When you think about Western colonialism, the large British, French, or Spanish empires are probably the first ones that come to your mind, but during the the so-called Age of Discovery many European states established or tried to establish colonies around the world. One of the smaller and less known of these states was the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, in modern-day Latvia.
The origins of the small Duchy trace back to the Livonian Crusades of the thirteenth century, a Christianization campaign that ultimately established a Catholic state, known as Terra Mariana, on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, today’s Estonia and Latvia. In the late sixteenth century, the Tsardom of Russia and a coalition of Sweden, Denmark-Norway and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth fought for control over the region in the Livonian War. As a result of the conflict, Terra Mariana was dissolved in 1561, with Estonia under Swedish rule and the island of Saaremaa ceded to Denmark, while Southern Livonia became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and, since 1569, the larger Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was formed in the area between the Baltic Sea and the Daugava River as a nominally vassal state under the Polish Crown.
Map of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in 1740 (MapMaster, Wiklimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
In the span of a few decades, the Duchy became rich and prosperous, reaching its peak under the rule of Duke Jacob Kettler, who established a strong trading network and a merchant fleet. Still under Polish-Lithuanian rule but de facto acting as an independent nation, Courland started becoming interested in creating colonies in Africa and the Americas. The first attempt was in 1637, when around two hundred Couronian settlers tried to found a colony on the Caribbean island of Tobago, but the settlement was destroyed by Spanish troops in 1639. A second expedition to the same island in 1642 had initially more success, settling down on the north-western coast of Tobago, in what later was called Great Courland Bay, but again the colony was abandoned after being attacked by natives that were armed by Jesuit missionaries who were present in the area.
After failing twice in the Caribbean, the Duchy turned its attention to the African continent. In 1651, the Couronians built a stronghold named Fort Jacob, after the Duke, on Saint Andrew’s Island (now Kunta Kinteh Island), a small islet on the Gambia river, about 30 kilometers from the river’s mouth on the Atlantic Ocean. This was Courland’s first successful colony, but the small community of settlers had no water supply on the tiny islet and had to rely on the kindness of the locals to survive. The local kingdoms of Barra and Kombo, that controlled the area around the Gambia river, leased a small portion of the mainland near the town of Jufureh to the Duchy, and also the island that now hosts Banjul, capital of The Gambia, at the river’s mouth. In the following years, the Couronians launched two expeditions to explore the area, but both ended in failure.
Couronians colonies at the mouth of the Gambia river, in Africa (Radosław Botev, Atamari, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0).
Meanwhile, the Duchy tried again to colonize Tobago. During those years, the English and Dutch merchants were fighting over the area, while both also opposed the presence of Spain. Courland decided to support England and was given permission by its allies to settle the island. A Couronian armed ship arrived on Tobago in 1654, erecting a fort (again called Fort Jacob) and renaming the land “New Courland”, along with giving a bunch of other new names related to the country to various geographic features. The establishment of this colony completed Courland’s own triangular trade that saw slaves being taken from the settlements on the Gambia river and brought to Tobago to work in plantations of cotton, sugar, tobacco, coffee and more, making products that were then exported to Europe. However, not much is known about the Africans enslaved by Couronian colonists. In Tobago, the settlers also founded the first Lutheran congregation in the Caribbean.
Soon after the Couronians arrived, the Dutch built a colony called Lampsinsstad on the other side of the island, where now Scarborough, the largest city on Tobago, is located. A conflict between the two settlements erupted soon. The Couronian colony forced the Dutch one to accept its sovreignity but, in a few years, the latter grew to host over a thousand European colonists and five hundred African slaves, overshadowing the much smaller village established by Courland. Also, the Couronian colonists and their slaves were shrinking in number, affected by diseases and attacks from the local Carib peoples.
Location of Tobago as part of Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean (MrCholand, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).
Going back to Europe, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was at war with the Russians in the east and the Swedish in the north, and the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was on the frontline especially for the conflict against Sweden. Between 1658 and 1660, Duke Jacob Kettler was taken as prisoner by the Swedish army and all communication and supply routes that linked the colonies to the Duchy were cut. The Dutch used this opportunity to took over the colonies on the Gambia river, causing some conflict with the Couronian settlers and the locals, but ultimately the English captured Fort Jacob in 1661. The former Couronian colonies were officially ceded to the English in 1664, and Fort Jacob was renamed Fort James, after the Duke of York and future King James II of England.
The fate of the other Fort Jacob, the one on Tobago, wasn’t much different. In 1659 the Dutch colonists rebeled against the Couronians and took over the whole island, but a few months later the Duchy regained its colony with the Treaty of Oliva that ended the Swedish-Polish War in 1660. In the following years, Tobago saw attacks by buccaneers and English, French and Spanish ships, and Courland eventually abandoned the island in 1666. The Duchy later tried to regain control of Fort Jacob but they were defeated by the Dutch. The Couronians kept trying to get back on the island, new colonists arrived in 1680 and 1681 but left in 1683, and a final attempt was made in 1686. A year later the colony was already mostly abandoned, with the last colonists leaving or dying off at some point during the 1690s or the early eighteenth century. The last mention of Couronians on Tobago is dated from 1693. Europeans almost completely left the island in the following decades, until the British took control of it in 1763.
After the Swedish-Polish War, the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia never regained its former, short-lived, glory. The area kept being contested between Sweden, Russia and Poland and was ultimately incorporated into the Russian Empire after the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, later becoming part of Latvia when the country gained its independence.