Following their defeat in Lithuania at the Battle of Saule in 1236, the Sword Brothers, who had previously seen success in conquering Livonia and eventually Estonia (with the help of the Danes), amalgamated with the Knights of the Cross. Thus began the Teutonic Order, which retained the territory the Knights of the Cross had garnered in Prussia. Aside from ensuring a long-term German presence in Prussia, these developments did little more to rapidly alter the religious or ethnic composition of the region, due to the aforementioned concerns of Teutonic leadership with the compliant mobilisation of its subjects for military functions. Nonetheless, the inclusion of civilising measures taken by the Teutonic Order by past academics does imply some degree of Germanisation. As a consequence, the Teutonic Order's contributions include productive agrarian reforms and infrastructure construction: namely towns, roads and canals. Once again, the implementation of a feudal hierarchy and the civic notion of conscription duties are central to the Order's impact on Prussia, although whether this constitutes Germanisation is implicitly contentious.