A people called the Balts arrived in the area around the second millennium BCE. Lithuania was first unified as a nation around 1240CE and Vilnius became the capital around 1316CE. At this point the country started to expand into modern day Belarus and the Ukraine. In 1386, the Grand Duke of Lithuania married into the Polish royal family and was elected King of Poland by the Polish Parliament. In the early 1400's the Polish-Lithuanian union continued to expand, reaching it's height in the late 1400's. In the 1500's a new threat emerged as Russia became a powerful state to the east. The Polish-Lithuanian union fought a number of wars with Russia over the next 100 years, slowly losing territory to them. In 1773, Russia, Prussia, and Austria agreed to attack and divide the country between them and by 1795 both countries were erased from the map of Europe and most of Lithuania became part of Russia. In 1918, Lithuania declared its independence and became a country again. However, this was short lived as Poland first occupied the country from 1920 to 1926 and later the Soviet Union took the country and forced it into their union through and agreement with Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin, in 1940. In 1941, Germany invaded the territory, holding it for three years before Russia re-conquered it. During this time, most of Lithuania's Jews were murdered. When the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, Lithuania again became an independent country. During the 1990's the country changed its economy from a controlled (communist) economy to a market economy. In 2004, Lithuania became a member of the European Union and NATO and today the country is doing quite well economically.