ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the uniqueness of the formation of the early Lithuanian state by comparing it to similar processes of state genesis. In other ethnic Lithuanian lands, the consequences of "precocious imperialism" were more similar to those that Otto Hintze discusses in his theory for the appearance of feudalism. Rowell's comment concerns the greater cohesion of the already established patrimonial Lithuanian Empire. So far, more moderate concepts prevail in the question of the Lithuanian state's emergence among Belarusian academic historians. Like many historians who have researched the topic of the emergence of the Lithuanian state, Henryk Lowmianski relates it to Mindaugas' actions, but he places the most important events at a later date. Lowmianski postponed the most important events in the formation of Lithuanian statehood to 1240-1260. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the territory of the future core of the Lithuanian state was separated from the neighbouring Slavic lands by wide stretches of forest.
