In 1919, Curzon hit the bullseye by predicting that the three Baltic states – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - had around twenty years to exist. Their precarious geopolitical situation was not the only reason for such skepticism. The British also dwelled on civilizational inferiority, or cultural insufficiency, of these nationalities and their elites, a conviction which was also perpetrated by the prominent Russians, who likened Baltic provinces' independence to ‘self-determination of a nursery or a declaration of a negro republic in Texas’. Ultimately, the question was whether these states and ‘races’ were capable enough for statehood. Their rustic makeup and their seemingly odd, non-aristocratic elites, their perceived 'historical insufficiency', even bug infested hotels in their 'ramshackle and hermit republics' suggested that the whole idea of Baltic statehood could be a bit of a farce. Analyzing the way in which British foreign policy community approached the birth of Lithuania in 1919, and its death as an independent state in 1939, this paper will try to reconstruct the underlying paradigm within British geopolitical thought that set parameters for states’ geopolitical viability and ranked civilizations.
