Although the local people had contact with the outside world for centuries, they became more fully integrated into the European socio-political system in the 12th century. The first missionaries, sent by the pope, sailed up the Daugava River in the late 12th century, seeking converts. The local people, however, did not convert to Christianity as readily as the church had hoped.

At the beginning of the 13th century, Germans ruled large parts of what is currently Latvia. The influx of German crusaders especially