The Baltic states (also known as the Baltics, Baltic nations or Baltic countries) are those countries east of the Baltic Sea that gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I. Today, this means the countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but, in the period between the World Wars, it also included Finland.
While the indigenous populations of Latvia and Lithuania are known as Baltic peoples, those of Estonia (and Finland) are Finnic peoples. Another Baltic identity, Baltic German, began to develop during the Middle Ages after the Livonian Crusade.
The term "Baltic states" in those states' indigenous languages is:
- Latvian: Baltijas valstis.
- Lithuanian: Baltijos valstybės.
- Estonian: Balti riigid, Baltimaad.
- Finnish: Baltian maat.
Read more about Baltic Countries: Etymology and Toponymic History, Cultures and Languages, Economies, Histories, Politics, Statistics
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“I have never looked at foreign countries or gone there but with the purpose of getting to know the general human qualities that are spread all over the earth in very different forms, and then to find these qualities again in my own country and to recognize and to further them.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)