Latvia

Claire Throp

Description

Latvia offers complete coverage of this fascinating country, including sections on history, geography, wildlife, infrastructure and government, and culture. It also includes a detailed fact file, maps and charts, and a traceable flag.

Sujets

• Letonia
• Latvia
• Lettonie

Informations

• Publié par: Capstone Global Library
• Date de parution: 05 juillet 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781406233629
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Countries Around the World Latvia

Claire Throp

Raintree is an imprint of Capstone Global Library Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales having its registered office at 7 Pilgrim Street, London, EC4V 6LB – Registered company number: 6695582

Text © Capstone Global Library Limited 2012 First published in hardback in 2012 The moral rights of the proprietor have been asserted.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS (www.cla.co.uk). Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission should be addressed to the publisher.

Edited by Kate de Villiers and Vaarunika Dharmapala Designed by Joanna Hinton-Malivoire Original illustrations © Capstone Global Library Ltd 2011 Illustrated by Oxford Designers & Illustrators Picture research by Ruth Blair Originated by Capstone Global Library Ltd Printed and bound in China by CTPS

ISBN 978 1 406 22795 6 (hardback) 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Throp, Claire. Latvia. -- (Countries around the world) 947.9'6086-dc22 A full catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce photographs: p.27Alamy (© vario images GmbH & Co.KG); Getty Images p.10(David Rubinger/Time Life Pictures), p.33(Walter Iooss Jr. /Sports Illustrated); iStockphoto p.9(© Ints Vikmanis), p.18(© Indars Grasbergs), p.19(© Ian Sargent), p.25(© Jurijs Korjakins), p.34(© Paul Pegler); Photolibrary p.35; Shutterstock p.5(© Richards), p.7(© Nikonaft), p.8(© Tupungato), p.13 (© Andrejs Jegorovs), pp.14, 15(© krosbona), p.16(© Renars Jurkovskis), p.17(© syaochka), p.21(© Ainars Aunins), p.23 (© Andrejs Jegorovs), p.25(© Julien), p.29(© Nikonaft), p.31 (© Ints Vikmanis), p.37Pankova), p.(© Ludmila 39(© Nikonaft), p.46(© pdesign).

Cover photograph of Riga reproduced with permission of Getty Images (© Garron Nicholls/Flickr).

We would like to thank Daniel Block for his invaluable help in the preparation of this book.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders of material reproduced in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in subsequent printings if notice is given to the publisher.

Disclaimer All the internet addresses (URLs) given in this book were valid at the time of going to press. However, due to the dynamic nature of the internet, some addresses may have changed, or sites may have changed or ceased to exist since publication. While the author and publisher regret any inconvenience this may cause readers, no responsibility for any such changes can be accepted by either the author or the publisher.

Contents

Introducing Latvia...................................................................................... 4 History: a fight for independence ........................................................ 6 Regions and resources: forests, lakes, and rivers ..........................12 Wildlife: a nature paradise.....................................................................18 Infrastructure: government and education ....................................24 Culture: singing, sport, and art nouveau .........................................28 Latviatoday................................................................................................34 Factfile.........................................................................................................36 Timeline .......................................................................................................40 Glossary .......................................................................................................42 Findoutmore............................................................................................44 Topic tools...................................................................................................46 Index .............................................................................................................48

Some words in the book are in bold,like this. You can înd out what they mean by looking in the glossary.

4

Introducing Latvia

What do you know about Latvia? You may have heard that Latvians love to sing. Their folk songs and song festivals are famous. The beauty of Riga, its capital city, is well known. Latvia also has many forests and deserted beaches.

Where is Latvia? Latvia is officially known as theRepublicof Latvia. The country is small – about the size of Ireland. There are just under 2.3 million people in Latvia. It is one of the few countries to have a smaller population today than it did 20 years ago. This is partly due to Russians returning to Russia since Latvia’s independence. About two-thirds of Latvians live in cities and towns.

Latvia has been described as sitting at the crossroads of northern and Eastern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic States and is situated between Estonia and Lithuania.

Russian connection Latvia has a history of invasion from other countries that wanted to use its importanttraderoutes. For most of the 20th century, Latvia was under the control of Russia. This has resulted in a strong Russian influence today. It is thought that about 29 per cent of the population is Russian. All three Baltic States have gained their independence since 1991.