Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (From Austria with Love)

The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia is a German client state in Eastern europe.The Duchy was proclaimed on 8 march 1918 in the German-Occupied Courland Governate by a landesrat which consisted of baltic germans.They initially offered the crown to Kaiser Wilhelm II,But he rejected it and instead proposed that it should be given to the royal house of VOn Biron,who had originaly ruled the duchy.Gustav von Birov accepted this and swore a oath of loyalty to the German Kaiser.

History
During the autumn of 1915,the german army had occupied the Courland Governate of the Russian Empire and a front line that stretched between Riga, Daugavpils and Baranovitch was established there. on the 16 November 1917,The Latvian provisonal national council was proclaimed.Later that same month,the council proclaimed an autonomus Latvian province with ethnographic boundaries.A formal and independent latvian republic was finaly proclaimed on 16 january 1918.

After the Russian revolution,German and Danubian troops started advancing from Courland,and by the end of february,the territories of the former Russian Governorate of Livonia and Autonomous Governorate of Estonia that had declared independence were also occupied and fell under the German military administration.After the treaty of Brest-Litovsk had been signed,Bolshevist russia accepted the loss of the Courland Governate.

During the german military administration,Baltic germans began a process of formin provincial cuncils between september 1917 and march 1918.One such council proclaimed The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia on the 8 march 1918,They initially offered kaiser Wilhelm II the crown but he suggested giving it to Prince Gustav Von Biron.