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The Baltic region (sometimes briefly The Baltics) is an ambiguous term used to denominate an arbitrary region connected to the Baltic Sea (also called The Baltics). The term Balticum has a more precise meaning but is not as common in English.
1 Etymology
Baltic comes from an Indo-European root balt- meaning white. Thus Baltic Sea means White Sea. The same root begins the word Belarus, also known as White Russia.
2 Denotation
Depending on the context the Baltic region might stand for:
- the present Baltic States ( Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and the Russian Kaliningrad enclave
- East Prussia and the historical lands of Livonia, Courland and Estonia ( Swedish Estonia and Russian EstoniaEstonia became a governorate-general of Russia in 1710, when it was conquered from Sweden. The former dominion of Swedish Estonia was ceded by Sweden in the Treaty of Nystad in 1719. The province consisted the northern part of the present-day Estonia corr)
- the geographical area of the above, sometimes designated by the loanwordA loanword (or a borrowing is a word taken in by one language from another. The word loanword itself is a calque of the German Lehnwort''. A calque or loan translation is a related process whereby it is the meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather the lex Balticum connected to the Baltic GermanThe Baltic Germans calling themselves Balts and occasionally referred to as German Balts Baltendeutsche, Balten and Deutschbalten respectively), were the ethnically German inhabitants of that area on the Eastern shore of the Baltic Sea which forms today ts
- the former Baltic province of Imperial RussiaThe Russian Empire ( Russian: also Imperial Russia covers the period of Russian history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great into the Russian Empire stretching from the Baltic to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposition of Nicholas II of Russia,, i.e. the lands above in addition to FinlandSuomen TasavaltaRepubliken Finland ( In Detail) ( In Detail) National motto: None Official languages Finnish and Swedish Capital Helsinki President Tarja Halonen Prime minister Matti Vanhanen Area Total % water Ranked 64th 337,030 kmē 9. 4% Population Tot and sometimes PolandThe Republic of Poland a country in Central Europe, lies between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) t
- countries on the ( BritishThe British Empire in the early decades of the 20th century, held sway over a population of 400 500 million people (roughly a quarter of the world's population), and covered nearly 30 million square kilometres, (roughly two-fifths of the world's land area) trade route through the Baltic Sea, i.e. the lands above in addition to the Scandinavian PeninsulaThe Scandinavian Peninsula is a peninsula located at the northwest corner of Europe and encloses the Baltic Sea. It extends from Russia and Finland in the north and almost reaches Denmark in the south. It contains the countries Norway on the west and Swed ( Sweden and Norway)
- Baltic Sea countries, i.e. the lands above in addition to Denmark, Germany and Russia
