Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1918)

The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a proposed Client state of the German Empire. It was proclaimed on March 8, 1918, in German-occupied Courland Governorate by a Landesrat composed of Baltic Germans, who offered the crown of the Duchy to Kaiser Wilhelm II, despite the existence of a former sovereign reigning family on that duchy. Although the German Reichstag supported the national self-determination for the Baltic peoples, the German High Command continued the policy of attaching the Baltic to the Reich by relying on Baltic Germans.

In October 1918, the Chancellor of Germany Prince Maximilian of Baden proposed to have the military administration in the Baltic replaced by civilian authority. After the German Revolution on November 18, 1918, Latvia proclaimed independence and on December 7, 1918, the German military handed over authority to the Latvian national government headed by Kārlis Ulmanis

Historical background

During World War I, German Armies had occupied the Courland Governorate of Russian Empire by the autumn of 1915. The front was settled along a line stretched between Riga, Daugavpils and Baranovitch.

The Latvian National Council was proclaimed on November 16, 1917. On November 30, 1917 the Latvian National Council proclaimed an autonomous Latvian province within ethnographic boundaries, and a formal independent Latvian republic was...
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