United Baltic Duchies

The United Baltic Duchies also known as the Baltic Duchies, Baltic Republics, Baltic nation, or simply, the Baltics (German: Baltikum; Estonian: Balti riik ; Latvian: Baltijas valstu, Lithuanian: Baltijos valstybė), is a country in northern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.

While the native populations of Latvia and Lithuania are known as Baltic people, those of Estonia are Finnic people together with the Finns. Another Baltic identity, Baltic German, began to develop during the Middle Ages after the Livonian Crusade.

Linguistic and historical considerations intersect in defining the concept of "Baltic state": for example, while Latvian is phylogenetically related to Lithuanian (both belonging to the Baltic group of the Indo-European language family), Estonian belongs to a completely different family – the Finnic group of the Uralic languages, also spoken in Finland. The Livonians (a nearly extinct ethnic group closely related to Estonians) have also participated in the ethnogenesis of the Latvians: according to most accounts, the assimilation of (Uralic) Livonians by ancient (Indo-European) Baltic tribes was a notable influence on the development of modern Latvian language.

At the same time, despite considerable linguistic proximity, politically Latvia and Lithuania have gone different ways for most of their history, Lithuania at one point forming a commonwealth with Poland, giving rise to one of the largest countries in Europe at the time; while Latvia and Estonia are ruled by the Baltic German elite for over 800 years. After the collapse of Livonia, parts of Latvia and Estonia came under influence of the Commonwealth and Sweden. This lasted until the 18th century, when the lands of all three countries were gradually absorbed into the Russian Empire. The Baltic duchy gained independence after the First World War and fought alongside the Central Powers in World War II. It also joined the German bloc in the Cold War. Today German is common in the Duchies and slowly but surely replaces the three other languages.

The country is a member of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is classified as high-income economy by the World Bank and maintains a high Human Development Index. It is also a member of the OECD. It consists of four duchies: Estonia, Livonia, Courland and Lithuania.