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Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago lacks Lithuanians, but Tobago has a Great Courland Bay and Little Courland Bay. Their name derives from a Bronze Age Baltic tribe that lived in Western Lithuanian and Latvia.

Thus name has an interesting history. Long after the original Couronians (Lithuanian: kuršiai) have already merged into Lithuanian and Latvian nations the land they once inhabitted was still refered as Courland. In 1561 a Duchy of Courland and Semigallia has been established in modern-day Latvia (as a fief of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania). To the German Dukes of largely Latvian-inhabitted Courland and Semigallia, known for their opulent palaces, Europe was never enough. Even though their duchy had merely 200 000 inhabittants they have amassed a navy one third of the legendary Spanish armada to become the smallest colonial power to partake in the Conquest of Americas.

They have selected Tobago island in the Carribean as their colony which they named New Courland and also called one of its bays a Great Courland Bay. Colonization attempts lasted merely from 1637 to 1656 when Courland-Semigallia, together with the rest of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth suffered a Swedish-Russian invasion. Settlers in New Courland then surrendered to the Dutch who also had a colony there. Courland-Semigallia never reacquired its former glory but this interesting episode of colonization by a Lithuanian fief left a geographic name in the New World.

In 1978 Latvians built a commemorative plaque for their settlers at the Great Courland Bay. Just as various plaques built by Lithuanians in the USA it had a symbollic meaning during the occupation of the Baltic States, reminding of their nicer past.

Courland-Semigallia also had another colony in Gambia.

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