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The ancestors of today’s Estonians arrived in the area over 5,000 years ago. With the Iron Age came the Romans, who were most likely the first to give Estonia its name. It appears that Estonia was influenced by the Romans rather than controlled by them. Later the Vikings of the ninth and tenth centuries also bypassed Estonia in their conquests.
In 1193, Pope Celestine III called for a crusade against the northern pagans, which made Estonia a target. By the mid-1200s Estonia was divided between the Danish-controlled north and the German-controlled south, and not long afterwards monastic orders began arriving and the first cathedrals were built.
During the following three hundred years, the conquered Estonians continued to practice many of their own pagan rituals in secret, to speak their own language, and to occasionally rebel against the Danish and the Germans. As part of the wider Christian Europe, the cathedrals and churches acted as centers of learning and trade. Soon towns and even small cities began to grow—the country’s capital, Tallinn, dates from about this time.
The German-speaking aristocracy controlled Livonia (today’s Estonia and Latvia) until the mid-1500s, when Ivan the Terrible's Tatar cavalry swept through the Baltics. Other threatened nations sought to stop his momentum by joining in what was later named the Livonian War. Poland, Demark, and Sweden all sent reinforcements and troops. In the end, Sweden retained power in Estonia, governing there through the 17th century, a time later remembered as a prosperous golden age.
By 1700, the Livonian War's defeated nations—Denmark, Poland, and Russia—were once again fighting for control of the lands lost in the battle. Between the fighting on all sides, a famine, and an outbreak of the plague, Sweden could not hold Estonia, which fell to Russia.
Czarist Russia held sway for the next 200 years. In World War I, when Estonian men were drafted to fight for Russia, many went willingly under the belief that if Russia won, Estonia would be granted independence as a reward. It wasn’t until the full fervor of the Russian Revolution that Estonia felt confident enough to declare its own independence, which it did on Feb. 24th, 1918. On Feb. 2, 1920, Russia signed the Tartu Peace Treaty, ceding their claims to Estonia.
At the start of World War II, Estonia was pressured into joining the Soviet Union. As a result, tens of thousands of Estonians were suddenly conscripted into the Russian army or hauled away to labor camps. So when Germany first pushed the Russians back, the Estonians initially welcomed the German troops. When it became apparent that life under the Germans would be more of the same, many Estonians went into exile in Finland.
With the end of the war and the return of the Russians, Estonia was reincorporated into the Soviet Union. It wasn't until 1991 that Estonia gained its independence from Russia for the second time. Post-independence, Estonia has focused on undoing the economic damage of the Soviet Era. The country’s success in this arena is clear. In 2004, Estonia was financially stable enough to join NATO and European Union, with the currency switching to the euro in 2011.