Lithuanian internet gates

The first settlers of Lithuania arrived in aproximatelly 10, 000 B.C. (Paleolithic period), when the climate warmed up and glaciers started receding from the territory of Lithuania to Scandinavia. This period marks the beginning of Lithuania’s history which counts twelve thousand years now. Peaceful life on the eastern Baltic coast came to an end about 2, 500 B.C., when newcomers from the south began to migrate to the territories inhabited by hunters and fishermen. It took several centuries for the Baltic tribes to emerge in approximately 2, 000 B.C. It was some time between the fifth and the sixth centuries that the major Baltic tribes recognizable today took shape: Curronians, Sellonians, Samogitians (lowlanders), Lithuanians, Aukštaičiai (highlanders) and Semigalians.

 

 

In the Middle Ages, Lithuania, unlike other Baltic countries (Latvia and Estonia), had already had its state: the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Magnus Ducatus Lithuaniae). It is generally accepted that the state of Lithuania found its way into the world maps, following the coronation of Mindaugas, ruler of the consolidated Lithuania, on 6 July 1253. The Papal Bull granted the State with the highest title of the monarchy, which meant that Lithuania was recognized by and accepted into the family of the Western Europe as an equal member of the political system.

 

The Grand Duchy of Lithuania stretched from the Baltic to the Black seas, covering nearly all the territory of current Lithuania and entire Belarus as of the mid-14th century, and a better part of the Ukraine as of the second-half of the 14th century, thus emerging as an important political power in Eastern and Central Europe.The success of the expansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was essentially based on ethnic and religious tolerance towards those who were traditionally considered potential enemies.

First written Constitution

 

The Lithuanian Statutes having served as the legal framework testify to the fact that it was as early as the 16th century that Lithuania became an integral part of the Western Europe. The legal thought reached further heights at the end of the 18th century when a Constitution was adopted on 3 May 1791. It was the first constitution in Europe (preceding the French Constitution), and the second in the world after the US Constitution adopted in 1787. The Commonwealth Constitution was directly inspired by the Declaration des droits de I'homnte et du citoyen, adopted in 1789.

 

 

In 1918, the Council of Lithuania (an interim authority) had enough stamina and determination to sign the Act of independence of Lithuania “re-establishing an independent state based on democratic principles, with Vilnius as its capital city, severing all previous links with other states.” Having withstood the fight for independence against Bolsheviks and Polish invaders, Lithuania sealed its parliamentary democracy in the Constituent Assembly (Steigiamasis Seimas) in 1920. The historical tragic flight by Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas, who were among the first in the world to fly a propeller plane over the Atlantic) in 1933, became a national symbol of patriotism.

 

The principles of the civic society, cultural values and farming foundations rooted in during this period helped Lithuania to survive the Soviet occupation and subsequently served as ideological basis for the restoration of the independence.

 

 

Having taken advantage of favourable international developments, and driven by its foreign policy aims directed against Lithuanian statehood, the USSR occupied Lithuania in 1940.

 

 

Lithuania’s steadfast strife for freedom and a peaceful anticommunist movement undermined and brought about the final collapse of the communist empire. The Gorbachiov’s perestroika launched in 1985 had an enormous impact on the developments in Lithuania. The summer of 1988 saw emerging national revival movement (called “singing revolution”) across the Baltic states. The Reform Movement of Lithuania (Sąjūdis) established on 3 June 1988 convened massive gatherings which turned the history of Lithuania. To demonstrate the scale of anti-communist movement, the Reform Movement of Lithuania in cooperation with the Estonian and Latvian counterparts arranged a grand-scale protest campaign called Baltic Roadon 23 August 1989 marking the 50th anniversary of Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. The Supreme Council elections held on 24 February 1990 brought a landslide victory for the Reform Movement of Lithuania. The Supreme Council (later renamed Reconstituent Seimas) proclaimed the re-establishment of Lithuania’s independence on 11 March 1990. This was the third time in history that Lithuania started an epoch of autonomous life.

 

 

Following its EU and NATO membership in 2004, Lithuania again reunited with the European family. Once an EU member, Lithuania has become an official donor country and has been giving aid to Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, South Caucasus, Afghanistan and Iraq; it has also been fulfilling multilateral obligations within the EU framework.