ZLSHGRXWZLWKPRUHWKDQO\LQJGHDGRQWKHEDWWOH¿HOGDORQJ
with the entire leadership of the order.Outcomes
x Although the Knights would survive for quite a while after
Tannenberg, their power was much reduced and they went into a
long decline. The Battle of Tannenberg helped to establish the
borders of the states in Eastern Europe and effectively put an end to
medieval German expansion into Poland and Lithuania.
x The battle is perhaps even more important in symbolic terms.
o For the Lithuanians and Poles, it represents a high point of
national pride and achievement, especially with regard to
resisting invaders.o In World War I, when the Germans won a major victory
over the Russians near the site, they named the later battle
Tannenberg as well and represented it as having avenged the
earlier loss.o Some later Germans romanticized the Teutonic Knights as
a group nobly trying to bring Christianity and civilization
to backward parts of Europe. Nazi Germany, for example,
portrayed its own seizing of eastern territory as a continuation
of the Knights’ mission.x The Battle of Tannenberg was the last major battle of the Middle
Ages and was one of the last in which gunpowder did not play an
important role. In terms of world history, it was the cusp of the
vastly important Age of Exploration, when European seafarers
begin to establish links with the rest of the globe.