This article is about the region in Europe. For other uses see Livonia (disambiguation).

Livonia (Template:Lang-liv, Latvian and Template:Lang-lt; Estonian: Liivimaa; Finnish: Liivinmaa; German and Swedish: Livland; Polish: Inflanty, Liwlandia; Template:Lang-ru) was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida. The most prominent ruler of the ancient Livonia was Caupo of Turaida.

During the Livonian Crusade ancient Livonia was colonized by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, later called Livonian Order and the name Livonia became to designate a much broader territory: Livonian Confederation on the eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea, in present-day Latvia and Estonia. Its frontiers are the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Finland in the north-west, Lake Peipus and Russia to the east, and Lithuania to the south.

Livonia was inhabited by various Baltic and Finnic peoples, ruled by an upper class of Baltic Germans. Over the course of time some nobles were polonized into the Polish-Lithuanian nobility (Szlachta) or russified into the Russian nobility (Dvoryanstvo).

Beginning in the 12th century, Livonia was an area of economic and political expansion by Danes and Germans, particularly by the Hanseatic League and the Cistercian Order. Around 1160, Hanseatic traders from Lübeck established a trading post at the future site of Riga, which Albrecht von Buxthoeven founded in 1201. He ordered the construction of a cathedral and became the first Prince-Bishop of Livonia.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia from the 1220s gives a firsthand account of the Christianization of Livonia, granted as a fief by the Hohenstaufen King of Germany, Philip of Swabia, to Bishop Albert of Buxthoeven, nephew of the Archbishop of Bremen, who sailed with a convoy of ships filled with armed crusaders to carve out a Catholic territory in the east during the Livonian Crusade.

From 1236 Livonia consisted of the following subdivisions:

• a state ruled by the Livonian Order founded by Albert in 1202, which was assimilated into the Teutonic Knights in 1237;
• the Bishopric of Riga (an archbishopric since 1255);
• the Bishoprics of Courland, Ösel-Wiek, and Dorpat, where Albert's brother Hermann established himself as the prince-bishop (Livonian Confederation). The conquest of Livonia by the Germans is described in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle.

The different states in Livonia and present day Estonia were organized in the Livonian Confederation from 1228 to the 1560s. The Livonian Confederation was a confederation of independent states. A diet or Landtag was formed in 1419. The city of Walk was chosen as the site of the diet.

In 1561 during the Livonian War, Livonia fell to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania^[1][2][3] with vassal dependency from Lithuania.^[3] Eight years later, in 1569, when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland formed Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Livonia became a joint domain administered directly by the king and grand duke.^{[3][1][4][5][6][7]}

Russia recognized Polish-Lithuanian control of Livonia only in 1582. As of 1598 it was divided onto:

• Wenden Voivodeship (województwo wendeńskie, Cēsis / Wenden)
• Dorpat Voivodeship (województwo dorpackie, Tartu / Dorpat)
• Parnawa Voivodeship (województwo parnawskie, Pärnu / Pernau / Parnawa)

Sweden gained control over the northern Estonian and central Latvian regions of Livonia, including Riga, after fighting the Polish-Swedish War during the 1620s, and incorporated it into the Swedish realm as the dominion Swedish Livonia.

The Livonian Voivodeship (Template:Lang-lt; Template:Lang-pl) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Duchy of Livonia, part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, since it was formed in the 1620s out of the Wenden Voivodeship till the First Partition of Poland in 1772.

The portion of Livonia remaining in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the Treaty of Oliva in 1660 was known as Polish Livonia, or Inflanty. It consisted mainly of the southern Latvian region Latgale within the Livonian Voivodeship with the capital of Daugavpils, or Dyneburg. This division of Livonia was codified in the Treaty of Oliva in 1660.

The Russian Empire conquered Swedish Livonia during the course of the Great Northern War and acquired the province at the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. Russia then added Polish Livonia in 1772 during the Partitions of Poland.

In 1796 the Riga Governorate was renamed as the Governorate of Livonia (Template:Lang-ru, Template:Lang-lv).

From 1845 to 1876, the Baltic governorates of Estonia, Livonia, and Courland—an area roughly corresponding to the historical Livonian Confederation—were administratively subordinated to a common Governor-General.^[8] Amongst the holders of this post were Count Alexander Arkadyevich Suvorov^[9] and Count Pyotr Andreyevich Shuvalov.

Livonia remained within the Russian Empire until the end of World War I, when it was split between the newly independent states of Latvia and Estonia. In 1918–1920 both Soviet troops and German Freikorps fought against Latvian and Estonian troops for control over Livonia, but their attempts were defeated.

In independent Latvia between the World Wars, southern Livonia became an administative region under the tradtionial Latvian name Vidzeme, encompassing the then much larger counties of Riga, Cēsis, Valmiera, and Valka.

The historical land of Livonia has been split between Latvia and Estonia ever since. The native Livonian language is still spoken in parts of Latvia, but is understood to be fast approaching extinction. The anthem (probably unofficial) of Livonia was Min izāmō, min sindimō.