The history of Riga , the capital of Latvia , begins as early as the 2nd century with a settlement, the Duna urbs , at a natural harbor not far upriver from the mouth of the Daugava River. Later settled by Livs and Kurs , it was already an established trade center in the early Middle Ages along the Dvina-Dnieper trade route to Byzantium.
Christianity had come to Latvia as early as the 9th century, but it was the arrival of the Crusades at the end of the 12th century which brought the Germans and forcible conversion to Christianity; the German hegemony instituted over the Baltics lasted until independenceβand is still preserved today in Riga 's Jugendstil German Art Nouveau architecture. From the 13th century to the birth of nationalism in the 19th and independence in the 20th, Latvia's and Riga's history are intertwined, a chronicle of the rise and fall of surrounding foreign powers over the Latvians and their territory.
As a member of the Hanseatic League , Riga's prosperity grew throughout the 13thβ15th centuriesβwith Riga to become a major center of commerce and later, industry, of whatever empire it found itself subject of. UNESCO has declared Riga's historical center a World Heritage site in recognition of its Art Nouveau architecture, widely considered the greatest collection in Europe, and for its 19th-century buildings in wood. They occupied themselves mainly with crafts in bone, wood, amber, and iron; fishing, animal husbandry, and trading.
The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia Chronicle mentions Riga's earliest recorded fortifications upon a promontory, Senais kalns "ancient hill" , later razed in the 18th century, becoming the site of Riga's Esplanade.
The origin of the name of Riga has been speculated to be related to ancient Celtsβbased on root similarity to words such as Rigomagos and Rigodunon, or that it is a corrupted borrowing from the Liv ringa meaning loop, referring to the ancient natural harbor formed by the tributary loop of the Daugava and being and earlier and common Liv place name for such formations.
