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Livonia (Livonija in Latvian, Liivimaa in Estonian) is a historical landscape in the Baltic States. It comprises the southern part of present-day Estonia and the part of present-day Latvia north of the Daugava River. The landscape was named after the Livonians, a population group that hardly exists today.

Historically, the name Livonia can refer to other, different contexts. The governorate of the same name, which was one of the three Baltic Sea governorates of the Russian Empire, is particularly influential for today's understanding of the historical region. It existed from the beginning of the 18th century until 1918 and its capital was Riga, located at the mouth of the Duna.

Livonia had previously given its name to other states and confederations, most notably the Livonian Confederation, which had existed since the High Middle Ages. The Livonian part of the Teutonic Order as well as regional ecclesiastical states belonged to the confederation. The confederation also included large parts of the present-day states of Latvia and Estonia. After the dissolution of the confederation and the Teutonic Order state in the 16th century, sovereignty changed several times. Without the southern and northern areas, Livonia initially came under Polish-Lithuanian rule, later also under Swedish suzerainty, before coming under Russian rule in the course of the Great Northern War (1700-1721). Until the beginning of the 20th century, the central role of the landowning German-speaking nobility was particularly influential in the internal social organization of the rural area.

The historical landscape of Estonia is located in north-eastern Europe. It comprises the northern part of the present-day Estonian state. The region is largely congruent with the same-named Baltic governorate in the Russian Empire which existed until 1918 and was one of three Baltic governorates alongside Livonia and Courland. In the High and Late Middle Ages and in the early modern period, parts of the region were also under the rule of Finnish princes, the Rus, Sweden, Denmark and the Teutonic Order. It was not until the Great Northern War (1700-1721) that Estonia came under Russian rule. Its urban population was in particular German-speaking, while the vast majority of people lived in the countryside, where Russian and Swedish minorities existed alongside the Estonian majority.

Kurland is a historical landscape in present-day Latvia. It extends between the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga, the Daugava River in the northeast and Lithuania in the south. Its name is derived from the Baltic Curonians, who lived here alongside the Ugro-Finnish Livonians. The largest cities in Kurland include Liepāja, Jelgava and Ventspils.

Today's understanding of the region is partly shaped by the Russian Baltic Sea Governorate of Courland, which existed from 1795 and formally until 1918. This actually included the smaller regions of Semigallia and Upper Latvia, which formed the central and eastern parts of the governorate. Today, they are often included when Courland is mentioned in a historical context. In the High Middle Ages, the influences of the Ugro-Finnish and Baltic peoples on the one hand and the Vikings on the other intersected here. In the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, the region was also under the rule of Sweden, Denmark and, in particular, the Teutonic Order. Due to pressure from Russia and Sweden, the Order eventually withdrew from the area. Smaller parts of Courland were subsequently incorporated into Poland-Lithuania. The largest part remained a fiefdom of Poland-Lithuania until 1795 as the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia. Although Russian influence gradually increased, Courland did not become part of the Russian Empire until the Third Partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1795 – significantly later than the other two Baltic Sea provinces of Estonia and Livonia, which had already come under Russian rule during the Great Northern War (1700–1721).

Riga is the capital of Latvia (population 2023: 605,273) and by far the largest city in the country. It is located in the southwest of the historical landscape of Livonia near the mouth of the Daugava River in the Gulf of Riga. Riga was an important trading and Hanseatic city with a multi-ethnic, but largely German-speaking population for centuries, whose political supremacy changed repeatedly. Until the end of the Middle Ages, it was mainly spiritual rulers (Archbishopric of Riga, Teutonic Order) who claimed the city and surrounding area for themselves, but after a brief period of Polish-Lithuanian rule, the city came under Swedish control in 1621. A century later, Riga became part of the Russian Empire and the capital of the Baltic governorate of Livonia.

In 1918, Riga became the capital of an independent Latvian state. After the German occupation during the Second World War in 1941, the Jewish population of Riga (8% of the total population) was mainly imprisoned in the ghetto, where numerous Jewish people from the territory of the German Reich at the time were also deported. In the same year, the Wehrmacht organized mass shootings of the Jewish population in the area of today's city. After the Second World War, the ethnic structure of Riga changed - the Jewish, German and Polish populations disappeared and were replaced by Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian populations. The Latvian population lost its majority in the city and fell to almost a third by the time the Soviet Union collapsed. They now make up 47% of the total population.

Tartu is the second-largest city in Estonia with just under 92,000 inhabitants. The city is located in the southeast of the country and is the seat of the county of the same name. The city' s former German name is Dorpat.

Tallinn (until 1918 Reval) is the capital of Estonia. It is located in the Harju County, right on the Baltic Sea and is home to about 434,000 people.