ruskavičius, and Bulevičius families. They acted as a united front, and. though the Žemaitian and Deltuva princes could not have had any direct contact with Volynia, no one ruler was considered emi’ nent. This fact is borne out by common Lithuanian endeavours, and the process, if not the completion, of the unification of the state. There have been historians - including Henryk Paszkiewicz, a major researcher in this area who claim that Lithuania was already united prior to the 1219 treaty. Paszkiewicz’s strongest argument included the father of Mindaugas, the future ruler of Lithuania, who was supposedly the most powerful of the Lithuanian princes, as well as the circumstances of a strong expansion by Lithuanian princes into Rus’ and into the junction of the Lithuanian owned buffer zone (formed at the turn of the twelfth century) between it and Rus’. But even they agree that at the turn of the twelfth century, the rulers of a unified Lithuania were not able to maintain authority for long periods of time. A radical concept of the formation of a Lithuanian state has recently been presented by Tomas Baranauskas. He dates the formation of the duchy of Lithuania, and the emergence of a stable state organisation in Lithuanian lands, in approximately the eleventh century. He also maintains that the more frequent and forceful Lithuanian expeditions into Rus’ after 1183 are proof of the existence of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and claims that the “Lithuanian Duchy” expanded constantly, uniting all of the Lithuanian lands, from the eleventh century onward. Sources, however, indicate the probability of other roads, including first of all the aforementioned unification of Lithuanian tribes/lands into a not necessarily stable political structure, and the skillful transformation of that structure into a state. In keeping with H. Paszkiewicz, these processes would be the ebbs he indicates in the formation of the state, i.e., when several senior princes once again replaced the ruler of a united Lithuania -thus showing that the formation of the state had not yet been completed.
In the end, we are left having to agree with Henryk Lowmianski, Vladimir Pashuto, and Edvardas Gudavičius, who, without uniformly interpreting the level of socio-economic development in the Lithuanian lands, or the context and meaning of the effects of outside factors, have grounds for stating that the work of unifying Lithuania fell upon the aforementioned Prince Mindaugas of the land of Lithuania (in the narrow sense).
In working to unify the lands of the Lithuanians into one state, Mindaugas encountered diverse unfavourable external and internal factors. His endeavours were taking place while the Order of the Knights of the Sword, the Catholic Church, and German merchants were consolidating in Livonia. The lands of the Lithuanians became of interest to these forces and their distant protectors, the Pope and the Emperor. From 1228 onward, Lithuania is mentioned as one of the pagan lands to be conquered, and is targeted in a crusade proclaimed by Pope Gregory IX in 1236. The Order and its aides were defeated, however, at the Battle of Saulė not by Mindaugas, but by the Žemaitian, Prince Vykintas. As well as revealing the capabilities of a Lithuania undergoing unification, this battle disclosed the serious internal problems in Livonia, a state on the verge of collapse. The Pope’s attempts to expand his own personal authority into the Baltic lands were also unsuccessful. At that point, the Order of the Knights of the Sword was restructured, and under the name of the Livonian Order, became a branch of the Teutonic Order warring on Prussian lands. '
These events in themselves did not directly affect the heart of the Lithuanian lands, though the conquest of the Prussians by the Teutonic Order, which began in 1231, as well as the unification of the two Orders, could not have escaped notice by the Lithuanians. Two highly aggressive state powers had formed and from Germany, who ultimately created the State of the Teutonic Order, and Livonia. In 1207 Livonia became an imperial vassal, and in 1226 the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order became an imperial prince. Bringing Christianity into the Balt lands, and creating states therein, was part of the great German advance towards the East (Drang nacb Osten). Where it happened peacefully, without coercion and military exploits, e.g., in the case of the expansion of German townspeople and city rights throughout Central and Eastern Europe, the results were positive and fruitful. In the Balt lands, however, other means were rejected, and innovations were attempted by military force. The results in Prussian, Latvian and other Balt, as well as Estonian and Liv lands were of a conflicting nature. The Catholic Church, Livonian and Teutonic Orders, and the Hanseatic League merchants brought Christian culture, the fortunes of civilisation, and a superior social organisation to the conquered lands, but these remained foreign properties. Social barriers emerged between the new-comers and the local inhabitants, who were exploited; their social structures were destroyed, and all possibilities for harmonious development within their own societies were in essence annihilated. Social subjugation was accompanied by ethnic oppression non-Germans became inferior people. ‘ Lithuanians living in the vicinity of these young and aggressive states were also threatened by a similar fate as witnessed by the crusade against it in 1236. The Livonian factor had invaded the process of the unification of Lithuania.
Unification must have taken place during the third and fourth decades of the thirteenth century with no mention of the other senior princes of the 1219 treaty. Sources reveal no agenda of events, but they do have something to say about the methods that Mindaugas used: he took up arms and assassinated certain rivals, with some of the princes submitting to his will and serving as his vassals, while others became subjects via the ritual of marriage. In other words, he acted in a similar manner to other state unifiers during a period of transformation from a pre-state to a state existence. By approximately 1245, Mindaugas was being called supreme king, and it was understood that all of the Lithuanian lands and those of certain neighbours - southern Selonia, Black Rus’, possibly the Rus’ian castles of Breslav and Minsk were in the hands of a single sovereign. His later documents indicate that his authority, though probably only nominally, was also recognised by Nadruva, Skalva, and the Yotvingians in northern Sudavia.
Thus was the state of Lithuania born established by Mindaugas at the turn of the fourth decade of the thirteenth century. Seeking to rise above the other princes and to force them to obey his will, wishing to expand his territories, and implementing his own personal aspirations, he carried out an exceptionally crucial and important work in terms of the entire Lithuanian world at that time i.e., he united all of their lands into a single state. The first stage of building a State of Lithuania was thereby completed. However, the newly created state, or to be more exact, the state which was being created, found itself in immediate danger, and was forced to defend its right to exist.
*Zigmas Kiaupa - The History of Lithuania
