The governorate was created in 1795 out of the territory of the
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which was incorporated into the
Russian Empire as the Viceroyalty of
Courland with its capital at
Mitau (now Jelgava) following the
third partition of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1915, during the
World War I, Courland was occupied by the
German Empire and included into the
Ober Ost military administration. While the local
Baltic German nobility was cooperating with the German administration, several
Latvian leaders from Courland retreated to the neighboring governorates of
Livonia and
Estonia, still held by Russian forces. After the
Russian Revolution in March 1917, those Latvian leaders formed the
Provisional Land Council of Courland that met at 27 April 1917 in the Estonian city of
Tartu, and was recognized by the
Russian Provisional Government as the
representative body of the occupied Courland Governorate. At the same time, the Provisional Government in
Petrograd appointed Latvian politician
Jānis Čakste as the
commissar of Courland, a newly created post that replaced the old office of governor. Since Courland was under German control, Čakste and the Provisional Land Council focused their activities on assisting war refugees who fled from Courland, mainly to Livonia and Estonia. In September–October 1917, German forces advanced from Couland and took the city of
Riga and the main Baltic islands, and in November 1917, the
Bolshevik Revolution broke out in Russia. Already on 16 November 1917, the
Latvian Provisional National Council was created in
Valka (Livonia) on 30 November, and it proclaimed
Latvia as an autonomous province within the ethnographic boundaries of the Latvian people that included Courland. On 15 January 1918, the same body proclaimed Latvia as independent republic. Already in February 1918, German forces proceeded further and occupied the entirety of Livonia and Estonia, but
Soviet Russia continued to claim sovereignty over all occupied regions, including Courland, until the signing of the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, when it accepted the loss of the Courland Governorate. On 8 March 1918, representatives of the Courlandian
Baltic Germans met in Jelgava (Mitau) and proclaimed the creation of an independent state, named the
Duchy of Courland and Semigallia in reference to the historical duchy of the same name. They offered the Courlandian ducal throne to the German emperor, thus trying to establish Courland as a
client state of the German Empire. Already on March 15, Germany recognized the newly proclaimed state, that in reality existed only formally since all effective power over the region was still held by German military administration of Ober Ost. On 5 November 1918, Courland was united with neighboring Livonia–Estonia to form the
United Baltic Duchy, but that political project failed, since on 18 November 1918, the
Republic of Latvia was proclaimed, thus uniting all Latvian lands, including Courland. ==Geography==