Editing Samogitia (section)

==History==
{{further|Eldership of Samogitia}}
The modern concept of "[[Dialectology|dialectological]]" Žemaitija appeared only by the end of the 19th century. The territory of ancient Samogitia was much larger than current ethnographic or "dialectological" Žemaitija and embraced all of central and western Lithuania.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Žemaitija |url=https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/zemaitija/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=www.vle.lt |language=lt}}</ref>

The very term "Samogitians" is a Latinized form of the ancient Lithuanian name for the region's lowlanders, who dwelt in Central Lithuania's lowlands. The original subethnic Samogitia, i.e. Central Lithuania's flat burial grounds culture, was formed as early as the 5th-6th centuries. The western part of historical Žemaitija (before 12th–13th centuries it was inhabited by southern [[Semigallians]] and southern [[Curonians]]) became ethnically Lithuanian between the 13th and 16th centuries. The primal eastern boundary of historical Samogitia was the [[Šventoji River]] (a tributary of the [[Neris River]]); in 1387, the Lithuanian ruler (regent of Lithuania for Jogaila) [[Skirgaila]] had expanded the territory of Grand Duke's domain in [[Aukštaitija]] along the [[Nevėžis River]] at the expense of Žemaitija.
[[File:TeutonicOrder1422.png|thumb|Lands of the Teutonic Order against the region of the Samogitians in the 15th century]]
Because during the 13th through 16th centuries the [[Teutonic Order]] and the [[Livonian Brothers of the Sword|Livonian Order]] bordered Žemaitija, it was long threatened by their expansionist aims. As such, the Samogitian territory was offered to these orders, or exchanged in peace treaties, a number of times. Lithuania would then regain Žemaitija during subsequent conflicts. For more than two hundred years, old Samogitia played a central role in [[Lithuanian Crusade|Lithuania's wars against the crusading order of the Teutonic Knights]] (Knights of the Cross and Knights of the Sword). Invasions started in Lithuania in 1229. Combined military forces undertook numerous campaigns against Samogitians and Lithuanians. Saule (1236), Skuodas (1259), Durbe (1260), Lievarde (1261) are just a few of the battles that took place.

Since Žemaitija was the last pagan region in Europe left to be invaded and christened, the Teutonic Order set their sights on this last mission. Between 1345 and 1382, the Knights of the Cross attacked from Prussia some 70 times, while the Livonian Knights of the Sword made 30 military forays. Year after year, fortresses were attacked, farms and crops were put to the torch, women and children enslaved and men killed. Despite all their effort, the Žemaičiai managed to defend their lands until 1410 decisive [[Battle of Grunwald]] or Žalgiris, where united Polish-Lithuanian forces defeated the Teutonic Order and ended their crusading era.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://samogitia.mch.mii.lt/ISTORIJA/nsamogit.en.htm|title=Samogitia (History)|website=Samogitia.mch.mii.lt|access-date=24 November 2018}}</ref>{{quote box
| quote = "We do not know on whose merits or guilt such a decision was made, or with what we have offended Your Lordship so much that Your Lordship has deservedly been directed against us, creating hardship for us everywhere. First of all, you made and announced a decision about the land of Samogitia, which is our inheritance and our homeland from the legal succession of the ancestors and elders. We still own it, it is and has always been the same Lithuanian land, because there is [[Lithuanian language|one language]] and the [[Lithuanians|same inhabitants]]. But since the land of Samogitia is located lower than the [[Lithuania proper|land of Lithuania]], it is called as Samogitia, because in [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] it is called lower land [ ''Žemaitija'' ]. And the [[Samogitians]] call [[Lithuania]] as ''[[Aukštaitija]]'', that is, from the Samogitian point of view, a higher land. Also, the people of Samogitia have long called themselves as Lithuanians and never as Samogitians, and because of such identity (''sic'') we do not write about Samogitia in our letter, because everything is one: one country and the same inhabitants."
| source = — [[Vytautas the Great]], excerpt from his 11 March 1420 [[Latin]] letter sent to [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor]], in which he described the core of the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]], composed from ''Žemaitija'' (lowlands) and ''[[Aukštaitija]]'' (highlands).<ref>{{cite book |author1=[[Vytautas the Great]] |author2=Valkūnas, Leonas (translation from [[Latin]]) |title=Vytauto laiškai [ Letters of Vytautas the Great ] |publisher=[[Vilnius University]], Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore |page=6 |url=http://www.šaltiniai.info/files/literatura/LC00/Vytauto_lai%C5%A1kai.LC2100.pdf |access-date=9 May 2021 |language=lt}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Lietuvos etnografiniai regionai – ar pažįstate juos visus? |url=https://www.delfi.lt/keliones/naujienos/lietuvos-etnografiniai-regionai-ar-pazistate-juos-visus.d?id=68064162 |website=[[DELFI]] |access-date=9 May 2021 |language=lt}}</ref> Term ''Aukštaitija'' has been known since the 13th century.<ref>{{cite web |title=Aukštaitija |url=https://www.ekgt.lt/lietuvos-etnografiniai-regionai/aukstaitija/ |website=Ekgt.lt |publisher=Etninės kultūros globos taryba (Council for the Protection of Ethnic Culture) |access-date=9 May 2021 |language=lt}}</ref>
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}}[[File:En Samogitia; be Жамойць; ru Жмудь (1659).jpg|thumb|350px|left|Borders of Samogitia and [[Courland]] in 1659]]
In the 15th century, Samogitia was the last region in Core Europe to be [[Christianization of Lithuania#Christianization by Jogaila and Vytautas|converted to Christianity]]. During the 15–18th centuries, it was known as the [[Duchy of Samogitia|Duchy]] or [[Duchy of Samogitia|Eldership of Samogitia]], which included some territories of what is now considered [[Aukštaitija]] and [[Suvalkija]] as well. The Duchy of Samogitia was an autonomous administrative unit in the [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania]] with some similarities to a [[voivodeship]]. In contrast to some other aristocrats of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Lithuanian language was intensively used in the Duchy of Samogitia and its [[Samogitian nobility|nobility]] throughout the [[early modern period]].{{Sfn|Drungila|2019|p=131}} This is proven by the letter of [[Stanisław Radziwiłł]] to his brother [[Mikalojus Kristupas Radvila Našlaitėlis|Mikołaj Krzysztof Radziwiłł]] immediately after becoming the [[Elder of Samogitia]] that: "While learning various languages, I forgot [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]], and now I see, I have to go to school again, because that language, as I see, God willing, will be needed."{{Sfn|Drungila|2019|p=131}}[[File:1712. Samogitie et Lithuanie Propre, Grand Duché de Lithuanie.png|thumb|[[Lithuania proper]] (in green) and Samogitia (in red) within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in a map from 1712]]After the [[Partitions of Poland|partitions]] of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18th century, Samogitia was incorporated into the [[Russian Empire]] along with the rest of Lithuania. Samogitia was the main source of the [[Lithuanian cultural revival]] during the 19th century and was a focal point for the [[knygnešiai|smuggling of books]] printed in the Lithuanian language, which was banned by the occupying Russians.

In 1883, [[Edmund Veckenstedt]] published a book ''Die Mythen, Sagen und Legenden der Zamaiten (Litauer)'' ({{langx|en|The myths, sagas and legends of the Samogitians (Lithuanians)}}).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Veckenstedt |first1=Edmund |authorlink=Edmund Veckenstedt |title=Die Mythen, Sagen und Legenden der Zamaiten |date=1883 |publisher=C. Winter |location=[[Heidelberg]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hj4KAQAAMAAJ |access-date=6 June 2021 |language=de}}</ref>

After [[World War I]], Samogitia became a part of the newly re-established Lithuanian state. The Žemaičiai resisted the [[Bolsheviks]] and the [[Bermontians]]. During World War II, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, then in 1941 by Nazi Germany, and in 1944 again by the USSR. <!-- as the Eastern Front shifted. At the end of the war, all of Lithuania was surrendered to the Soviet Union, along with the [[Latvia]] and [[Estonia]]. Although the United States maintained that the Baltic states had been illegally annexed to the Soviet Union, this meant little until the administration of Mikhail Gorbachev conceded that the departure of the Baltic states was inevitable... --> The Soviet Union recognized the independence of Lithuania on 6 September 1991. The last Soviet troops withdrew in August 1993.

In 1945, the Soviets denied the existence of the [[Lithuania Minor]] ethnographic region, out of political advantage, and declared the Klaipėda region a part of Samogitia.