Estonia - national flag
The flag was first adopted in 1881 by Vironia, an Estonian student
organization, and first hoisted in 1882. In the tricolor stands blue for the
sky, black for the earth and white for the longing for freedom. The flag was
recognized as the national flag of Estonia in 1920. It was then in use
throughout the period of independence, until the Soviet Union took power in 1940
and replaced it with the flag of the Soviet Republic of Estonia in the years
1953-1991. Since 1988, the tricolor has again been shown in public. Since
7.8.1990, the flag, which is colloquially referred to as the Sinimus
election (' the blue-black-white '), has been the country's
official national and national flag. Since 2004, June 4 has been the day of the
Estonian flag.
- Countryaah:
What does the flag of Estonia look like? Follow this link, then you will see
the image in PNG format and flag meaning description about this country.
The presidential flag has also added the Estonian coat of arms with three
lions flanked by two crossed oak branches.
Estonia (Prehistory)
The oldest settlement dates from pre-Boreal times (approximately 9000-8000 BC), when
the country was inhabited from the south by hunters and fishermen. The most
important settlements are Pulli on the river Pärnu and Kunda on the coast of the
Gulf of Finland.
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See song and lyrics about Estonia

In the Neolithic, the Narva culture developed, which is also found in Latvia
and Lithuania, and Estonia was then incorporated into the Eastern European
chamber-ceramic cultural circle. In the Bronze Age, sweating and cattle breeding
occurred. The lower layers of Estonia's oldest fortified settlement, Asva on
Saaremaa (Øsel), date to the end of this period. At the same time, connections
to southern Finland and central Sweden existed.
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such as EST which represents the official name of Estonia.
In the older Iron Age, people switched to agriculture, which resulted in
population growth. The economic recovery is reflected in large burial fields
with rectangular stone settings and in a flourishing jewelery industry with
enamel worker. At the same time, extensive iron production began, which
brought prosperity and the construction of fortifications. The Late Iron Age is
characterized by new cities of refuge, treasure finds and weapons of European
forms. Settlement occurred at that time throughout Estonia, however, with a
concentration in the areas around Tallinn and Tartu.
Estonia - history
The area that makes up present-day Estonia had no real state formation since
it from 1100-t. became the subject of German, Danish and Swedish crusades,
which not only aimed to convert the pagan Estonians to Christianity, but also to
subjugate the area.
In 1208, crusaders together with the German Order of the Sword Knights and a
Danish army made a first unsuccessful advance from Livonia towards Estonian
territory. It was below that a source mentions Dannebrog's fall from the sky
when the Danish army was in crisis; later the story was linked to the Battle
of Lyndanise in 1219. In 1217 Valdemar II had to send an army to Estonia to save
the German mission among the Estonians and in 1219 came the great Danish attack,
which meant that the northern part of Estonia came under the Danish king and
church. In the years after the capture of Valdemar Sejr in 1223, the Danes were
initially expelled from Estonia, who after the conquest of Øsel (Saaremaa) in
1227 was divided between the Order of the Sword Knights and the bishops
of Dorpat (Tartu) and Øsel-Wiek (Saare-Lääne). After a severe defeat to the
Lithuanians, the Order of the Sword Knights was incorporated into the German
Order in 1237.
At the Stensby settlement of 1238, the German Order again had to leave the
northern provinces to the Danish king. A peasant uprising 1343-45 in the Danish
part of Estonia was crushed with the help of the German Order, after
which Valdemar 4. Atterdag sold his part of Estonia to the German Order in 1346.
From the middle of the 1500's. the German Order was defeated by the Russians
and then gradually disintegrated. Although the Russians conquered most of
Estonia, the Livonian War of 1558-83 ended with Estonia being divided between
Sweden, Poland-Lithuania and Denmark. Eventually, however, Sweden gained
dominion over all of Estonia; Sweden thus got at the armistice in Altmark in
1629 Southern Estonia from Poland and in 1645 took over Øsel from Denmark after
the Peace of Brömsebro.
The Estonians were in the cities subject to a German upper class, and in the
countryside they were serfs under German landowners. The Swedish government
tried to set limits for the nobility, and especially under Charles XII in the
late 1600's. sought to improve the legal position of the Estonians.
Estonia was ravaged during the Great Nordic War 1700-21 and at the same time
suffered from plague epidemics; the country was conquered in 1710 by Russia and
was finally ceded by Sweden at the peace of Nystad in 1721. Under Russian rule,
the local German knights gained extensive autonomy, after which the legal
position of the Estonian peasantry was further aggravated and serfdom made even
more onerous. The living property was formally abolished in the early 1800's, but
it had little real significance. In the mid-1800's. conducted the Russian regime
under Alexander 2.a series of reforms which formed the basis for the liberation
of the rural population. At the same time a national revival began; in the
cities, a nationally conscious Estonian bourgeoisie emerged, which soon came to
play a leading role. An extensive Russification campaign in the 1880's met with
great resistance, and in the late 1800's. the Estonian consciousness was
strengthened culturally and politically, with incipient party
formations. The Russian 1905 revolution also spread to Estonia, where it was
brutally defeated.
After the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia, Estonia was united into a
Russian province with self-government, but after the October Revolution the same
year, the new Bolshevik rulers dissolved the Estonian parliament. As a result
of World War I, Estonia was occupied by German troops in February 1918. On
February 24, 1918, nationally-minded forces declared the country independent,
and that date has since been Estonia's National Day. However, German troops did
not withdraw until after the defeat in France and the ceasefire in November of
that year.
In the period thereafter, also known as the Estonian War of Independence, the
country was first threatened by the invasion of the Red Army, which, however,
was repulsed with the help of the British navy, the Russian white northwestern
army, and of Finnish volunteers; later German-Baltic conquest attempts followed,
which were also rejected. The War of Independence ended with a peace treaty
concluded on February 2, 1920 in Tartu, in which Soviet Russia recognized
Estonia's independence. The country's leading politicians were the
conservative Konstantin Päts and his liberal opponent Jaan Tõnisson. Several
reforms were implemented, such as the subdivision of the mainly German-owned
large estates and the separation of state and church, just as extensive rights
were given to the minorities.
An armed communist coup attempt in December 1924 was averted, but political
conditions remained unstable with many changing governments. In addition, the
world economic crisis, which hit the agricultural country of Estonia hard. The
crisis created fertile ground for a fascist-inspired right-wing movement, which
gained significant influence in parliament and in 1933 secured the adoption of a
new constitution, which gave the president far-reaching powers. However, the
acting head of state, Konstantin Päts, turned this against the movement itself
when, in 1934, in collaboration with General Johan Laidoner, the
commander-in-chief during the War of Independence, he introduced a state of
emergency and dissolved parliament. In 1938, a new democratic constitution with
a corporate character was introduced, and Päts was elected president.
At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Estonia declared itself
neutral. However, as a result of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the
Baltic states were within the sphere of interest of the Soviet Union, and in
September 1939, Estonia was forced to lay ground for Soviet military bases; the
month after, Hitle r called approximately 16,000 German-Baltics home. Soviet forces
occupied the country in June 1940, and the government was replaced.
After a parliamentary election in which all candidates were approved by the
Communist Party, the new parliament immediately requested admission to the
Soviet Union. Thereafter, a brutal Sovietization was carried out; on the night
of 14 June 1941, approximately 10,000 people to Siberia. Following Germany's attack on
the Soviet Union later that month, Estonia was occupied by German troops and
placed under the Reichskommissariat Ostland. The German occupation meant
plundering the country’s resources and great human sacrifices.
After the defeats on the Eastern Front, the Germans began to mobilize the
Estonians. During the German withdrawal in September 1944, an Estonian
government was formed, but the resistance was hopeless. Estonia was quickly
recaptured by Soviet troops and again made a Soviet republic.
The occupations and the war meant great material and human losses; the
population was reduced by approximately 1/4. It succeeded
approximately 70,000 to flee to the West. Many continued the resistance struggle in
the forests, where it was first defeated in the 1950's. To enforce
collectivization of agriculture deported tens of thousands of people in March
1949 to Siberia, of which 4/5 were women and
children. Only after Stalin's death in 1953 were the survivors allowed to
return.
The extensive militarization and industrialization favored Russian
immigration, so that entire cities and regions, especially in northeastern
Estonia, became Russian. The worst terror ceased in 1953, but ideological
pressure, surveillance, and ever-increasing Russification continued under
subsequent Soviet governments, prompting the emergence of a dissident movement.
With Mikhail Gorbachev's takeover in 1985, a transformation of the
totalitarian Soviet system began, and the protest movement gained momentum when
Gorbachev introduced his glasnost and perestroika policies. In November 1988,
Estonia's Supreme Soviet adopted a declaration of sovereignty, and the following
year, its incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1940 was declared invalid.
During the failed August coup against Gorbachev in 1991, a restoration of
Estonia's independence was declared; the country now gained international
recognition, also by the Soviet Union, and was admitted to the UN. In 1992,
Estonia got a new constitution and introduced its own currency, the
kroon. Author Lennart Meri was elected president of parliament, while Mart
Laar of the Fatherland Union formed a center-right coalition government.
Estonia became a member of the Council of Europe in 1993 and joined
NATO's Partnership for Peace " in February 1994; the same year in August, the
Russian troops left the country. After the parliamentary elections in 1995, the
National Coalition Party's Tiit Vähi (b. 1947) and his coalition government
continued the previously adopted reform course with privatizations and
adjustment to market economy. Efforts to gain membership of NATO and the EU
continued, and in 1995 Estonia became an associate member of the EU.
In 1996, the Reform Party left the government, which continued as a minority
government. That same year, President Meri was re-elected. In 1997, Tiit Vähi
resigned as head of government due to allegations of corruption and was
succeeded by his party colleague Mart Siimann (b. 1946). After the 1999
election, a center-right coalition government was formed with the Conservative
Fatherland Union, the Liberal Reform Party and the Social Democrats under the
leadership of the Conservative Mart Laar. In the 2001 presidential election, the
governing parties could not agree on a common candidate, and the opposition
unexpectedly won with veteran Arnold Rüütel.. This and disagreement between the
governing parties at the local level led to Laar's resignation in early 2002.
The Reform Party's Siim Kallas (b. 1948) then became the leader of a coalition
government, dominated by the left-wing Center Party and supported by some
Russian parties. All governments worked purposefully to gain membership of NATO
and the EU. In a referendum in 2003, 67% voted for EU membership, and in the
spring of 2004, Estonia became a member of both the EU and NATO. In April 2005,
the country's 12th government since independence was formed; it consisted of the
Reform Party, the People's Union and the Center Party with the chairman of the
Reform Party, Andrus Ansip (b. 1956), as Prime Minister. It was his stated goal
that Estonia should be an active member of the EU and NATO, and he set out to
reduce inflation with a view to adopting the euro.in 2007. However, Estonia did
not switch from the krone to the euro until 2011. Toomas Hendrik Ilves (b. 1953
in Sweden) won over incumbent President Arnold Rüütel in 2006; he was re-elected
in 2011.
Of the former Soviet republics, Estonia has managed the economic transition
best. However, relations with Russia and the Slavic-speaking minorities (29%)
are problematic. After more than ten years of negotiations, Estonia and Russia
signed a treaty on the common border in May 2005, which the Soviet Union had
amended in 1944. When the Estonian Parliament ratified the treaty in June 2005,
it extended the preamble.with a remark on the continuity between the Estonian
Republic proclaimed in 1918 and with a reference to the Tartu Agreement of 1920.
Therefore, Russia would not ratify the treaty, but revoke it and start the
negotiations anew. This breach has meant that Estonia cannot join the Schengen
cooperation, as it presupposes that the country has solved the border problems
with its neighbors. Russia proposed new negotiations, but Estonia considered
them superfluous. In 2007, a controversial Red Army memorial in Tallinn was
moved; it led to extensive demonstrations by the Russian minority. In 2012,
negotiations with Russia on a border treaty were resumed.
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