→ History
note: consider this post dynamic, to be updated as I find events to expand on as character-forming moments in Estonia's history. this is pretty well as much for me as a quick-reference as it is for everyone else.
1st cen., CE: Roman writer Tacitus mentions amber exported from the Aestii. (note: I'm taking this as an approximate beginning to the character of Estonia, because it seems sensible. More sensible than the thousands of years there's been agricultural life in the region. A definitive date would be next to impossible, but the beginning of the common era, give or take a few hundred years is when he came into being.)
1st-10th cen.: Estonia has very little contact with Western civilization or much of anyone outside of Vikings. He picks on Sweden and Iceland and palls around with Finland. Life is good.
11th-12th cen.: Hi Russia, GTFO. Estonia wages a few minor wars/scuffles on Russia and wins, which is pretty damn awesome. Continued relations with the Vikings means that life is still pretty good.
13th cen.: FUUUUUUU GERMANIA. Basically, German monks had been trying to convert the Baltics from paganism to Christianity for a while now, with very little success. Estonia did not take kindly to this Germanic religion nonsense, to say the least, which just meant that knights got sent in to "subdue" (torture, kill, terrorize, etc.) the pagans. Riga's bishop, Albert von Buxhoerden (thanks so much for the ass, Latvia) is responsible for the Knights of the Sword, who invaded Estonia, only to be helped along and eventually merge with the Teutonic Knights (to form the local Livonian Order), about a decade after their conquering of Estonia in 1227. Thus, by 1237, Estonia was pretty sure he was getting the short end of all the sticks and was starting to form horrible opinions of all the Germanics. Especially Prussia. That little jerk.
If this wasn't enough, Denmark decided taking over the northern half of Estonia was a good idea, leaving Estonia splitting his time between the houses of two kingdoms he really disliked.
14th cen.: Thankfully, Estonia's people were as ticked about this as he was and after a few decades of planning and gathering their wits, they rebelled. On the evening of April 23, 1343, not far outside of the capital region of Tallinn, a farmhouse on top of a hill was personally lit by Estonia, per previously arranged plans, as the sign to start with the whole uprising business. The plan, essentially, was "kill all the Germans and hope the Danes leave us alone." Estonia thought this was a pretty good plan.
This worked for a while. The rebellion was tough going, but still going, which was the important bit. Then Prussia sent more Teutonic Knights, because he's a dick like that. Not even a little bit of help from Russia was any good then and Estonia's rebellion was firmly shut down by 1346.
Denmark took two looks at this and decided Estonia was more trouble than he was worth, selling him off to Prussia. Because he's a dick, too.
15th cen.: Everything sucks. Things suck so hard Estonia's still sort of looking at Russia going, "really, I don't mind if you want to help out and kick Prussia's ass for me."
16th cen.: Somewhere in here, Prussia started focusing his being a dick elsewhere and Poland, out of nowhere, was struck with "Ooo, Shiny" Syndrome, snatching up Estonia and Latvia to live with him and Lithuania. This is... okay. Not the best of times or the worst of times, but at least Poland's better than Prussia.
And this is where we get to actually insert a canonical strip! Finland drops in to catch up with Estonia and formally introduce him to his husband friend, Sweden. Sweden thinks Estonia and Latvia would make great additions to his and Finland's family and after a little bit of scuffling with Poland, gets partial custody. Not pictured in the strips is how Russia also wanted partial custody of Estonia and Sweden was all "hell, no."
17th-18th cen.: "The Good Old Swedish Time." No, seriously. Things were going pretty good. Poland was a bit of a weirdo and Sweden may have been, too, but at least he wasn't doing anything awful to Estonia, which Estonia appreciated.
Then there was a war (the rather nasty and complicated Great Northern War) and, figuratively, Sweden shoved Estonia and Latvia into a handbasket and sent them off to hell Russia. Essentially, if bouncing around households and that one famine and that really brutal plague of 1710 wasn't enough for poor Estonia, Things Get Worse. His rather pessimistic opinion at the time (1721) is that this is the beginning of the end.
19th cen.: Nationalism, rage against Russia, rage against those Germans that are still all over the place, et cetera. All the rage!!!1! Basically, Estonia is a pretty cranky fellow, waiting for Russia's grip (not always metaphorical, mind you) on him and the others (Finland, et al.) to allow them any sort of time to break out of his control.
20th cen.: This is the century wherein Estonia is occupied by everyone. Things suck. After an exhausting two decades - Germany scared Russia out, Estonia was more or less powerless until Germany's surrender to the allies, when Russia swept back in to take over again - Estonia decides enough is enough and declares independence, making Russia sign the Tartu Peace Treaty on Februrary 2nd, 1920. It's a relief when, by the end of the year, Finland has made a similar agreement with Russia.
One would think this was the end of Estonia's troubles, but nope. Trying to get on his feet as a modern, recognized state is difficult enough without the nearly world-wide depression of the 1930's. At the same time, he had to be pretty proud of the way one politician in particular, Konstantin Päts applied a near dictatorship to get the country's economy anywhere near decent. Which was really great until Russia invaded again in June, 1940. Because he's a dick.
Completely smothered by communism, it was at least a change when Germany invaded in the summer of 1944. Control of Estonia's lands is now absurdly far out of his control while he tries to fight off Germany and Russia at either side, very likely because, like pretty well everyone else in this part of Europe, they're complete and utter dicks. Thankfully, Germany gives up on him relatively quickly, leaving Estonia to be forcefully annexed into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Thanks so much for that, Russia. Life is hell for a while again. On the bright side, though, some people are kind enough to pretend that whole annexation thing didn't happen and after a rather exhausting century, Iceland is the first nation to recognize his renewed independence at the end of the USSR, on the 22nd of August, 1991, two days after Estonia declared it.
21st cen.: Despite some definite economic troubles, a bit of bootstrap-pulling and a heart-warming national pride among his people pits him currently as a rather stable nation by European standards, and the leader in the freedom-of-the-press area worldwide. On an international relations scale, from where I'm playing him in the present day, Estonia continues to be That Kid who spends all his time with the Nordics, to the point where no one quite remembers he's a Baltic. But that's okay. He's happy.
1st cen., CE: Roman writer Tacitus mentions amber exported from the Aestii. (note: I'm taking this as an approximate beginning to the character of Estonia, because it seems sensible. More sensible than the thousands of years there's been agricultural life in the region. A definitive date would be next to impossible, but the beginning of the common era, give or take a few hundred years is when he came into being.)
1st-10th cen.: Estonia has very little contact with Western civilization or much of anyone outside of Vikings. He picks on Sweden and Iceland and palls around with Finland. Life is good.
11th-12th cen.: Hi Russia, GTFO. Estonia wages a few minor wars/scuffles on Russia and wins, which is pretty damn awesome. Continued relations with the Vikings means that life is still pretty good.
13th cen.: FUUUUUUU GERMANIA. Basically, German monks had been trying to convert the Baltics from paganism to Christianity for a while now, with very little success. Estonia did not take kindly to this Germanic religion nonsense, to say the least, which just meant that knights got sent in to "subdue" (torture, kill, terrorize, etc.) the pagans. Riga's bishop, Albert von Buxhoerden (thanks so much for the ass, Latvia) is responsible for the Knights of the Sword, who invaded Estonia, only to be helped along and eventually merge with the Teutonic Knights (to form the local Livonian Order), about a decade after their conquering of Estonia in 1227. Thus, by 1237, Estonia was pretty sure he was getting the short end of all the sticks and was starting to form horrible opinions of all the Germanics. Especially Prussia. That little jerk.
If this wasn't enough, Denmark decided taking over the northern half of Estonia was a good idea, leaving Estonia splitting his time between the houses of two kingdoms he really disliked.
14th cen.: Thankfully, Estonia's people were as ticked about this as he was and after a few decades of planning and gathering their wits, they rebelled. On the evening of April 23, 1343, not far outside of the capital region of Tallinn, a farmhouse on top of a hill was personally lit by Estonia, per previously arranged plans, as the sign to start with the whole uprising business. The plan, essentially, was "kill all the Germans and hope the Danes leave us alone." Estonia thought this was a pretty good plan.
This worked for a while. The rebellion was tough going, but still going, which was the important bit. Then Prussia sent more Teutonic Knights, because he's a dick like that. Not even a little bit of help from Russia was any good then and Estonia's rebellion was firmly shut down by 1346.
Denmark took two looks at this and decided Estonia was more trouble than he was worth, selling him off to Prussia. Because he's a dick, too.
15th cen.: Everything sucks. Things suck so hard Estonia's still sort of looking at Russia going, "really, I don't mind if you want to help out and kick Prussia's ass for me."
16th cen.: Somewhere in here, Prussia started focusing his being a dick elsewhere and Poland, out of nowhere, was struck with "Ooo, Shiny" Syndrome, snatching up Estonia and Latvia to live with him and Lithuania. This is... okay. Not the best of times or the worst of times, but at least Poland's better than Prussia.
And this is where we get to actually insert a canonical strip! Finland drops in to catch up with Estonia and formally introduce him to his husband friend, Sweden. Sweden thinks Estonia and Latvia would make great additions to his and Finland's family and after a little bit of scuffling with Poland, gets partial custody. Not pictured in the strips is how Russia also wanted partial custody of Estonia and Sweden was all "hell, no."
17th-18th cen.: "The Good Old Swedish Time." No, seriously. Things were going pretty good. Poland was a bit of a weirdo and Sweden may have been, too, but at least he wasn't doing anything awful to Estonia, which Estonia appreciated.
Then there was a war (the rather nasty and complicated Great Northern War) and, figuratively, Sweden shoved Estonia and Latvia into a handbasket and sent them off to hell Russia. Essentially, if bouncing around households and that one famine and that really brutal plague of 1710 wasn't enough for poor Estonia, Things Get Worse. His rather pessimistic opinion at the time (1721) is that this is the beginning of the end.
19th cen.: Nationalism, rage against Russia, rage against those Germans that are still all over the place, et cetera. All the rage!!!1! Basically, Estonia is a pretty cranky fellow, waiting for Russia's grip (not always metaphorical, mind you) on him and the others (Finland, et al.) to allow them any sort of time to break out of his control.
20th cen.: This is the century wherein Estonia is occupied by everyone. Things suck. After an exhausting two decades - Germany scared Russia out, Estonia was more or less powerless until Germany's surrender to the allies, when Russia swept back in to take over again - Estonia decides enough is enough and declares independence, making Russia sign the Tartu Peace Treaty on Februrary 2nd, 1920. It's a relief when, by the end of the year, Finland has made a similar agreement with Russia.
One would think this was the end of Estonia's troubles, but nope. Trying to get on his feet as a modern, recognized state is difficult enough without the nearly world-wide depression of the 1930's. At the same time, he had to be pretty proud of the way one politician in particular, Konstantin Päts applied a near dictatorship to get the country's economy anywhere near decent. Which was really great until Russia invaded again in June, 1940. Because he's a dick.
Completely smothered by communism, it was at least a change when Germany invaded in the summer of 1944. Control of Estonia's lands is now absurdly far out of his control while he tries to fight off Germany and Russia at either side, very likely because, like pretty well everyone else in this part of Europe, they're complete and utter dicks. Thankfully, Germany gives up on him relatively quickly, leaving Estonia to be forcefully annexed into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Thanks so much for that, Russia. Life is hell for a while again. On the bright side, though, some people are kind enough to pretend that whole annexation thing didn't happen and after a rather exhausting century, Iceland is the first nation to recognize his renewed independence at the end of the USSR, on the 22nd of August, 1991, two days after Estonia declared it.
21st cen.: Despite some definite economic troubles, a bit of bootstrap-pulling and a heart-warming national pride among his people pits him currently as a rather stable nation by European standards, and the leader in the freedom-of-the-press area worldwide. On an international relations scale, from where I'm playing him in the present day, Estonia continues to be That Kid who spends all his time with the Nordics, to the point where no one quite remembers he's a Baltic. But that's okay. He's happy.