this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2024
99 points (100.0% liked)

A Comm for Historymemes

1354 readers
466 users here now

A place to share history memes!

Rules:

  1. No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.

  2. No fascism, atrocity denial, etc.

  3. Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.

  4. Follow all Lemmy.world rules.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
top 3 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 28 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Explanation: Poland was long-Catholic, but Lithuania was one of the last pagan holdouts in Europe. For this reason, a crusade was undertaken by the Teutonic Knights (of horned helmets fame) to convert Lithuania... BY THE SWORD!

Poland, however, managed to convince Lithuania to convert mostly-peaceably instead, and formed the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. This did not stop the Teutonic Order's wars which involved mass plundering and total conquest of the Baltic. Curious! Wars, naturally, ensued with the Commonwealth, which the Teutonic Order eventually lost.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

You're oversimplifying a bit. Lithuania stayed pagan for a long time because of many different interest groups, both foreign and domestic.

Lithuania conquered a lot of Orthodox Rus lands and the Rus feared that they will be forced to become Catholic, for example. Also, there were few strong Catholic states in the region that could make strong allies.

Poland made Lithuania convert to Catholicism by accepting their grand duke Jogaila to become their king (by marrying their princess Jadwig), thus making him de jure leader of both Poland and Lithuania. For the Polish, it was an attempt to reduce Austrian influence on their state.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Haha not likely, in my crusader kings games I always wipe out the christians