Early settlements

Through the results of archaeological excavations, it is estimated that human activity in the Tallinn area began about 5,000 years ago. This is due to finds of different types of pottery dating back to the time around the year 3000 BC.

 

Battle of Lyndanisse

It is believed that a castle was built in the area of ​​present-day Tallinn Toompea about 1050. It provided a breeding ground for further activity and was thus the beginning of the future Estonian capital.

With the 13th century, interest in the area increased from both Danish and German. The Christian German Order conducted northern crusades during this time, and Danish King Valdemar II also sought expansion and sailed with a fleet against the province of Revalia in the early summer of 1219.

The Danish cross army consisted of the king and, among others, Bishop Anders Sunesen of Lund, Bishop Theoderik of Estonia and leaders of vassal states such as Rügen. After their departure, they established camp and fort Castrum Danorum at Lyndanisse. The Esters called the site the Danes’ Borg / Taani linen, which later became Tallinn.

The Estonians negotiated with the Danes while gathering an army of attack striking from five different directions on June 15, 1219. The Danish army had to flee and Bishop Theoderik was killed, which the Estonians believed had killed King Valdemar II.

The Danish army was pressured by the attackers, but led by Vitslav I of Rügen, a swift counter-attack was carried out, giving the king’s cross army the necessary time to regroup.

Now it was the Danes who attacked, and according to legend, Bishop Anders Sunesen knelt in prayer on a hilltop. When he stretched his arms toward the sky, the Danes moved forward, and with fatigue he had to lower his arms and thereby stop the advance.

Helpers came and they held the bishop’s arms. Underneath the crucial and most intense signs came another sign. God sent a red flag with a white cross down from the sky, and it gave renewed hope, fighting spirit and victory over the Esters, and the king decided that the fan should be the flag of the Danes, which it has been ever since; with the name Dannebrog.

The Danes then built a castle on Toompea, and Bishop Andreas Sunesen became the first Danish regent in Tallinn. The king gave permission for the city to use the royal coat of arms, thereby also carrying today’s city arms the three blue lions on a golden background.

 

Commercial rights and commercial city

In 1248, King Erik IV Plovpenning granted Tallinn commercial city rights with Lübeck as an example. It linked the city commercially to the German Baltic Sea cities, and the growing trade also led Tallinn to become a member of the German-dominated Hanseatic League in 1285.

The marketplace rights also meant the establishment of a city government in the small town that was strategically good for trade between the German Hanseatic cities and Russia, where the dominant city in the area was nearby Novgorod. Tallinn was thus a growing city, and it was also in a strategically good place.

Tallinn was, despite Danish rule, a German-dominated city, where mainly German was spoken, which was also the official language. Estonian culture thrived, but it was in the areas outside Tallinn.

 

German era

In 1346, the Danish king sold Tallinn and northern Estonia to the German Order, whose governor moved into the Toompea hill as a representative of the livelihood portion of the order. However, the city government continued its work, the members here being elected among the most affluent, often merchants.

Tallinn’s commercial and urban development was from this time German influenced over several centuries. The city was booming and had quickly gained department store rights making it a transit point and. It brought new growth and more jobs; partly because of the merchants’ obligation to offer goods in either Tallinn, Riga or Pärnu in order to trade with Russia.

One of Tallinn’s competitors in the area was Visby on Gotland. When it was destroyed by the Danes in 1361, it meant a further dominant position for the city on the Estonian north coast.

Population was increasing. It grew from around 1,000 in the year 1300 to 6,000-7,000 later in the Middle Ages, and the new citizens came mainly from the rural population who moved to the city due to the good job opportunities of merchants and workshops.

The old 13th-century town had walls that only went around a small area at the town hall, growing. With a new city wall and many institutional buildings such as the town hall and low-rise buildings, the area of ​​the city was greatly increased, which was in line with the economic and population development.

After a major fire in 1433, another major expansion started. The 15th century was also the highlight of Tallinn as a Hanseatic city, where, among other things, the 159-meter high spire at St. Olav’s Church was erected. After this the town gradually lost its importance; just as the power of the Hanseatic League was steadily diminishing.

 

The Swedes arrive

In the 1520s, the thoughts of the Reformation came to Tallinn and Estonia, which were still under the rule of the German Order. The order was Catholic and it was not sustainable with a Catholic rule in a Protestant country.

With the Livelian War in the years 1558-1583, the Baltic Sea powers fought to and fro in the Estonian territory. German Gotthard von Kettler asked both Gustav Vasa and the subsequent King Erik XIV for help, but his demands were too high. However, Erik XIV promised Tallinn protection against the fact that the city would become Swedish after the war.

Von Kettler had established a Polish garrison on the castle of Reval, which Tallinn was called at this time. The Swedes forced the Poles to capitulate, and in 1561 Tallinn became Swedish; a status that lasted for more than 150 years.

Swedish Estonia was ratified by the Peace of Stettin in 1570; a peace where Denmark returned to Estonia with the areas Wiek and Ösel.

In the beginning, battles continued over the area; For example, Tallinn and the Swedes had to defend themselves against sieges from the Russian side in 1570-1571 and again in 1577.

During the period, the Swedes established Estonia in the country Sweden as a new administrative unit with Tallinn as the capital. Thus, there was marked self-government, and trade rights continued as in the German era. One difference, of course, was the formal rule in which the Swedish Governor-General as King’s representative was the supreme authority.

Tallinn’s Old Town had been well preserved through the Livelian War, but the plague epidemic in 1602-1603 and the great fire in 1684 at Toompea put the city’s development back on track. The 16th century, however, also offered such positive things; for example, a high school was established and books were printed in Estonian.

 

Great Northern War and Russian Estonia

The Swedish kings were successful in reforms in Sweden. An example was the abolition of the life trait, which was also tried in Swedish Estonia. Here, however, the nobility was strong and opposed the will of reform.

The Great Northern War of 1700-1721 hit Tallinn hard with famine and disease epidemics. In 1708-1710 the population decreased from 10,000 to 2,000.

In 1710, the city was taken by Russia with Peter I at the head. The Russian army won the fighting, and with the end of the war on Nysted, Tallinn was formally made a Russian possession as part of the three Swedish-Baltic provinces of Svenska Estonia, Svenska Livland and Svenska Ingermanland. The present Estonia was later formed by Svenska Estonia and the northern part of Svenska Livland.

Russia’s takeover of Tallinn led to new investments; for example, Peter let the Great Tallinn harbor expand in the years 1714-1722, and a shipyard was quickly established. In addition, the city government and city rights were once again upheld. This lasted until the 19th century, when greater integration into the Russian Empire began. Tallinn’s magistrate was deposed in 1889.

In the 19th century, factories were built in the city, and in 1870 the Baltic Railway was built; it connected Tallinn with the empire of St. Petersburg. The economy and culture flourished. Among other things, several theaters were erected, and towards the end of the century the population increased from 44,000 to 160,000 in 1881-1917.

 

USSR

The Estonian local government movement began in earnest with the election of the first Estonian mayor of Tallinn in 1906. In early 1918, when the Russian revolution had also shaken political structures in Tallinn, Estonia proclaimed its independence on February 24 and subsequently became invaded by Germany. After the end of World War I, the war instead became a war for Estonian independence from the Soviet Union, and with the Tartu peace treaty on February 2, 1920, the independent republic of Estonia was proclaimed with Tallinn as its capital.

The lack of access to the Russian market had negative consequences for the economy. Only in the late 1930s did growth return, and a few years later World War II broke out. In 1940, the Soviet Union annexed the young republic, thus becoming the Estonian Soviet Republic. When the war spread to the Soviet Union in 1941, the country was occupied by Germany in the years 1941-1944. During the bombing, many buildings were lost; however, there was only relatively minor destruction in the Old Town.

When the Germans were retiring in 1944, the Soviet Union annexed again Estonia, which the following decades integrated into the great union. Once again, it was Tallinn as the capital.

Throughout the Soviet era, the Baltic countries were relatively prosperous, as were Estonia and Tallinn. For example, there was an industrial boom in the city during this period, which led to a sharp increase in the population to about 500,000.

Culturally, Tallinn became part of the world event that the 1980 Olympic Games were. The games were held in Moscow while the Olympic sailing competitions took place on the water from the Pirita area of ​​Tallinn. Large facilities and buildings were completed for the apartment.

 

Tallinn today

In August 1991, an independent Estonia was once again proclaimed, making Tallinn once again the capital of its own country. That status provided new opportunities, and over the past decades large amounts of money have again been invested in the development of the city, which has acquired countless modern glass and steel buildings.

Large areas have been developed with new business centers, shops, hotels and other buildings, which provide a sharp and exciting contrast to the old town, which stands as it has almost done since the Middle Ages.