The Memel Territory, 1919-1924

• Main Author: Jensis, Donald F
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Fordham Research Commons 1958
• Subjects: History|Language; dvina
• Online Access: https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI28673300

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The Lithuanians, along with the Old Prussians and Letts, formed one of the oldest European races, the Balts in the eleventh century, at the dawn of their recorded history, they were living on the shores of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula and the Dvina rivers. The Old Prussians held the coast from the Vistula to the Nieman (Nemnas, Memel), and although the area which they inhabited still bears their name, almost all traces of them were wiped out by the Teutonic Knights. The Letts, ancestors of present day Latvians, inhabited the basin of the Dvina, and in the course of the thirteenth century were conquered by the Livonian Knights of the Sword. The Lithuanians lived in the impenetrable woods of the upper Nieman and along the coast of the Baltic.