Editing Latvia (section)

=== Livonia and Courland in the Russian Empire (1795–1917) ===
During the [[Great Northern War]] (1700–1721), up to 40 percent of Latvians died from famine and plague.<ref>{{cite book|author=Kevin O'Connor|title=The History of the Baltic States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3b5nU4bnw4C&pg=PA29|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32355-3|pages=29–|access-date=11 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427085953/https://books.google.com/books?id=b3b5nU4bnw4C&pg=PA29|archive-date=27 April 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Half the residents of Riga were killed by [[Great Northern War plague outbreak|plague in 1710–1711]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bank.lv/eng/main/am/jubmon/nmp/index.php?32661 |title=Collector Coin Dedicated to 18th Century Riga |access-date=19 July 2010 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100719083420/http://www.bank.lv/eng/main/am/jubmon/nmp/index.php?32661 |archive-date=19 July 2010}}. Bank of Latvia.</ref> The [[capitulation of Estonia and Livonia]] in 1710 and the [[Treaty of Nystad]], ending the [[Great Northern War]] in 1721, gave Vidzeme to Russia (it became part of the [[Governorate of Livonia|Riga Governorate]]).  The Latgale region remained part of the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] as [[Inflanty Voivodeship]] until 1772, when it was incorporated into Russia. The [[Duchy of Courland and Semigallia]], a vassal state of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, was annexed by Russia in 1795 in the [[Third Partition of Poland]], bringing all of what is now Latvia into the [[Russian Empire]]. All three Baltic provinces preserved local laws, German as the local [[official language]] and their own parliament, the [[Landtag]].

The emancipation of the serfs took place in Courland in 1817 and in Vidzeme in 1819.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Lazdins|first=Janiz|date=2 July 2011|title=THE ORIGINS OF A CIVIL SOCIETY BASED ON DEMOCRATICALLY LEGITIMATE VALUES IN BALTICS AFTER ABOLITION OF SERFDOM|url=https://www.apgads.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/lu_portal/apgads/PDF/Juridiskas-konferences/ISCFLUL-7-2019/iscflul.7.2-11_Lazdins.pdf|access-date=9 July 2021|archive-date=9 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190054/https://www.apgads.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/lu_portal/apgads/PDF/Juridiskas-konferences/ISCFLUL-7-2019/iscflul.7.2-11_Lazdins.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> In practice, however, the emancipation was actually advantageous to the landowners and nobility, as it dispossessed peasants of their land without compensation, forcing them to return to work at the estates "of their own free will".<ref>Misiunas, Romuald J., Stranga, Aivars, Spekke, Arnold, Smogorzewski, Kazimierz Maciej. "history of Latvia". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Jun. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Latvia. Accessed 19 April 2025.</ref>

During these two centuries Latvia experienced economic and construction boom – ports were expanded (Riga became the largest port in the Russian Empire), railways built; new factories, banks, and a university were established; many residential, public (theatres and museums), and school buildings were erected; new parks formed; and so on. Riga's boulevards and some streets outside the Old Town date from this period.

[[Numeracy]] was also higher in the Livonian and Courlandian parts of the Russian Empire, which may have been influenced by the Protestant religion of the inhabitants.<ref>{{cite book|author=Baten, Jörg |title=A History of the Global Economy. From 1500 to the Present.|date=2016|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=50|isbn=978-1-107-50718-0}}</ref>

[[File:Latvians national rally in Dundaga in 1905.jpg|thumb|left|Latvians national rally in [[Dundaga]] in 1905]]
During the 19th century, the social structure changed dramatically.<ref name="LNA">{{cite web |title=Latvian national awakening (1860-1918) |url=https://www.onlatvia.com/latvian-national-awakening-1860-1918-74 |website=OnLatvia.com |access-date=19 March 2022 |archive-date=9 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220409052455/https://www.onlatvia.com/latvian-national-awakening-1860-1918-74 |url-status=live }}</ref> A class of independent farmers established itself after reforms allowed the peasants to repurchase their land, but many landless peasants remained. Many [[Latvians]] left for the cities and sought education and industrial jobs.<ref name="LNA" /> There also developed a growing urban [[proletariat]] and an increasingly influential Latvian [[bourgeoisie]].<ref name="LNA" /> The [[Young Latvians|Young Latvian]] ({{langx|lv|Jaunlatvieši}}) movement laid the groundwork for nationalism from the middle of the century, many of its leaders looking to the [[Slavophile]]s for support against the prevailing German-dominated social order.<ref name="YoungLatvians">{{cite web |title=Latvians in the Second Half of the 19th Century and the Early 20th Century: National Identity, Culture and Social Life |url=http://lnvm.lv/en/?page_id=1078 |website=National History Museum of Latvia |access-date=19 March 2022 |language=en |archive-date=22 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221022201215/http://lnvm.lv/en/?page_id=1078 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Another Baltic Postcolonialism: Young Latvians, Baltic Germans, and the emergence of Latvian National Movement |journal=Nationalities Papers |date=20 November 2018 |volume=42 |issue=1 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=88–107 |doi=10.1080/00905992.2013.823391 |url=https://dspace.lu.lv/dspace/bitstream/handle/7/31253/Ijabs_Nationalities_Papers_2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=19 March 2022 |last1=Ijabs |first1=Ivars |s2cid=129003059 |archive-date=11 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230911002101/https://dspace.lu.lv/dspace/bitstream/handle/7/31253/Ijabs_Nationalities_Papers_2014.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |url-status=live }}</ref> The rise in use of the [[Latvian language]] in literature and society became known as the [[Latvian National Awakening|First National Awakening]].<ref name="YoungLatvians" /> [[Russification]] began in Latgale after the Polish led the [[January Uprising]] in 1863: this spread to the rest of what is now Latvia by the 1880s. The Young Latvians were largely eclipsed by the [[New Current]], a broad leftist social and political movement, in the 1890s.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Šiliņš |first1=Jānis |title=Jaunā strāva |url=https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/22237 |access-date=19 March 2022 |website=[[Latvian National Encyclopedia]] |language=lv |archive-date=27 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127112202/https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/22237 |url-status=live }}</ref> Popular discontent exploded in the [[1905 Russian Revolution]], which took a nationalist character in the [[Baltics|Baltic provinces]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lapa |first1=Līga |title=1905. gada revolūcija Latvijā |url=https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/20773-1905-gada-revol%C5%ABcija-Latvij%C4%81 |website=Nacionālā enciklopēdija |access-date=19 March 2022 |language=lv |archive-date=19 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319145330/https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/20773-1905-gada-revol%C5%ABcija-Latvij%C4%81 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=II 1905 |url=https://www.historia.lv/raksts/ii-1905 |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=Historia |language=lv}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Muzergues |first=Thibault |date=2004-09-20 |title=Russia and the nation-state building in Latvia |url=https://sens-public.org/articles/90/ |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=Sens public |language=fr}}</ref>