Poland in Antiquity - Baltic Peoples - Migrations and Their Effects On Baltic People

Migrations and Their Effects On Baltic People

The Baltic settlement patterns were being altered beginning in 5th century by the Migration Period population shifts and the pressure from the westbound movement of the Slavic peoples. The Western Balts took over the lands left by the Wielbark culture people and reached the eastern part of the mouth of the Vistula. A major trade route connecting the southeastern Baltic areas with the Black Sea shores went now through the regions controlled by the Balts. Expansion of the Old Prussian tribes, for example the previously mentioned Galindians and Yotvingians, encompassed today's northeast Poland and the adjacent territories further north. Galindia (today's western Masuria), including the Olsztyn group, became in 6th and 7th centuries the most affluent of the Baltic people settled lands, with highly developed local craftsmanship supplementing the wealth of items brought from distant countries.

This westbound expansion was accompanied by the regress at the southeastern bounds of the Baltic range caused by the advancing Slavs, the Balts' closest relatives. A majority of the Baltic peoples, whose population at the end of first millennium AD is estimated at about 480 thousand, became extinct during the later Middle Ages because of attempts of forced Christianisation, conquest and extermination, or assimilation, the Old Prussians being the primary example. Lithuanians and Latvians are the surviving Baltic peoples.