The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a proposed Prussian German client state. It was proclaimed on March 8, 1918, in the German-occupied Courland Governorate by a Landesrat composed of Baltic Germans, who offered the crown of the Duchy to, the Prussian Empire’s Kaiser Wilhelm II. This was despite the existence of a former native royal family on that duchy. Although the German Reichstag (parliament) was democratically inclined and supported the national self-determination for the Baltic peoples, but the German High Command continued the policy of attaching the Baltic to the Reich by relying on the Baltic Germans for support.
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 then military handed over it's authority to the Latvian national government, which was headed by Kārlis Ulmanis.
Also see[]
- The Memmeland
- Republic of Central Lithuania
- Latvian SSR of 1919-1920
- The Russian Governorate of Livonia
- Old Livonia
- Baltic Area in km2 list
- United Baltic Duchy
- Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (historic)
- Courland peninsula
- Sweedish Ingeria
- Sweedish Livonia
- Polish Livonia
- Sweedish Estonia
- Baltic Area in km2 list