page_title: Samogitia
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Samogitia / History
caption_attribution_description: Беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎: Курляндыя (Kurlandyja) і Жамойць (Žamojć). МапаEnglish: Historical borders of Samogitia, 1659
context_page_description: Samogitia or Žemaitija is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. Žemaitija is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its largest city is Šiauliai. Žemaitija has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian dialect.
context_section_description: The modern concept of "dialectological" Žemaitija appeared only by the end of the 19th century. The territory of ancient Samogitia was much larger than current ethnographic or "dialectological" Žemaitija and embraced all of central and western Lithuania.
  The very term "Samogitians" is a Latinized form of the ancient Lithuanian name for the region's lowlanders, who dwelt in Central Lithuania's lowlands. The original subethnic Samogitia, i.e. the Central Lithuania's flat burial grounds culture, was formed as early as the 5th–6th centuries. Before that, it was inhabited by southern Semigallians and southern Curonians. The western part of historical Žemaitija became ethnically Lithuanian between the 13th and 16th centuries. The primal eastern boundary of historical Samogitia was the Šventoji River (a tributary of the Neris River) since the end of the 13th century (at about that time, the Lithuanian ruler Vytenis had expanded the territory of his domain in Aukštaitija along the Nevėžis River at the expense of Žemaitija).
  Because during the 13th through 16th centuries the Teutonic Order and the Livonian Order bordered Žemaitija, it was always threatened by their expansionist aims. As such, Samogitian territory was offered to these orders, or exchanged in peace treaties, a number of times. Lithuania would then regain Žemaitija during subsequent conflicts.
  For more than two hundred years, old Samogitia played a central role in Lithuania's wars against the crusading order of the Teutonic Knights (Knights of the Cross and Knights of the Sword). Invasions started in Lithuania in 1229. Combined military forces undertook numerous campaigns against Samogitians and Lithuanians. Saule (1236), Skuodas (1239), Durbe (1260), Lievarde (1261) are just a few of the battles that took place. Since Žemaitija was the last pagan region in Europe left to be invaded and christened, the Teutonic Order set their sights on this last mission. Between 1345 and 1382, the Knights of the Cross attacked from Prussia some 70 times, while the Livonian Knights of the Sword made 30 military forays. Year after year, fortresses were attacked, farms and crops were put to the torch, women and children enslaved and men killed. Despite all their effort, the Žemaičiai managed to defend their lands until the 1410 decisive Battle of Grunwald or Žalgiris, where united Polish-Lithuanian forces defeated the Teutonic Order and ended their crusading era.
  In the 15th century, Žemaitija was the last region in Europe to be converted to Christianity. During the 15–18th centuries, it was known as the Duchy or Eldership of Žemaitija, which included some territories of what is now considered Aukštaitija and Suvalkija as well. The Duchy of Žemaitija was an autonomous administrative unit in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with some similarities to a voivodeship.
  After the partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Žemaitija was incorporated into the Russian Empire along with the rest of Lithuania. Žemaitija was the main source of the Lithuanian cultural revival during the 19th century and was a focal point for the smuggling of books printed in the Lithuanian language, which was banned by the occupying Russians.
  After World War I, Žemaitija became a part of the newly re-established Lithuanian State. The Žemaičiai resisted the Bolsheviks and the Bermontians. During World War II, Lithuania was occupied in turn by both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russians as the Eastern Front shifted. At the end of the war, all of Lithuania was surrendered to the Soviet Union, along with the other Baltic States of Latvia and Estonia, as a consequence of the Yalta Agreement. Although the United States maintained after Yalta that the Baltic states had been illegally annexed to the Soviet Union, this meant little until the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev conceded that the departure of the Baltic states was inevitable, and the Soviet Union at last recognized their independence on 6 September 1991. The last Soviet troops withdrew in August 1994.
  In 1945, the Soviets denied the existence of the Lithuania Mi
caption: Borders of Samogitia in 1659
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