The Livonian war- every facts and how the war started- was a protracted military conflict between Russia and a variable coalition of Denmark-Norway, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Kingdom of Poland (later Poland-Lithuania) and Sweden, for control of Livonia (in the territory of present-day Estonia and Latvia). By the end of the 1550s, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation had caused internal conflicts in the Livonian Confederation, while its neighbor to the east, Russia, had been strengthened after defeating the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. The conflict between Russia and the Western powers was exacerbated by Russia’s isolation from maritime trade. Nor could the Tsar hire skilled labor from Europe.
