Historical, social and economic factors, together with an ethnically dispersed population, have resulted in the decline of Livonian identity, with only a small group surviving in the 21st century.

"The Finnic tribes were pushed into the coastal regions by the Slav migrations of the sixth and seventh centuries AD.

"[10] Historically, the Livonians lived in two separate areas of Latvia, one group in Livonia and another on the northern coast of Courland.

[13] Archbishop Hartwig II converted some Livonians in the surrounding area, including the local chieftain Caupo of Turaida, who later allied himself with the Germans.

[15] Berthold was followed by Albert von Buxhövden, who forced the Livonian leaders at the mouth of the Daugava River to give him land to build a Christian settlement.

This vacuum was filled by Latvian tribes – Curonians, Semigallians, Latgallians and Selonians – who started to move into the area around 1220, and continued to do so for at least thirty years.

They settled mostly in the Daugava Valley, so that the Livonians of Livonia in the east were cut off from those living on the peninsula of Curonia in the west.

Because of their defeat at the battle of Saule the Knights of the Sword eventually had to look for support to the much more powerful Teutonic Order, which up until then had been active primarily in Poland and Lithuania.

In the middle of the 16th century, the Livonian Order and the independent bishoprics were in turmoil because of the growing influence of Martin Luther's Reformation.

Seeing a chance in the resulting military weakness of the Order, Czar Ivan the Terrible of Russia invaded Livonia in 1558, seeking access to the Baltic Sea.

Livonia and south-eastern Latvia were claimed by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, while Curonia became an independent duchy (Courland), with Gotthard Kettler, the Livonian Order's last Grandmaster, as its first duke.

Under the 17th Century Swedish Kings Gustav II Adolf and Charles XI, general elementary education was introduced, the Bible was translated in Estonian and Latvian, and a university was founded in Tartu in southern Estonia.

Curonia continued to be ruled by its dukes for another three-quarters of a century, but in 1795, that region also became a Russian possession as part of the Third Partition of Poland.

Partly because of the recurring devastation of war and the resultant mingling of refugees, the Livonians of Livonia were eventually completely assimilated by the Latvians.

In Curonia, the Livonian language and culture also came under heavy pressure, but here it retained a last foothold on the outermost tip of the Curonian Peninsula.

Also, the Livonian Coast was separated from the interior of Curonia by dense forests and impassable marshlands, which made regular interaction even less likely.

The people of the Livonian Coast had much closer ties to the inhabitants of the Estonian island of Saaremaa, across the Gulf of Riga to the north.

The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk the following year ended the war between Germany and Soviet Russia and left the Baltic region firmly in German hands.

This cultural revival of the Interbellum years served to give the Livonian people for the first time a clear consciousness of their ethnic identity.

The Curonian Peninsula was one of the areas where the Germans held out until the general capitulation of May 9, 1945, which meant that often there was not a house left standing when the Livonians returned home after the war.

For another, like the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians, large numbers of them were deported to Siberia between 1945 and 1952, with a clear peak in 1949, when agriculture was collectivized in the Baltic states.

The 1980s, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev's policies of glasnost and perestroika opened the Iron Curtain, bringing change.

In this new nation, Livonians were finally recognised as an indigenous ethnic minority, whose language and culture must be protected and advanced.

Also, it is prohibited for anyone to start a hotel, restaurant, or other public establishment which might adversely influence the Livonian culture or draw outsiders into the area.

[22] An article published by the Foundation for Endangered Languages in 2007 stated that there were only 182 registered Livonians and a mere six native speakers.

[29][30] In 2023, the first of 171 approved road signs in Latvia with Latvian and Livonian text were placed on the border of Talsi Municipality.