in 1917 Lithuania existed as an independent state from the beginning of the 13th century until 1569, when it entered into a union with Poland, forming the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth ceased to exist after the
Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century. Most of the Lithuanian territory was incorporated into the
Russian Empire. A
Lithuanian independence movement arose during the 19th century, based on concepts of national
self-determination that were formalized in
Woodrow Wilson's
Fourteen Points speech in January 1918. During the course of
World War I, the
Imperial German Army invaded the Russian Empire and soon entered the territory which comprised Lithuania. In 1915, the Germans assumed control and organized a military administration known as
Ober Ost (short for
der Oberbefehlshaber der gesamten deutschen Streitkräfte im Osten: "supreme command of all German forces in the East"). At first, the Germans simply exploited Lithuania for the benefit of their war effort. As the war progressed, it became evident that the two-front war that Germany was engaged in would necessitate a compromise peace with the Russian Empire. This necessitated a re-thinking of strategies concerning the occupied territories in the east. An openly pursued goal of annexation gave way to a more guarded policy after Germany perceived that a
public relations backlash might occur: the
Central Powers realized that the
Allies could use such territorial expansion in their
propaganda. Lengthy debates between German military leaders (who favored open annexation) and the civilian administration (which leaned towards a more subtle strategy) resulted in a resolution that declared that the military administration governing occupied territories would grant some semblance of autonomy to their populations. The plan was to form a network of formally independent states that would in fact be completely dependent on Germany, the so-called
Mitteleuropa. ==Organizing the conference==