After centuries of successive rule by the Teutonic Order, Denmark, Sweden, and the Russian Empire, a distinct Estonian national identity began to emerge in the mid-19th century.

The medieval indigenous population of Estonia was one of the last pagan civilisations in Europe to adopt Christianity following the Papal -sanctioned Livonian Crusade in the 13th century. The land of what is now modern Estonia has been inhabited by Homo sapiens since at least 9,000 BC. The Estonian language is the autochthonous and the official language of Estonia it is the first language of the majority of its population, as well as the world's second most spoken Finnic language. The capital city Tallinn and Tartu are the two largest urban areas of the country. The territory of Estonia consists of the mainland, the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,200 other islands and islets on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, covering a total area of 45,339 square kilometres (17,505 sq mi).

It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia. Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe.

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