n.
officially Republic of Latvia
Country, northeastern Europe, along the shores of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga .
Area: 24,938 sq mi (64,589 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 2,340,000. Capital: Riga . Less than three-fifths of the population are Latvians, or Letts, who speak Latvian , one of two surviving Baltic languages. Ethnic Russians make up about one-third of the population. Languages: Latvian (official), Russian. Religions: Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism, Orthodoxy. Currency: lats. The landscape is an undulating plain, with fairly flat lowlands alternating with hills. Latvia is a fully industrialized country. Its leading manufacturing activities are machine building and metal fabrication. Other manufactured goods include ships, transportation equipment, motors, agricultural implements, and textiles. It is a republic with one legislative body; its chief of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. Latvia was settled by the Balts in ancient times. They came under the overlordship of the Varangians, or Vikings, in the 9th century and were later dominated by their German-speaking neighbours to the west, who Christianized Latvia in the 12th13th centuries. The Knights of the Sword conquered Latvia by 1230 and established German rule. From the mid-16th to the early 18th century, the region was split between Poland and Sweden, but by the end of the 18th century all of Latvia had been annexed by Russia. Latvia declared its independence after the Russian Revolution of 1917 . In 1939 it was forced to grant military bases to the Soviet Union, and in 1940 the Soviet Red Army invaded. Held by Nazi Germany (194144), the country was recaptured by the Soviets and incorporated into the Soviet Union (the U.S. did not recognize this takeover). With the breakup of the Soviet Union, Latvia gained its independence in 1991. Subsequently, it sought to privatize the economy and build ties with western Europe, as well as improve uneasy relations with Russia.