In 1370, Casimir the Great died. He was the last in the line of rulers in the Piast dynasty, and had helped modernize the Polish state by introducing such innovations as the codification of law. Because he had no heir, the Polish throne passed first to his nephew and then, in 1385, to his nephew’s daughter Jadwiga. She chose to ally her country with the pagan Lithuanian state to the north, which had been very successful in defeating foreign invaders, and would hopefully strengthen her state enough to do the same. Lithuania would benefit as well; the added Polish might would help to keep the Russians, who were now becoming stronger and more united, at bay. Thus Jadwiga married Lithuanian Grand Duke Jagiello and bound the two countries together for centuries. The united empire that they founded amassed a huge territory, from the Baltic to the Black Sea. At its peak it also contained the cities of Minsk and Kiev, which are the capitals of modern-day Belarus and Ukraine.
This “personal union,” also called the union of Krewo, was transformed into a more formal alliance with the Treaty of Lublin in 1569. With this agreement, Lithuania became a more subordinate part of the dominant Polish section of the empire. While the Lithuanians had never used their own language for government affairs—instead they spoke a Slavic language related to modern Belarussian—the Polish language had supremacy over Lithuanian. The Polish word for formal address, “Pan” became used in Lithuanian, and other words made their way into the language as well. Author Anatol Lieven says in his book The Baltic Revolution that the combined empire had no less than six official languages: Polish, German, Latin, Ruthene (another Slavic language), Armenian and Hebrew. Lithuanian wasn’t even on the list. The Polish religion also held sway over the Lithuanians; in 1386 Jagiello converted to Catholicism. While Paganism was still practiced by many Lithuanians until the 1500s, Catholicism grew stronger and today Lithuania is the only Catholic Baltic state.
Lithuania also took part in Poland’s decline and collapse. Poland’s economy became weaker starting in the 1620s, and the region would remain less developed than its neighbors for centuries. While Estonia and Latvia had benefited from innovations and technology introduced by the Germans, Lithuania would not have the same advantages because they had managed to keep the Germans out. Even in the 20th century, Lithuania was more rural, less industrialized and less wealthy than the other two Baltic States.
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