ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of the limits of the Grand Duchy's expansion. Until the beginning of the thirteenth century, Lithuania belonged to the inter-polity system known as Kievan Rus' or Rurikid Rus'. The Lithuanian confederation of lands joined this system from its periphery as a new yet very active and aggressive member. Lithuania's statesmen had forgotten their "pan-Baltic" project by the fifteenth century, or recalled it only as if it were "pure history". War with the Ilkhanate was the main foreign policy focus of the Golden Horde, then Lithuania's southern and eastern neighbour. Aside from Lithuania, among the lesser players of that same strategic system was the Byzantine Empire, restored under the Palaiologos dynasty. The creation of the Mongol Empire also signalled a crisis in the Muslim inter-polity society that had existed within the boundaries of the Caliphate founded by Muhammad's descendants.
