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Nationalities Papers
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The colony of the colonized: the Duchy of Courland's Tobago colony and contemporary Latvian national identity
Harry C. Merritt
a a

Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA Available online: 23 Jun 2010

To cite this article: Harry C. Merritt (2010): The colony of the colonized: the Duchy of Courland's Tobago colony and contemporary Latvian national identity, Nationalities Papers, 38:4, 491-508 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2010.482131

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Nationalities Papers Vol. 38, No. 4, July 2010, 491 508

The colony of the colonized: the Duchy of Courlands Tobago colony and contemporary Latvian national identity
Harry C. Merritt
Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA (Received 3 November 2009; nal version received 24 March 2010) This paper examines the legacy of the Duchy of Courlands overseas colony of Tobago as it relates to present-day Latvian national identity using the ethno-symbolist approach of Anthony D. Smith and comparative cases. As Latvia is a small nation that has been an independent nation-state for only two short periods, national legitimacy and pride pose particular problems for Latvians. To this end, Latvian historians have worked to reinterpret the Baltic German-dominated Duchy of Courland as a positive period of Latvian national history and have sought to emphasize ethnic Latvian involvement in the Duchys colonial endeavors, especially on the island of Tobago. Their efforts have then ltered into the general Latvian consciousness through books, lm, plays, and place names. Since Latvias independence from the USSR, the former colony of Tobago has gained renewed importance for Latvians who are experiencing a widely perceived notion of postcolonialism. This paper concludes that the appropriated colony of Tobago will continue to rise in importance as a component of Latvian national identity. Keywords: Latvia; Tobago; Duchy of Courland; historiography; colonialism

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Introduction Travelers from Western Europe or North America in the northeastern European country of Latvia may be bemused by certain aspects of Latvian history and culture that they encounter there. Perhaps most bafing for new visitors unfamiliar with the history of the area might be repeated encounters with the term Toba go. This word, the name of the Caribbean island of Tobago transliterated into Latvian orthography, commonly appears as the name of a business or as a prominently advertised vacation destination in the window of a travel agency. By questioning the locals, a visitor may discover that these references to Tobago allude to a period when it was colonized by an early modern German principality, the Duchy of Courland, located in present-day Latvia. Although modern Latvia is ostensibly removed by several degrees from this small Duchy and its colonial ventures, Tobago has been incorporated into the Latvian historical narrative and has subsequently been appropriated as a national symbol in contemporary Latvian culture. By utilizing the ethno-symbolist theory of Anthony D. Smith as well as comparative cases to analyze works by Latvian historians and allusions to Tobago in Latvian popular culture, this paper argues that the repeated referencing of Tobago reects a process of building Latvian national identity. In particular, Smiths notion of appropriation informs both the usage of the Tobago colony specically and the development of Latvian national identity in general. With its colonies, the seventeenth-century Duchy

Email: harry.c.merritt@gmail.com

ISSN 0090-5992 print/ISSN 1465-3923 online # 2010 Association for the Study of Nationalities DOI: 10.1080/00905992.2010.482131 http://www.informaworld.com

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of Courland can be re-envisioned by Latvians as another golden age for their nation outside of the distant past or twentieth century. Additionally, the freedoms granted to settlers of the Courlander colony on Tobago provide a template by which ethnic Latvians could have become enfranchised members of the Duchy, not unlike other multinational European states in the age of colonial expansion. The parallel toponymy on Tobago of place names taken from Latvia also provides a basis for the reinterpretation of the island as a place of contemporary national signicance to Latvians. Gradually, through memorialization on and the organization of pilgrimages to Tobago, the importance of the Tobago colony to Latvian national identity has been growing. Finally, the signicance of the Duchy of Courlands Tobago colony to the Latvian national narrative has increased immensely following Latvian independence from the Soviet Union. With the widespread perception in Latvia that the country was a victim of colonialism under Soviet rule, the existence of a historical Latvian colony helps to mitigate the negative postcolonial feelings of the present.
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Historical overview of Courland and Latvia The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is named for the two Baltic tribes which inhabited its territory, the Couronians and Semigallians.1 Following conquest by German knights in the Northern Crusades, the Latvian tribes became serfs tied to feudal lords, while ethnic Germans formed the bulk of the nobility, clergy, and town-dwelling burghers. Secularization of the Livonian Order and the end of the Livonian War led to the creation of this rump territory the Duchy of Courland in 1582 that was ruled by the Kettler dynasty, descended from the penultimate master of the Order. Though ostensibly subservient to the Polish crown as a vassal state, the Duchy of Courland was the only independent state during the early modern period to exist in what is today Latvia. For this reason it is of great importance to Latvian historians. At the time of its foundation, the Duchy of Courland contained about 200,000 inhabitants in 27,000 square kilometers of territory, the vast majority of whom were ethnically Latvian (Berkis, History of the Duchy 5). Despite possessing limited natural resources and only marginally fertile soil, the Duchy was blessed with numerous waterways including the navigable Daugava, Lielupe, and Venta Rivers as well as some of the northernmost ice-free ports in the Baltic Sea, Ventspils and Liepa ja. The capital was established at Mitau, today known as Jelgava, centrally located in the Duchy and straddling the Lielupe. By the seventeenth century the Duchy was following a modernizing course of development mirroring both that of many of the Protestant principalities of Germany and that of the Duchys emerging rival in international trade, the Dutch Republic. Under Duke James Kettler2 (r. 1642 1682) the theories of mercantilism and the Rechtsstaat were embraced, and the Duchy of Courland became a major player in both regional and wider European affairs:
Two decades in the middle of the two hundred-year period of its existence brought to the small Duchy prosperity and fame . . . First [Duke James] turned his attention to agriculture, the natural basis of national wealth . . . He introduced modern methods of cultivation, drainage, seed selection, and the like. As a result, Kurland, a traditional grain exporter, also became an exporter of animal products such as meat, butter, fat and wool. Farm yields rose considerably . . . He founded an iron industry, based rst on domestic bog-ore, but later, as the requirements grew, on imported Swedish ore. A steel industry developed in the capital, and other branches of industry came into being, such as gunpowder plants, arms factories, glass and soap factories, paper and textile mills and workshops for the manufacture of sails and rigging. Sawmills appeared in the forest districts. (Spekke 229)

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The Duchy also amassed an impressive merchant and war eet rivaling that of all but the greatest maritime powers, numbering at its peak 44 armed and 15 unarmed men-of-war, 60 big merchant ships, and in addition a number of smaller vessels (Spekke 229). Duke James, who already had acquired the rights to exploit mines located in Norway, then moved to establish the Duchy as a true overseas colonial power, gaining a foothold in every corner of the so-called Triangular trade.3 In 1639, Duke James negotiated the rights to the Caribbean island of Tobago with King Charles I of England, whose father James I was Duke Jamess own godfather. The island, located in the Lesser Antilles, had up to that point been ignored by the Spanish, while the English and Dutch had previously enjoyed little success in settling Tobago. Though the initial attempts at colonization ended in failure, in 1654 the Courlanders at last established permanent settlements on Tobago, renaming it New Courland (Jekabson-Leimanis 37).4 Concurrently, in 1651, the duke purchased from local native rulers St. Andrews Island, later renamed James Island, and a number of other islets and plots at the mouth of the River Gambia in West Africa (Berkis, History of the Duchy 77). In many ways the Duchy followed the established colonial model of the time: shipping raw materials from its colonies back to Europe, slaves from Gambia to Tobago, and manufactured goods from Courland to the colonies. However, the dukes innovative manner of thinking as well as the small population of Courland led to a policy that allowed numerous foreign colonists mostly English and Zeeland Dutch to settle in Courlands colonies as long as they swore loyalty to the duke. By 1658, the populace of Tobago numbered approximately 25,000 people 700 Courlander families (totaling no more than 4,500 people), 7,000 foreigners . . . 500 soldiers and 13,000 slaves from . . . the Gambia (Jekabson-Leimanis 37). The already small population of native Caribs5 uctuated as a result of disease and frequent movement between the nearby islands; additionally, armed conict would occasionally arise between the colonists and Caribs. However, excepting the African slaves, everyone who settled in New Courland, no matter their origin, was treated as a freeman and entitled to approximately 30 hectares of land. The colonial policy of Duke James eventually proved untenable as a result of international conict involving the colonies, war in the Baltic region, and imperial overreach by the small duchy. Despite ofcially recognizing Duke Jamess claim to Tobago, the Dutch, having inaugurated their own colony on the southern shore of the island, sought to seize New Courland for themselves. As the 1650s dragged on, the international situation became ever less fortunate for the Duchy; beyond Courlands limited military capacity, Duke Jamess closeness to the House of Stuart in general made neutrality difcult during the English Civil War and Anglo-Dutch Wars. In 1658, after the Swedish army invaded Courland and captured Duke James, the Dutch seized the opportunity to conquer Courlands colonies. The Gambia was permanently lost, captured by the Dutch who subsequently ceded the territory to the English. These events decisively weakened the military means and international prestige of the Duchy (Berkis, History of the Duchy 95). Though the Peace of Oliva ofcially returned Tobago to the duke in 1660, the island remained out of the effective control of the Duchy for the next two decades. During this period Duke James sought to resettle Tobago and also in the meantime attempted to acquire other Caribbean islands. In 1680 control of Tobago was restored de facto to the duke, and a year later he even nearly acquired Trinidad from Spain, which would have been renamed New Semigallia (Berkis, History of the Duchy 153 54).6 Emblematic of the veritably megalomaniacal goals of Courlander colonial policy, the duke even concocted a quixotic scheme to colonize Australia with the support of the papacy, despite being a devout Lutheran himself. Not surprisingly, this idea never came to fruition.

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During this period, direct control of Tobago was sporadic and was nally fully lost by 1693. Duke Jamess successors in the Kettler dynasty tried fruitlessly to recover the colony, and Courlander governors of the island would continue to be appointed until 1795, when Courland was annexed to Russia. Colonial competition for Tobago continued without Courlands participation and Great Britain eventually won the struggle for supremacy over the island. Tobago remained a British colony until its joint independence with Trinidad in 1962. The prosperity of Courland under Duke James was, like its colonial possessions, to slip away after his reign. During the eighteenth century the Great Northern War, the extinction of the Kettler dynasty, and the decline of its protector, Poland-Lithuania, all signaled the imminent demise of the Duchy of Courland. Russia, which had long had designs on the territory, nally annexed it as part of the Third Partition of Poland in 1795. Courland would remain a governorate of the Russian Empire until 1918, when it became one of four provinces of the newly independent Latvian state.
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Latvian historiography of Courland and Tobago The appropriation of the Tobago colony as part of Latvian national history by Latvian historians was made possible in part by the rehabilitation of the Duchy of Courland under Duke James as a positive era in Latvian national history, similar to the favorable views that Latvian historians hold of Swedish rule. Latvian historiography has followed a distinct pattern during its entire existence as a school of thought. Until the twentieth century, the history of the territory today known as Latvia was written almost exclusively by Germans from the Baltic region or Germany proper. Following Latvian independence in the aftermath of World War I, a conscious effort emerged in which the history of the Latvian nation, or tauta,7 would be reexamined and rewritten by Latvians. Newly founded institutions such as the University of Latvia, Latvian National Archive, and Latvian Institute of History established in 1919, 1919, and 1936 respectively provided the training and a resource base for a distinctively Latvian cadre of historians (Plakans, Looking Backward 293). Indeed, this agenda is made explicit by the editor of the Institutes journal in its rst issue in 1937:
. . . [Latvian historians] will of course use the same sources which have been published by Baltic [German] historians. Latvian historians will read these sources not only to study them, but also to analyze them and to draw from them information about Latvians so as to build a history of Latvians . . . But the biggest task still lies ahead: to nd new, heretofore unrecognized historical sources about Latvians, to use them and to publish them. We will study our past in the spirit of nationalism, looking at it with the eyes of Latvian historians. (Qtd. in Plakans, Looking Backward 293)

Though the Latvian state would survive for only three more years before its occupation and annexation by the USSR, this framework for writing would endure among various migre circles during the postwar period. Latvian e Under reexamination by Latvian historians, the period of Swedish rule in Livonia during the seventeenth century was the rst to have been reconceived by Latvian writers as a golden age in Latvian national history. Swedish administration in Livonia brought with it regulations improving the lot of the Latvian peasantry both in terms of standard of living and legal protection, as well as a university in Dorpat8 and a series of parochial schools that were open to Latvians. Interwar Latvian historians like Arnolds Spekke would supplement their policy analysis of Swedish Livonia with opinions such as For obvious reasons the peasants of Swedish Livonia grew very fond of the Swedish king [Charles XI] and the Swedish government . . . from the Latvian point of view he

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appears as a pleasant dream (218). This style is echoed by contemporary Latvian histor bols, who claim that early modern Latvia underwent a spiritual renaisians like Guntars A sance that was in part caused by the dawn of the Swedish century which stands out for the rule of law and of the quest for social justice (57). Edgar Anderson explicitly labeled Swedish rule in Livonia a golden age, stating that during the generally dark centuries of domination by foreign powers, the Latvians considered the Swedish rule as the golden age . . . (sic) (Latvia 22). Sympathetic portrayals of Swedish rule abound among Latvian scholars in part due to the greater agency accorded to Latvian peasants but also to separate this period from the negatively perceived rule of the Baltic Germans and Imperial Russia. Similar to Latvian historiography of Swedish Livonia, the Duchy of Courland has been over time reexamined and reinterpreted as a positive period of national development by migre historian Alexander Valdonis Berkis conLatvian historians. Writing in 1969, e cluded that thus far Only some competent Balt-German historians contributed to the historical research of the history of the Duchy of Courland (History of the Duchy vii). As the discipline developed during the interwar and postwar periods, many Latvian historians noted the disproportionate level of prosperity and development achieved in Courland bols extended the positive connotations of the under rather unfavorable conditions. A Swedish golden age by arguing that Swedish Livonia was not alone in this spiritual renaissance. From the new Duchy of Courland (Kurzeme) several generations of pastors emerged who produced work which was important in the evolution of the Latvian language (59). Spekke, who had served in the Latvian diplomatic service during the 1930s, drew parallels between the Duchys efforts at strict neutrality in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and Latvias own foreign policy of the interwar period; Duke Jacob, in particular, had a liking for this system of repeated declarations of neutrality which reminds us of the unsuccessful endeavors of Latvia in recent years (224). He further argued that the Kurland peasant lived in better conditions and was better off than his brothers in Livonia, whether under Polish, Russian, or even Swedish rule (236). On Duke James specically, Berkis proclaims that In an age of great religious intolerance, the Duke of Courland always preferred the political interests and the welfare of his subjects (Duke James 82). By contrast, other periods of history of foreign rule over Latvians such as that of the German crusading orders, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire have been interpreted largely in a negative manner by Latvian historians. Only Swedish Livonia had been treated with strong tones of sympathy and even pride, an interpretation that was later applied to the Duchy of Courland, especially for the period of Duke Jamess rule. As the Duchy of Courland was reclaimed by Latvian historians as a period of Latvian national development, so too has Courlands colonial venture in Tobago been reinterpreted through the prism of Latvian identity. The subject had been underexplored in academia, with only a few historians from the UK, the Netherlands, and Latvia giving it any serious attention. Furthermore, according to Karin Jekabson-Leimanis, even the limited work published on the subject is riddled with inaccuracies, especially with regard to migre authors responded to this dearth of study on the Courlander dates (25 26). Latvian e colonial ventures with a number of articles and books during the postwar era. Berkis, a Latvian who settled in the US, published two works in the 1960s in English: The Reign of Duke James in Courland, 1638 1682, followed by The History of the Duchy of Courland (1561 1795). Though these works use overlapping sources and sections of the latter are quite evidently paraphrased from the former, together they represent an attempt to present the Latvian perspective of this period to an international audience.

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Berkis account covers the history of the colony thoroughly and takes every opportunity to highlight perceived Latvian aspects of the endeavor. When describing geography, he always mentions the Latvian version of place names, even if anachronistic. For example, Berkis states that Around [Tobagos] Fort James gradually developed Jamestown (Jacobusstadt or Je kabpils) (Duke James 77). Though he notes the large contingent of foreigners brought by Duke James to settle the colony, Berkis provides the reader with a logic by which some of these could have been ethnic Latvians:
The duke invited his enterprising peasants to colonize Tobago. The farm hands had an interest in immigrating to the colonies, for James granted his serfs the status of freemen in the case of colonization. The former serfs of the ducal domains not only became freemen, but also the owners of Negro slaves. (Duke James 77)

Such a situation would compare very favorably with other contemporaneous European settlers, who often were obliged to migrate to the Caribbean as indentured servants, even if they had been freemen in the metropole. Berkis is also quick to add that The fertility of the soil and the rather mild climate for Europeans promoted the establishment of plantations and the colonization of the island but Negro slaves were treated rather humanely (Duke James 78). Combined with a detailed description of Tobagos industries and economy, the intended message seems to be that New Courland was a model colony to which Latvians previously held down by serfdom could relocate to achieve prosperity and self-actualization. The rst major works focusing specically on the Courlander colony in Tobago itself migre historian and key gure in the eld of Baltic Studies in the were written by an e West, Edgar Anderson.9 In 1956 Anderson submitted a PhD dissertation entitled The Couronians and the West Indies, which focused on international diplomacy surrounding the Courlander colony and the logistics of the endeavor. Following an expedition to the island in 1960, Anderson published a shorter German-language volume that same year; this work, Tobago, focused more on topography and featured an addendum on the legacy of the colony. This was followed by what may be considered his magnum opus, an expanded account of Courlands colonization of Tobago that combined elements of both previous works, published in Latvian in Sweden in 1970 with an abstract at the end in English titled The Ancient Couronians in America and the Colonization of Tobago. The latter two works begin with a topographical tour of the island doubtless the most beautiful and in addition one of the most fertile islands in the Caribbean Sea making note of its various place names (Tobago 212, auth. trans.). The reader is thereby gradually introduced to the surviving Tobagonian toponyms originating in Courland: Little Courland Bay, Great Courland Bay, the Courland River, Fort James, Fort Casimir, and Kalpi Bay (Tobago 21723).10 Though generally measured in tone, when examining names and symbols, Anderson is often prone to speculation on potential Latvian origins. For example, when naming various bays and inlets of the island, Anderson pauses at Conek Point, which sound [sic] like the name of the offsprings [sic] of ancient Couronian Latvian noble families who lived in separate settlements in Lower Courland, Koning, konin i (The Couronians and the West Indies 141). He describes how in James Fort there was a gatehouse with an elaborate porch painted red and white (national Couronian as well [sic] Latvian colors); nearby stood a beautiful church building, white, with a red tiled roof and a Gothic steeple topped by a weathercock and a cross, an anomaly characteristic of Latvian churches (143). In his discussion of the nal years of the Courlander colony, Anderson hints at a counterfactual argument implying that the colony could have been bound for greatness under continued Courlander rule:

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The Dukes of Courland made several agreements with English and Dutch companies to colonize Tobago. Those signed in 1681 and 1698 are particularly interesting because of the democratic principles of self-government, such as the freedom of meetings and assemblies, freedom of trade and freedom of religion, incorporated in them. Tobago might thus have become a colonial republic with a local diet (the treaty of 1698 mentioned even a parliament consisting of two houses) under the auspices of the Dukes of Courland. Professor Moses Stringer in his petition of 1704 even promised to found a college in Tobago. (The Couronians and the West Indies 362)

Such a description conjures images of Tobago as one of the American Thirteen Colonies in miniature, even if the proposals raised after 1690 had no real chance of being implemented. Anderson concludes each of these works with some reference to the lasting impact of the colony. Appropriately, his briefer German volume ends by reiterating the legacy of Courlander place names, adding Courland Point, Courland Estate, [and] James (Jakobs) Point to the list (Tobago 219). Of course, even a benevolent and talented duke and a few transferred place names from Courland cannot on their own be appropriated to convincingly make the colony of Tobago a part of Latvian national history. There also need to have been ethnically Latvian colonists who settled on the island. To further the difculty of this task, Latvian historians had to counter the well-established historiography of the Baltic Germans. Historians like Otto Heinz Mattiesen insisted that the colonization efforts by Courland were organized solely by ethnic Germans with limited foreign support and that there had never been any Latvians in Tobago (qtd. in Anderson, The Couronians and the West Indies 146). Latvian historians such as Edgars Dunsdorfs have long taken exception to this, asserting that the only way one could know about the population of colonists is through some known recorded names of colonists however, non-specialists cannot tell whether these are Latvian names, and no philologist has yet analyzed them, leaving open the possibility of ethnically Latvian colonists (61, auth. trans.). Dunsdorfs further posits that there is a good chance that Latvians inhabited Tobago, since the Dukes [of Courland] sent Latvian peasants to their European colony [actually a series of leased mines from the Danish king] in Norway, and advocates further research into the identity of the Courlander colonists who settled in Tobago (62, auth. trans.). Edgar Anderson remarks that the names of eighteen burghers of Jacobusstadt are known . . . [they] indicate Dutch, German, Latvian, English and even Slavic origin (The Couronians and the West Indies 144). He attempts to steer a middle course between Baltic German and Latvian nationalists, who each tend to insist that the colony was entirely Germanic or Latvian in character, by emphasizing the Duchy of Courlands and by extension its colonys multinationality:
The fact is that the duke was German-born, most of the nobles, army ofcers and good number of master craftsmen were Germans, but the majority of the people were Latvians. Most of the captains and sailors were Dutch or Scandinavian, many artisans were foreigners or Latvians, and many colonists were neither Latvians nor Germans. The number of Latvian colonists was small, their inuence was insignicant and they could not adapt themselves easily to tropical conditions. (The Couronians and the West Indies 147)

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But Andersons more nuanced view has not prevailed among Latvian historians. A more recent work by Karin Jekabson-Leimanis delved further into analysis of the surnames of colonial burghers:
Five of the men listed below were Courlanders. The rst name Jan I. Mulke, [sic] is the [Latvian] name Janis Mulkis. Burres is Burvim or in the dialect form Buris, also a Latvian surname. Also Jan Brewer is Janis Bruveris. Kennisch and Perkens take on the Latvian written form Kenins and Perkons. There is no further information concerning these colonists. (37)11

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These suppositions by Jekabson-Leimanis are hardly certain; one could just as easily speculate that these names signify English, Dutch, or some other sort of Germanic ethnic origin. Another book rst published in Latvia in 1993 claims that Still present [on Tobago] are whites with Latvian names, for example, L vs, Ku lers, Libauers, rs, Ma Lets and others . . . In the same way many mulattos today consist in part of Latvian blood (Bundurs 17, auth. trans.). No source is given for these names. Despite the restraint and rigor used by some scholars when approaching the limited data as to demographics of Courlands colony on Tobago, works by both professional and amateur historians have ltered down into the general consciousness of the Latvian people, and it has since become an assumption among the Latvian public that the colony was signicantly Latvian in culture and population. Tobago in Latvian culture The efforts by Latvian historians both at home and abroad to claim the Duchy of Courland and its colonial endeavors as part of Latvian national history have all followed the framework of Latvian historiography as previously outlined, accumulating over the years into quite a collection of professional and amateur works. Judging by their impact on Latvian national consciousness, these endeavors have been quite fruitful. Tobago has become quite prominent as a motif in Latvian culture, illustrated in a number of literary and cinematic works produced in the postwar era. During the interwar period of Latvian independence, these expressions were somewhat limited as depictions of Tobago were just making their way into the history books, one of which was a 1935 volume on the kevic s. A popular novel entitled Toba Dukes of Courland by historian Juris Jus go was published in the 1930s by Aleksandrs Gr ns; it is described as a rich fantasy which integrates a ctitious account of Latvian colonists life in the distant West Indian island (Anderson, Senie kurzemnieki Amerika 340, auth. trans.). The former Latvian colonies also inspired several highly publicized journeys by Latvians. In 1933, Latvian pilot Herberts Cukurs embarked on a solo ight to the Gambia in a plane he constructed himself (Anderson, Latvia 449). In accomplishing this feat, Cukurs became a celebrity comparable to Charles Lindbergh or the Lithuanian-American aviators nas, though he is remembered internationally primarily Steponas Darius and Starys Gire for his involvement in the murder of Latvian Jews during World War II. Two years , took leave later, a pair of Latvian naval ofcers, Mik elis Ple sums and Ja nis Ozolin s made a treacherfrom their duties to embark on a sailing expedition. Ple sums and Ozolin s ous round trip across the Atlantic between Latvia and Tobago in a small sailboat and were also celebrated by the Latvian public for their exploits (Anderson, Latvia 449). Annexation to the Soviet Union and the traumatic experience of World War II drastically altered the face of Latvian society. Drastic as this was, these changes did not spell the end of the Tobago motif. As dramatic evidence of its exibility, the symbol of Tobago was even repurposed for use in a Soviet Latvian lm. The 1965 lm Tobago Changes its Course12 was directed by popular lmmaker Aleksandrs Leimanis, best known today for a series of historical adventure lms he directed in the 1970s (OConnor 181). In this particular lm, Tobago is the name of a Latvian merchant ship out at sea during the summer of 1940. The ships owner had left port in fear of the imminent collapse of who is a zin s the Ulmanis regime.13 Also on board, however, is a crewman named Dre member of an underground communist organization (Tobago Changes its Course). rallies the Upon learning that Soviet power had been established in Latvia, Dre zin s crew, who then eponymously decide to change course for home. Despite being a typical

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Soviet lm of that era with its subject and content mediated through Marxist-Leninist ideology, the lm is based on a true story and furthermore illustrates that even the Soviet Union could make use of the theme of Tobago. From the lm, Latvians are meant to conclude that the distant paradise of Tobago has been superseded in importance now that the workers paradise has been established at home. Latvian independence in 1991 brought with it a much greater degree of freedom to explore and celebrate various historical eras. Tobago quickly became a positive and exotic word association for a business, and in the nearly two decades following Latvian independence this toponym has been applied to a variety of establishments. In Jelgava, the former capital of the Dukes of Courland, there is a Tobago Kafe. In Ventspils, a former port of the Duchy from which ships bound for the colonies once departed, a shopping mall named TOBAGO has been erected.14 Ventspils is also home to a travel agency named Tobago (Reznik-Martov 4). Despite never having belonged to the Duchy of Courland, Riga has its own prominent local establishment referencing the Tobago colony, the Tobago Casino Club, located in Rigas Old Town. The website of the Tobago Casino Club discusses in detail the legend of the colony, in which Latvian peasants were told tales of distant Tobago before setting off as colonists Fertile land, no lords, every individual his own master. A unique paradise . . . (Tobago Sala, auth. trans.). Near the conclusion of its somewhat sensationalized history of the Courland colony on Tobago, the website further speculates that on Tobago and in the Gambia today there could be little completely black Ja nises and Baibas scampering about . . . mournfully murmuring Latvian folk songs. Not understanding a single word, but murmuring . . . (Tobago Sala, auth. trans.).15 One of the most recent business developments referencing Tobago is an eponymous apartment complex under construction in a lush setting in the Riga suburb of Zolitu de; once completed, the apartments are likely to be some of the most modern and deluxe in Riga (Latvian Firm Develops). Tobago has thus become a prominent symbol representing exoticness, luxury, and a lost glorious era; its increasing ubiquity in public spaces in Latvia continues to reinforce the island as a part of Latvian history and identity. The Duchy of Courlands colonial adventure in Tobago was also made the subject of a play by well-known playwright Ma ra Za l te. Debuting at Rigas Daile Theater in 2001, Toba go! is described by its author as a tragic musical composed according to real events (Za l te 171, auth. trans.). The story, written and performed in the vanishing Ventini dialect of northwestern Courland, blends the history of Courland and its colony with ctional elements from the playwrights imagination. The plot follows the parallel stories of Duke James and his wife Louise Charlotte and ordinary Latvian Courlanders. As potential Latvian colonists excitedly discuss the possibilities on the island, the chorus repeats the word Tobago, occasionally adding phrases such as Happy is he who reaches there and A fragrant, enchanting garden (Za l te 200 01, auth. trans.). Once on Tobago, however, what the colonists encounter is both disillusioning and surreal. Scenes involving the legendary king of the native Arawak tribe and the islands most famous ctional resident, Robinson Crusoe, are complemented with an invasion by the Dutch, led by real historical gure Hubert de Beveren. Responding to Beverens proclamation that Courland has fallen to the Swedish army and that the Dutch will be taking control of Tobago, the Latvian colonists retort that Courland will again be free! and Tobago [is] ours! (Za l te 277 81, auth. trans.). Even the Latvian state has in some ways sanctioned and promoted the adoption of the Tobago colony as part of Latvian national history. Archeological expeditions to Plymouth, Tobago the former Courlander settlement sponsored by a museum in Ventspils have

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been funded by the Ventspils City Council (Baltic News Service). Prior to the formation of ofcial diplomatic relations between the two countries, Latvian President Vaira V k e-Freiberga vacationed in Trinidad and Tobago at the invitation of President Arthur Robinson (Chancery of the President of Latvia). When diplomatic relations were established in 2003, Latvian Ambassador to the UN Gints Jegermanis spoke of the emotional bond between the Latvian public and the island of Tobago in his speech commemorating the event (Ministry of Foreign Affairs Press Centre Division). Tobago was even mentioned in an online article celebrating the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of , director of the Latvian Institute, opens his discussion on the Latvia. Oja rs Kalnin s matter with a justication, stating, No, no, the Republic of Latvia has never had colonies, but they were held in the seventeenth century by the Duchy of Courland and now Courland then emphasizes the supposed Latvian is today part of Latvia (auth. trans.). But Kalnin s qualities of the venture: Latvian sailors built the Duchys ships, Latvian sailors brought goods back to Jelgava from the Dark Continent, and eighty Latvian families settled on Tobago (auth. trans.). As an ofcial Latvian state-sponsored entity, the use of such language by the Latvian Institute amounts to an endorsement by the state of the Tobago colony as Latvian national history. After decades of exposure to the Duchy of Courlands colony of Tobago as part of the Latvian national narrative in history books and in popular culture, today in Latvia it is not uncommon to hear references to Tobago as a matter of national pride. A Portuguese journalist, Joao Lopes Marques, wrote a commentary piece for the Baltic Times detailing such an encounter with a Latvian; when discussing the severe impact of the current global nancial crisis on Latvias economy, he had the following exchange with a Latvian in Riga:
But did you know that once we had a colonial empire? Inese, a proud Latvian local, challenged me. Beg your pardon, I dont understand . . . Didnt you know that Tobago island was ours? (Marques 14)

After being taken by this local to the Tobago Casino Club and other shops in Riga featuring the toponym, Marques admitted that Inese and Latvians like her knew their history well but concluded that this exquisite taste of mini-megalomania is part of the Latvian genetic code (14). Even if slightly dramatized, such a conversation is emblematic of the continued prominence of Tobago in Latvian identity and national pride. Latvian-Americans and Latvian-Canadians, many of whom settled in these countries following the elimination of a sovereign and independent Latvian state in 1940, are more conveniently positioned to travel to Tobago than their European counterparts.16 When choosing a tropical vacation destination, some ethnic Latvians in North America choose to go the island in part because of its colonial past. Since 1991 the World Federation of Free Latvians, a diaspora umbrella group created during the Cold War, has sponsored annual trips to Tobago to celebrate the Midsummer holiday (Straumanis).17 Though these trips sometimes feature as few as a dozen individuals at a time (Passionfruit), they have operated nearly every year over the past two decades. For the 2010 Midsummer gathering, a Latvian-Irish folk choir will even journey all the way to Tobago to perform for the rija u Biedr group (Latvies ba I ). Additionally, some Latvians choose to travel to Tobago on their own. A LatvianAmerican from Chicago named Andrejs Makwitz explains his reasoning for visiting Tobago on his personal blog in the following way:
I chose Tobago for two reasons. The rst being is that I needed a place to go diving and it is quickly developing a reputation as a major dive destination. The other is that as a birthday

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present for my Mom I decided to take her to one of Latvias only two former colonies. (Makwitz)

He further claries that As a small nation few in numbers most Latvians get a kick out of nding any traces of their culture or references to their nation in far off lands . . . Places which do provide ties can often lead to pilgrimages of sorts (Makwitz). Though the ruins of James Fort and the town of Plymouth which developed out of what was once Jamestown on their own served the purpose of pilgrimage sites quite well, memorialization has transformed the area into an ofcial sacred space for Latvians. In 1978 a LatvianAmerican sculptor named Ja nis Mintiks erected the Courland Monument on Great Courland Bay near Plymouth; it consists of a series of geometrically arranged pillars and a plaque that states: In memory of the bold, enterprising and industrious Courlanders from faraway Latvia on the Baltic Shores who had lived in this area named after them from 1639 to 1693 (Allette 71).
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Tobago as a function of Latvian national identity and nationalism Anthony D. Smith has long been one of the main gures attempting to bridge the gap between the primordialist and modernist schools of nationalism. His approach, ethno-symbolism, theorizes that though nations are themselves essentially modern creations, they draw upon the pre-existing history of a demographic group. Smith posits that there are three primary ways in which history may be utilized in nation building. The rst two, recurrence and continuity, are not applicable to Latvia. In the past 800 years, Latvians have governed their territory as a sovereign state for a mere four decades, and only then during the twentieth and twenty-rst centuries. Unlike its southern neighbor Lithuania, which also developed out of proto-Baltic tribes, there is no precedent for the existence of the Latvian state prior to 1918. Where the Lithuanians have their medieval principality as well as the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and a long list of kings and victorious battles upon which to draw for the purposes of national pride, Latvians can only reference non-Latvian rulers and a German elite for the entirety of premodern history. Additionally, Latvians founded their nation-state effectively as a tabula rasa, carrying over virtually no institutions from either Baltic German or Imperial Russian rule. Instead, Latvians have been left with the third of Smiths means appropriation. Appropriation reects the tendency of later generations, especially of nationalists, to rediscover, authenticate, and appropriate aspects of what they assume is their ethnic past (Smith, The Nation in History 64). Similarly to Smiths example of Finland, in modern times Latvian national identity was constructed by compiling and codifying old folk traditions. For example, the collection of local dainas, or folk songs, has done much to strengthen national identity. Ironically, as in Finland where Swedes initiated that process, Baltic Germans led the way in Latvia in the assemblage of the dainas. The collection and publication of the dainas led to the composition of original works based ple on them though of a more explicitly national bent such as Andrejs Pumpurs La c sis and Rainis Uguns un Nakts. The continued importance of these dainas is illustrated by the quinquennial Latvian Song and Dance Festival, which has been central to the national movement in its various iterations as well as remaining immensely popular among ethnic Latvians to this day. National independence from the Soviet Union was even achieved through a non-violent popular mobilization commonly termed the Singing Revolution (Tabuna 14). In this manner, local peasant folk traditions have been adopted as a central and lasting element of Latvian national identity.

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But Smith also notes that not all communities are equally endowed with a rich or well-documented, and eventful, ethnic past; in his estimation, this unevenness of ethno-historical cultural resources is itself a source of national competition and conict (Myths and Memories 17). If a national golden age can exist only apart from foreign domination, then Latvians are only left with the era before 1200 CE , of which there are few records. Thus, as Latvians do not have an obvious pre-modern national history to commemorate and celebrate, they needed to selectively reclaim historical periods of foreign rule as past Latvian golden ages. Rule by the Teutonic Order or Russian Empire did not meet the conditions, as they represented the Latvian nations primary antagonists in the twentieth century, beyond failing the test of producing relatively benevolent policies toward the Latvian peasantry. As illustrated prior, Latvian historians have often considered the period of Swedish rule in Livonia a golden age of Latvian national history. But the seventeenth century contained other suitable material for reconsideration as well. Since the Duchy of Courland was the only independent state to exist in modern Latvian territory in the early modern period, it was an appealing subject for Latvian historians. Additionally, the miniature overseas colonial empire built by the Duchy provided a promising example of a space where Latvians could be freed from serfdom and given the opportunity to prosper. In this way, the island of Tobago acts as a conduit through which hopes for a past golden age and for future prosperity can be channeled by Latvians. The repeated efforts by Latvian historians to prove that ethnic Latvians must have been among the Courland colonys residents have made a lasting impression on Latvian popular consciousness. Compared to the misery of feudalism for Latvian serfs back in the Baltic region, Latvians on Tobago could have been burghers, landowners, and even the masters of slaves of their own. Their Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, with all of the quaint local traits it possessed in Courland and Livonia, was established on the island. Furthermore, there is the possibility that some of the European-descended populace in Tobago could be in fact Latvian in origin, and thus connect through their heritage to modern Latvia. One might also speculate, as the website of the Tobago Casino Club does, that elements of Latvian culture could have been successfully passed on to the islands other residents. If indeed Afro-Caribbean denizens of Tobago today were singing the dainas that are so central to Latvian identity, it would illustrate that more than just parallel places names had endured, but also the parallel existence and thus survival of the language, culture, and customs of Latvia. This is all the more important owing to Latvians own historical status as a colonized people. From the initial conquests by the German crusading orders to the recent period of Soviet control, Latvians have felt politically, economically, linguistically, and culturally colonized by outsiders. The postcolonial perspective has been increasingly applied by scholars to the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. Since the eld opened wide with the groundbreaking article Is the Post- in Postcolonial the Post- in Post-Soviet? by David Chioni Moore, much has been written on the subject, including a large volume entitled Baltic Postcolonialism. Though focusing on language and literature, identity and memory also come into play. Karl E. Jirgens argues both that foreign rule over Latvia and the other Baltic States manifests itself in a form of psychic colonization, a colonization of the mind and that this has resulted not only from Soviet rule in the twentieth century but nearly a millennium of foreign domination by some benevolent and many malevolent subjugating governments (47). Tellingly, Jirgens, in his specic Latvian example of a fusion of discourse, utilizes the 1930s ofcial visit of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia to Latvia; he juxtaposes Selassies condemnation of the former status of Balts as serfs and his status among Rastafarians as the messiah with the fact that

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Latvia, or more specically, the Duchy of Kourland in the 17th century had conducted an economic colonization of Tobago as a crown colony (64). Additionally, in the same evskis argues that the elaboration of the postcolonial perspective volume Ka rlis Rac can indeed be termed crucial in terms of the Baltic peoples attempts at understanding themselves as well as gaining a sympathetic hearing from others at this stage of their post-Soviet era of rebirth and recovery (166). In line with the notion that Tobago lurks evskis mentions in his endin the background of postcolonial discussions of Latvia, Rac notes that Latvia was even a colonial power at one time and provides a brief description of the Duchy of Courlands colonial ventures (182). Indeed, it seems that the elaboration of Tobago as a part of Latvias national past with Latvians as colonizers goes a long way toward mitigating the present postcolonial identity of victimhood. In her work on British national identity, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707 1837, Linda Colley attempts to explain how the UK created a unied national identity for the peoples of the multiethnic island of Britain. To Colley, the expanding British overseas empire was a critical element in the construction of British identity and loyalty. For the Scots, the British army had been one of the few departments of the state wide open to Scottish ambition (Colley 126), an institution that became increasingly important as the UK became a global power. Since higher service on the island of Britain itself was jealously guarded by the English, service abroad became a critical means for Scots to ascend the social ladder. In this manner, a British imperium, in other words, enabled Scots to feel themselves peers of the English in a way still denied to them in an island kingdom (130). Similarly, the largely enserfed Latvians of Courland had little hope for advancement within the Duchy itself. But, with a tradition of service in the merchant and war eet of the Duchy, the acquisition of colonies boded well for the ethnic Latvian subjects of the Duchy. Settlement on Tobago was the ticket to liberation from feudalism, as Latvian colonists would have owned land and lived as freemen there. Though the Tobago colony did not survive long enough to actualize such a development, it is likely that the small German population of the Duchy would have necessitated a change in social relations beginning in the colonies. In the long run, Latvian Courlanders could have gradually become equals to the Baltic German Courlanders through their participation in the miniature colonial empire of the Duchy. One lament frequently heard in post-Soviet Latvia is that we could have been Finland, had not the Soviet Union annexed the Baltic States in 1940. The implication in this statement is that if left independent and neutral in the postwar period, Latvia could have ascended like Finland to become an economic powerhouse and per capita one of the wealthiest nations in the world. One can glean from Latvian historians that this same notion is applied to the more distant past as well we could have remained Courland is the implied statement. Jukka Rislakki, ironically a Finn himself, wrote perhaps the most overt expression of this sentiment:
In the 1600s rich and proud Courland kept Gambia and Tobago as her colonies. When the Latvian provinces were annexed to Russia in the late 1700s, they were among the most developed and industrialized areas in the entire empire. At the start of the 2000s Latvia was a notch below the developing country of Trinidad-Tobago in the UNs statistics on human development. (Rislakki 183)

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Had Courlands neutrality been respected by its neighbors, a very favorable counterfactual history could be expounded. In this scenario Courland could have retained its colonies and economic dynamism, with the Latvian peasantry in time presumably becoming emancipated from serfdom and enfranchised as citizens of that state. But because the Duchy under Jacob embodied a kind of progress and well-being that [. . .] has seldom been

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repeated in the Baltics, it was destroyed by envious neighbors (Rislakki 68 69). Courland indeed, all of present-day Latvia and Estonia arguably formed the most developed part of both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union following its annexation to each in 1795 and 1940 respectively. But present-day Latvia, at present secure as a member of NATO and the EU, can now hope for the kind of economic and trade success enjoyed by Courland without having to fear realpolitik-based machinations of its neighbors. Tobago functions not only as a symbol of colonial power and the potential of success for Latvians but also as a toponymic reminder of Latvias existence. Courland, and Latvia as a whole, have appeared only intermittently on political maps, while their topographical features have changed names many times over the years. Though the name New Courland did not endure for the island, Courland remains the place name of two bays, a valley, a river, and a region of the island. In his seminal work, Imagined Communities, Benedict Anderson notes the strange habit of naming remote places . . . as new versions of (thereby) old toponyms in their lands of origin (187). This topographical parallelism has a number of political consequences for both the colony and metropole. These enduring place names have been a means for propagating knowledge of Courland and by extension Latvia on Tobago and in the wider Caribbean. In this way, it is no wonder that Latvian historians constantly emphasize these shared place names in their works. But non-Latvian histories of the island of Tobago also, for reasons of ignorance or convenience, often use the term Latvia anachronistically when referring to the Duchy of Courland. One work refers to Courland as a former principality of Latvia while another equates Courland with Latvia by noting simply that Courland is now Latvia, a part of the Soviet Union (Black et al. 9; Ottley 13). Hinting at continuity, the parallel toponyms suggest the perpetuation of Latvian language, culture, and customs during periods in which they were being suppressed in Latvia itself. Certain aspects of the Tobago colony and its legacy are ripe for comparison with Israeli national identity, with Yael Zerubavels work, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition, as a basis. One aspect thereof that Zerubavel addresses is the fall of the mountain fortress of Masada to the Romans, in which Jewish Sicarii rebels committed mass suicide in order to avoid capture. Though an ancient event, both the site and the story behind it were rediscovered in modern times. During the rst half of the twentieth century Masada, owing to the power of the myth and its remote and exotic location, became a pilgrimage destination for Zionist youth organizations. After the founding of Israel, the state began to take interest in the site, funding archeological expeditions and improving access to the site. As the head of the team of archeologists, Yigael Yadin often noted that both the archeological and national interests were closely entwined in the venture (Zerubavel 65). Similarly, the lasting signicance of the Courlander colony combined with the very existence of shared toponymy make it possible for these parts of Tobago to function as a sacred space for Latvians. The emergence of a sizable Latvian diaspora in the postwar period has been a catalyst for this process; unable to return to Soviet-ruled Latvia, Tobago could function somewhat as a substitute for their homeland. To the ruins of the colony of New Courland the Courland Monument was added in 1978 as a formal memorial, furthering the possibility of commemoration. The emergence of formal pilgrimages to the island organized by nationalist organizations such as the World Federation of Free Latvians mirrors the early trips to Masada by Zionist youth organizations. Rituals embedded in the Latvian national tradition, such as the celebration of the Midsummer holiday on the island, have been transferred over as a part of these pilgrimages. As the summer solstice is hardly observed in

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Western Europe, but . . . is celebrated by virtually all Latvians in Latvia (Broks, Tabuna, and Tabuns 123), commemorating the occasion on Tobago surrounded by the sacred geography of the former Courland colony is an ideal means of strengthening national iden migre s. Admittedly, these pilgrimages are not numerically large, but, as in the tity among e early decades of the Masada journeys, they represent an important beginning. Additionally, since they involve Latvians from all over the world, who can then share their experiences with their own local Latvian community, or even via web logs and photo-sharing web sites, they could become quite large and inuential indeed. The emergence of archeological expeditions with municipal and state support suggests that the pilgrimages may enter a new, more signicant phase, as Masada did when it fell under the patronage of the Israeli state. In this manner, Tobago has been transformed by these processes into a part of Latvian national history both to those within and those living outside Latvia. Unlike the Duchy of Courlands other colony at the mouth of the river Gambia, Tobago continues to grow in importance in Latvian culture. Though both the Gambia and Tobago were prominent in Latvian national consciousness, in particular during the interwar period, the Gambia has faded while Tobagos star has risen. The simplest reason for this is that the Gambia is a less appealing target for appropriation into Latvian national history. Few ethnic Latvians traveled to that African trading post and none attempted to settle there permanently, in direct contrast to the settler colony on the island of Tobago. The possessions in the Gambia were held more briey than Tobago, and the Duchy made fewer attempts to regain them. James Island is today a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but was named as such as a result of its notoriety in the slave trade; such a dark legacy is not attractive for appropriation by Latvians. Additionally, the reasons for de-emphasizing the Gambia may be as simple as internalized prejudices on the quality of life in Africa versus in the Caribbean. For example, Bundurs contrasts the Gambia rather unfavorably with Tobago:
The climate in the Gambia is unhealthy, hard for Europeans to bear, humid and warm, and especially intolerable during the rainy season (from July to October) . . . On the island [of Tobago] is a healthy and pleasant climate, mildly warm without rapid changes [in temperature]. Large tropical storms did not rage over the island. Rain is sufcient, besides in October in which it occurs all month without interruption. On the island is colorful vegetation. The soil is fertile. (Bundurs 12 17, auth. trans.)

As Smith notes, not all peoples are equally endowed in terms of their communitys past. Similarly, the Duchy of Courlands colonies were not equal in their development, demographics, and legacy. Thus, Tobago has become a signicant component of the Latvian national narrative while Gambia remains on the periphery. Latvia is a country in many ways without an illustrious past, and it often seems to be without a necessarily bright future. The Courland colony of Tobago provides a potential remedy for both of these. To quote Edgar Anderson, Thus Latvia begins to get into its grand history through the backdoor via the West Indies (Senie kurzemnieki Amerika 348, auth. trans.). However, the symbol of Tobago is not only relevant to the past; Latvia is projecting a potentially glorious future through the prism of Courland at the height of its power. The former Tobago colony has become increasingly important for Latvian national identity as it has developed during the twentieth and as it continues to mature in the twenty-rst century. Though all national identities are to a certain degree constructed, not every nation is blessed with the same wealth of material from the past from which to build this identity. For a nation like Latvia, which has been so often conquered and subjugated by foreigners during the past millennium, there is all the more need for a heroic and impressive past. Lacking an obvious period for this, the

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Duchy of Courlands colony on Tobago has been appropriated and subsequently transformed into a Latvian colony, a colony of the colonized.

Acknowledgements The author would like to thank Dr. Aviel Roshwald for his assistance with this project. His advice and encouragement were very valuable. The Library of Congress has also been an invaluable resource and the staff in the European and Hispanic reading rooms were friendly and helpful.

Notes
1. Alternatively spelled the Kurs and Semgallians. Their names correspond to two of contemporary Latvias four regions: Courland and Semigallia (Latv.: Kurzeme and Zemgale). The Duchy of Courland or Courland for short (Latv.: Kurzemes un Zemgales hercogiste; Ger.: Herzogtum Kurland und Semgallen). The English term Courland and adjective Courlander (as opposed to Couronian, Courish, etc.) shall be used unless quoting a source. 2. Also known as Jacob or Jacobus (Latv.: Je kabs Ketlers; Ger.: Jakob von Kettler). James will be the name used unless quoting a source. 3. For an exhaustive account of Duke Jamess colonial policy, see Mattiesen. 4. (Latv.: Jaunkurzeme; Ger.: Neu Kurland.) 5. CARIBS: A tribe of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas . . . they did inhabit Tobago, where they grew the tobacco which they traded with Caribs of the other islands (Anthony 102). 6. (Latv.: Jaunzemgale; Ger.: Neu Semgallen.) 7. The word tauta means both nation and people in Latvian (cf. Volk, narod). Nation will be the English equivalent used in this paper. 8. Today named Tartu (arch. Latv.: Te rbata) and located in Estonia as it is situated in the northern half of Livonia. 9. Alternatively known by the Latvian spelling of Edgars Andersons. 10. Kalps is the Latvian word for servant or farmhand. 11. Under proper Latvian orthography the names would be Ja nis Mul k is, Burvim/Burvis, , and Pe Ja nis Bruveris, K enin s rkons. 12. (Latv.: Tobago maina kursu; Rus.: Tpbadp nfo>fm lurs.) 13. Ka rlis Ulmanis, the interwar leader of the Latvian Farmers Union, overthrew the parliamentary tat in 1934. He then built an authoritarian regime centered on Latvian ethsystem in a coup de nonationalism, agrarianism, and corporatism. 14. In Latvian, Tirdzniec bas centrs TOBAGO (T/C TOBAGO). The slogan of the mall, appropriately for the theme of imagined communities and national identity, is Let loose your imagination! (Atraisi savu izte li!). 15. Ja nis and Baiba are both typical ethnic Latvian names, and the word used for song, daina, has a special connotation toward folklore and national identity in contrast to dziesma, a more general word for song. 16. Ka rklis, Streips, and Streips indicate that a number of Latvian colonists in Tobago emigrated as the island slipped out of Courlander control, resettling in New England and along the southern Atlantic coast of the present-day US. Thus, the connection to Tobago may be even more direct than assumed. 17. Midsummer, consisting of Midsummers Eve (Latv.: L i), go) and Midsummers Day (Latv.: Ja n is by far the most important holiday on the Latvian calendar, celebrated on 23 and 24 June, respectively. Latvians observe Midsummer with numerous folk traditions retained from the pre-Christian era.

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References
bols, Guntars. The Contribution of History to Latvian Identity. Riga: Naciona A lais, 2002. Print.

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