Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9523447:


Be careful what you say 29 8, 7:22am

@sagas @Backwater

> A well heeled nation of bog dwelling alcoholics

On par with any other european nation with similar alcoholic problems.

Bogs are relevant only in the sense that in most of Europe the original bogs have been excavated and peat burned, making the bogs into agricultural lands - at least until the soils wither out and need replenishment in the form of peat soil. And that is one item that has made Estonia an interesting target for some European countries, notably for the Netherlands.

> who didn't have the written word until the 13th century

There were written words. For agricultural bookkeeping. And for dynamic hunting during the stone ages.
But it would be extremely simplistic to believe that contracts could only be validated and verified in written form.

> Whose cities and towns were almost without exception founded by the various colonizing overlords...

Wrong again.
All the towns that joined the Hanseatic League had existed long before the arrival of the benevolent overlords.
Tallinn (Iru and Kalevan), Tartu (Tarbatu), Viljandi, Vana-Pärnu, Narva.

Not to mention that several other settlements later on got the town status as well.
And for example bronze-age Võhma settlement had an estimated population size that would place it at 2nd position in present day Saaremaa island (the island was at least 20% smaller back then due to post-glacial isostatic rebound).

So you see, the "founding effect" in this particular instance meant a stamp of the Lübeck Law or the Riga city law.
And not even additional "cultural enrichment", because all the trade houses had already been present well before the arrival of the overlords.

> the high days of being disorganized tribal woods dwellers eating fish, herding deer, worshipping random crap, and probably also having sex with reindeer.

Wrong again.
Stone age tribes had their own states whose designation (vald / valta) also means a tributary or a watershed, one being the other.

And since the iron age, Estonian counties formed a loose confederation without any central government (besides the annual parliament events). That confederation existed for 12 centuries without any internal power grabs. There has also never been war between Estonia and Finland.

> German knights, Swedes, and Russians on their way to conquer actual important places.

Wrong again.

The largest post-viking silver hoards have been unearthed from Estonia.
Even Stalin could not resist attacking from Moscow to Berlin via Estonia and Finland.
Stalin spent much less troops against Japan than it spent against Estonia.

As for the rest ... LOL.