context: Swedes have been living in Estonia since at least the 13th century. In the 1210s and 1220s Germans and Danes conquered the territories of Estonia. Traditionally, Estonians had not lived much on the coasts. For this reason, the local manors began to attract Swedish emigrants to their lands. Swedes were also considered to be more reliable than newly converted Estonians. [1] There is no precise information about where the Swedes who migrated to Estonia came from, nor is migration mentioned in Swedish contemporary sources. Immigrants apparently came from Gotland, the eastern coast of Sweden and Swedish communities in Finland. The earliest written source on Swedish in Estonia dates back to 1294 from Haapsalu. The source mentioned Swedes living not only in Haapsalu but also in the Saaremaa region. The number of 13th-century immigrants must have been small. More immigrants came in the 1340s, when villages and farms were emptied of the failed Estonian rebellion. [1] The Swedish emigration wave to Estonia peaked in the 15th and 16th centuries. The immigrants were granted so-called Swedish law, which guaranteed them a better legal status and lower taxation than the Estonians. [2] At the same time, Estonians became practically slaves. [1] In the 1560s there were about 1000 Swedes in Estonia. [3] Swedish immigration ended during the 16th century, and their numbers were reduced by the wars that took place in the area from the 1560s to the 1640s. Wars and diseases probably killed more than half of the Swedish population, and their numbers did not return to the 1560s until the mid-1700s. [1]
question: Why are Estonian Swedes a historical minority?
answers.text: Swedes have been living in Estonia since at least the 13th century. In the 1210s and 1220s Germans and Danes conquered the territories of Estonia. Traditionally, Estonians had not lived much on the coasts. For this reason, the local manors began to attract Swedish emigrants to their lands