Editing Courland (section)

=== Courland during and after World War I ===
[[File:OberOst.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Public notice of the German ''[[Ober Ost]]'' region including Courland ''(Kurland)'' district in 1917]]
{{see also|Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1918)}}
During [[World War I]], Courland formed part of the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|Eastern Front]] theatre of operations that saw fighting primarily between forces of the [[Russian Empire|Russian]] and [[German Empire]]s.  Following [[Great Retreat (Russian)|Russia's Great Retreat]] of 1915, Courland came under the control of the [[Imperial German Army]]'s [[Ober Ost]] commander in the person of [[Paul von Hindenburg]], a [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] military hero.  (The Russian authorities of the [[Courland Governorate]] were exiled to [[Tartu]], never to return.)  With large territories coming under the Ober Ost's administration as a result of military successes on the Eastern Front, General [[Erich Ludendorff]] was charged with managing the large area now under its jurisdiction.  Courland district (which included parts of Semigallia) was made one of three districts of the region, which also came to be known as ''Ober Ost''.

As Russian rule in the rest of what is now Latvia began collapsing at the end of World War I, [[Baltic Germans]] began a process of forming provincial councils between September 1917 and March 1918, competing with [[Latvians|ethnic Latvians]]' moves toward independence.  With the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] of 3 March 1918, the new [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic]] formally relinquished control of Courland to Germany. The [[Duchy of Courland and Semigallia (1918)|Duchy of Courland and Semigallia]] was proclaimed on 8 March 1918 by a Baltic German ''Landesrat'', who offered the crown of the duchy to German Kaiser Wilhelm II. Wilhelm recognised the duchy as a German [[vassal]] that same month. However, the duchy was absorbed on 22 September 1918 by the [[United Baltic Duchy]].

On 18 November 1918, Latvia proclaimed its independence and on 7 December 1918, the German military handed over authority to the pro-German [[Latvian Provisional Government]] headed by [[Kārlis Ulmanis]]. By January 1919, much of Courland had been overrun by the Bolsheviks' [[Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic]], but the provisional government with the aid of German forces pushed back and took back Courland by April. Throughout the [[Latvian War of Independence]], much of Courland remained a German stronghold. Latvia eventually signed a cease-fire with Germany on 15 July 1920, and the [[Latvian–Soviet Peace Treaty]] of 11 August ended the war.