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Ķemeri resort (originally Ķemeres , also known as Kemmern ) is a part of Jūrmala in Latvia , 44 km from Riga . From 1928 to 1959, Ķemeri was a separate town, famous for healing mud baths and luxurious hotels. Approximately 2,200 inhabitants live there, while the main hotel is under reconstruction.

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69-449: The name Ķemeri ( Kemmern ) first appears in written sources after the founding of the Dukedom of Courland in 1561. Documentary evidence indicates that the springs at Ķemeri first became known for their curative properties in 1796, the first chemical analysis of the spring water being performed in 1818. The residents of the nearby town of Sloka began to build houses for the patients. In 1825,

138-481: A geographic coordinate system as defined in the specification of the ISO 19111 standard. Since there are many different reference ellipsoids , the precise latitude of a feature on the surface is not unique: this is stressed in the ISO standard which states that "without the full specification of the coordinate reference system, coordinates (that is latitude and longitude) are ambiguous at best and meaningless at worst". This

207-560: A 300-by-300-pixel sphere, so illustrations usually exaggerate the flattening. The graticule on the ellipsoid is constructed in exactly the same way as on the sphere. The normal at a point on the surface of an ellipsoid does not pass through the centre, except for points on the equator or at the poles, but the definition of latitude remains unchanged as the angle between the normal and the equatorial plane. The terminology for latitude must be made more precise by distinguishing: Geographic latitude must be used with care, as some authors use it as

276-619: A domestic industry. Iron and limestone were the chief minerals; a little amber was found on the coast. The only seaports were Liepāja, Ventspils and Palanga , there being none on the Courland coast of the Gulf of Riga. In 1870 the population was 619,154; in 1897 it was 674,437 (of whom 345,756 were women); in 1906 it was estimated at 714,200. Of the whole, 79% were Latvians , 8.4% Baltic Germans , about 8% Jews , 1.4% Russians , 1% Lithuanians , 1% Poles , and some Livonians . The chief towns of

345-407: A few miles from Ķemeri. The resort was devastated and the train station was destroyed. The newly created Republic of Latvia tried to restore the previous glory of Ķemeri. In 1924, a special bathing facility was built for mud baths equipped with mechanical hot mud feed and the pumping of used mud back to the bog . In 1929, a 42-m-tall water tower with a sightseeing platform at the top was built near

414-505: A low position in the social scale. Agriculture was the chief occupation, with the principal crops being rye , barley , oats , wheat , flax , and potatoes . The large estates conducted agriculture with skill and scientific knowledge. Fruit grew well. Excellent breeds of cattle, sheep and pigs were kept. Liepāja and Jelgava operated as the principal industrial centres, with ironworks , agricultural machinery works, tanneries , glass and soap works. Flax spinning took place mostly as

483-508: A point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from −90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole, with 0° at the Equator . Lines of constant latitude , or parallels , run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude and longitude are used together as a coordinate pair to specify a location on the surface of the Earth. On its own,

552-578: A population of 292,659 making it the least populous of the provinces. ( occupation ) 1940-1941 The Soviet Army occupied Latvia in conformity with the terms of 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact on 17 June 1940. On 5 August 1940, the Soviet Union annexed the region along with the rest of Latvia which was made a constituent republic of the USSR , the Latvian SSR . At the start of Operation Barbarossa in

621-443: A survey but, with the advent of GPS , it has become natural to use reference ellipsoids (such as WGS84 ) with centre at the centre of mass of the Earth and minor axis aligned to the rotation axis of the Earth. These geocentric ellipsoids are usually within 100 m (330 ft) of the geoid. Since latitude is defined with respect to an ellipsoid, the position of a given point is different on each ellipsoid: one cannot exactly specify

690-549: A synonym for geodetic latitude whilst others use it as an alternative to the astronomical latitude . "Latitude" (unqualified) should normally refer to the geodetic latitude. The importance of specifying the reference datum may be illustrated by a simple example. On the reference ellipsoid for WGS84, the centre of the Eiffel Tower has a geodetic latitude of 48° 51′ 29″ N, or 48.8583° N and longitude of 2° 17′ 40″ E or 2.2944°E. The same coordinates on

759-663: Is also found in the Curonian Spit and Lithuanian Karšuvos giria - the Courland wood. The area comprises 27,286 square kilometres (10,535 sq mi), of which 262 square kilometres (101 sq mi) is made up of lakes. The landscape generally has a low and undulating character, with flat and marshy coastlands. The interior features wooded dunes, covered with pine , spruce , birch , and oak , with swamps and lakes, and fertile patches between. Courland's elevation never rises more than 213 metres (699 ft) above sea level. The Jelgava plain divides Courland into two parts,

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828-411: Is also used in the current literature. The parametric latitude is related to the geodetic latitude by: The alternative name arises from the parameterization of the equation of the ellipse describing a meridian section. In terms of Cartesian coordinates p , the distance from the minor axis, and z , the distance above the equatorial plane, the equation of the ellipse is: The Cartesian coordinates of

897-484: Is determined by the shape of the ellipse which is rotated about its minor (shorter) axis. Two parameters are required. One is invariably the equatorial radius, which is the semi-major axis , a . The other parameter is usually (1) the polar radius or semi-minor axis , b ; or (2) the (first) flattening , f ; or (3) the eccentricity , e . These parameters are not independent: they are related by Many other parameters (see ellipse , ellipsoid ) appear in

966-453: Is determined with the meridian altitude method. More precise measurement of latitude requires an understanding of the gravitational field of the Earth, either to set up theodolites or to determine GPS satellite orbits. The study of the figure of the Earth together with its gravitational field is the science of geodesy . The graticule is formed by the lines of constant latitude and constant longitude, which are constructed with reference to

1035-462: Is of great importance in accurate applications, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS), but in common usage, where high accuracy is not required, the reference ellipsoid is not usually stated. In English texts, the latitude angle, defined below, is usually denoted by the Greek lower-case letter phi ( ϕ or φ ). It is measured in degrees , minutes and seconds or decimal degrees , north or south of

1104-516: Is one of the Historical Latvian Lands in western Latvia . Courland's largest city is Liepāja , which is the third largest city in Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland as they were formerly held by the same duke . The literal meaning of the name is "Land of Curonians ". Situated in western Latvia , Courland roughly corresponds to

1173-451: Is the angle between the equatorial plane and the normal to the surface at that point: the normal to the surface of the sphere is along the radial vector. The latitude, as defined in this way for the sphere, is often termed the spherical latitude, to avoid ambiguity with the geodetic latitude and the auxiliary latitudes defined in subsequent sections of this article. Besides the equator, four other parallels are of significance: The plane of

1242-421: Is the meridional radius of curvature . The quarter meridian distance from the equator to the pole is For WGS84 this distance is 10 001 .965 729  km . The evaluation of the meridian distance integral is central to many studies in geodesy and map projection. It can be evaluated by expanding the integral by the binomial series and integrating term by term: see Meridian arc for details. The length of

1311-505: The Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica , in which he proved that a rotating self-gravitating fluid body in equilibrium takes the form of an oblate ellipsoid. (This article uses the term ellipsoid in preference to the older term spheroid .) Newton's result was confirmed by geodetic measurements in the 18th century. (See Meridian arc .) An oblate ellipsoid is the three-dimensional surface generated by

1380-827: The Baltic Sea , they remained trapped in what became known as the Courland Pocket , blockaded by the Red Army and by the Red Baltic Fleet. Colonel-General Heinz Guderian , the Chief of the German General Staff , pleaded with Adolf Hitler to allow evacuation of the troops in Courland by sea for use in the defense of Germany. Hitler refused and ordered the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine forces in Courland to continue

1449-449: The Courland (Kurzeme) Planning Region , with an area of 13,596 square kilometres (5,249 sq mi) and a population of 301,621 in 2008, includes much of the traditional region. The remainder of Courland is part of the planning regions of Riga and Semigallia (Zemgale) . Latitude In geography , latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north – south position of

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1518-601: The Curonians , a pagan tribe, inhabited Courland. The Brethren of the Sword , a German Catholic military order , subdued the Curonians and converted them to Christianity in the first quarter of the 13th century. Thus in 1230, the Curonian king Lammekinus  [ lt ] (Latvian: Lamekins) made peace directly with the papal legate . He accepted baptism , and became a vassal of

1587-455: 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 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

1656-701: The Tsardom of Russia during the Livonian War . The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a semi-independent duchy that existed from 1561 until 1795, encompassing the areas of Courland and Semigallia. Although nominally a vassal state of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , the dukes operated autonomously. In the 18th century, Russia acquired great influence over the Duchy; the future Empress Anna of Russia served as regent there from 1711 until her accession to

1725-433: The geoid , a surface which approximates the mean sea level over the oceans and its continuation under the land masses. The second step is to approximate the geoid by a mathematically simpler reference surface. The simplest choice for the reference surface is a sphere , but the geoid is more accurately modeled by an ellipsoid of revolution . The definitions of latitude and longitude on such reference surfaces are detailed in

1794-571: The zenith ). On map projections there is no universal rule as to how meridians and parallels should appear. The examples below show the named parallels (as red lines) on the commonly used Mercator projection and the Transverse Mercator projection . On the former the parallels are horizontal and the meridians are vertical, whereas on the latter there is no exact relationship of parallels and meridians with horizontal and vertical: both are complicated curves. \ In 1687 Isaac Newton published

1863-447: The Earth's orbit about the Sun is called the ecliptic , and the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis of the Earth is the equatorial plane. The angle between the ecliptic and the equatorial plane is called variously the axial tilt, the obliquity, or the inclination of the ecliptic, and it is conventionally denoted by i . The latitude of the tropical circles is equal to i and the latitude of

1932-575: The Latvian SSR within the Soviet Union following World War II. Courland was no longer an administrative unit under the Soviets. Liepājas apgabals (1952-1953), one of three oblasts in Latvia, roughly corresponded to Courland. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union , Courland became part of independent Latvia once more and it remains so to this day. Although Courland is not an administrative entity today,

2001-627: The Russian throne in 1730. After the last of the ducal line into which she had married died in 1737, she arranged for the Duchy to be given to her lover, Ernst Johann von Biron instead. The Duchy was one of the smallest European nations to colonize overseas territories, establishing short-lived outposts on the Caribbean islands of Tobago and Trinidad and at the mouth of the Gambia River in Africa on what

2070-664: The Sun is overhead at some point of the Tropic of Capricorn . The south polar latitudes below the Antarctic Circle are in daylight, whilst the north polar latitudes above the Arctic Circle are in night. The situation is reversed at the June solstice, when the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. Only at latitudes in between the two tropics is it possible for the Sun to be directly overhead (at

2139-567: The WGS84 spheroid is The variation of this distance with latitude (on WGS84 ) is shown in the table along with the length of a degree of longitude (east–west distance): A calculator for any latitude is provided by the U.S. Government's National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). The following graph illustrates the variation of both a degree of latitude and a degree of longitude with latitude. There are six auxiliary latitudes that have applications to special problems in geodesy, geophysics and

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2208-682: 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. After World War I, Courland became one of five provinces of the newly formed nation of Latvia . These provinces corresponded to Latvia's four traditional regions plus Riga. In 1935, Courland had an area of 13,210 square kilometres (5,099 sq mi) and

2277-425: The angle subtended at the centre by the meridian arc from the equator to the point concerned. If the meridian distance is denoted by m ( ϕ ) then where R denotes the mean radius of the Earth. R is equal to 6,371 km or 3,959 miles. No higher accuracy is appropriate for R since higher-precision results necessitate an ellipsoid model. With this value for R the meridian length of 1 degree of latitude on

2346-521: The bathing facility. Hotel Ķemeri, called "White Ship," has more than 100 rooms designed and built together by famous Latvian architect Eižens Laube and Spa Hotel's chief doctor and its director Dr. Janis Libietis. The hotel was opened to guests in 1936. Dr. Janis Libietis managed the Kemeri complex from 1928 to 1944 as he later sought asylum in Sweden . In 1997, Ķemeri National Park was established. In 1998,

2415-572: The centre of the Earth and perpendicular to the rotation axis intersects the surface at a great circle called the Equator . Planes parallel to the equatorial plane intersect the surface in circles of constant latitude; these are the parallels. The Equator has a latitude of 0°, the North Pole has a latitude of 90° North (written 90° N or +90°), and the South Pole has a latitude of 90° South (written 90° S or −90°). The latitude of an arbitrary point

2484-459: The commander of the Leningrad Front (reinforced by elements of the 2nd Baltic Front ) on the Courland perimeter. At this time the group consisted of the remnants of some 31 divisions. After May 9, 1945, approximately 203,000 troops of Army Group Courland began to be moved to Soviet prison camps to the east. The majority of them never returned to Germany (Haupt, 1997). Courland remained part of

2553-637: The control of the Imperial German Army 's Ober Ost commander in the person of Paul von Hindenburg , a 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

2622-408: The datum ED50 define a point on the ground which is 140 metres (460 feet) distant from the tower. A web search may produce several different values for the latitude of the tower; the reference ellipsoid is rarely specified. The length of a degree of latitude depends on the figure of the Earth assumed. On the sphere the normal passes through the centre and the latitude ( ϕ ) is therefore equal to

2691-546: The defense of the area. Germany’s naval capacity to evacuate these forces was restricted as it needed the majority of its transport ships to evacuate troops from East Prussia and maintain vital trade with Sweden. On January 15, 1945, Army Group Courland ( Heeresgruppe Kurland ) formed under Colonel-General Dr. Lothar Rendulic . The blockade by elements of the Leningrad Front remained until May 8, 1945, when Army Group Courland, then under its last commander, Colonel-General Carl Hilpert , surrendered to Marshal Leonid Govorov ,

2760-402: The ellipsoid to that point Q on the surrounding sphere (of radius a ) which is the projection parallel to the Earth's axis of a point P on the ellipsoid at latitude ϕ . It was introduced by Legendre and Bessel who solved problems for geodesics on the ellipsoid by transforming them to an equivalent problem for spherical geodesics by using this smaller latitude. Bessel's notation, u ( ϕ ) ,

2829-509: The equator. For navigational purposes positions are given in degrees and decimal minutes. For instance, The Needles lighthouse is at 50°39.734′ N 001°35.500′ W. This article relates to coordinate systems for the Earth: it may be adapted to cover the Moon, planets and other celestial objects ( planetographic latitude ). For a brief history, see History of latitude . In celestial navigation , latitude

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2898-470: The first public building was built for spa guests. Bad Kemmern was founded as a resort in 1838, when the emperor Nicholas I of Russia gave this land for building the first bath-house with mineral water. From then onwards people started to come here for treatment. The Ķemeri railway station was established in 1877. The Ķemeri resort became popular in the Russian Empire . In 1912, a direct railway link

2967-438: The following sections. Lines of constant latitude and longitude together constitute a graticule on the reference surface. The latitude of a point on the actual surface is that of the corresponding point on the reference surface, the correspondence being along the normal to the reference surface, which passes through the point on the physical surface. Latitude and longitude together with some specification of height constitute

3036-587: The former Latvian districts of Kuldīga , Liepāja , Saldus , Talsi , Tukums and Ventspils . When combined with Semigallia and Selonia, Courland's northeastern boundary is the Daugava River, which separates it from the regions of Latgale and Vidzeme . To the north, Courland's coast lies along the Gulf of Riga . On the west it is bordered by the Baltic Sea , and on the south by Lithuania . It lies between 55° 45′ and 57° 45′ North and 21° and 27° East. The name

3105-399: The geocentric latitude ( θ ) and the geodetic latitude ( ϕ ) is: For points not on the surface of the ellipsoid, the relationship involves additionally the ellipsoidal height h : where N is the prime vertical radius of curvature. The geodetic and geocentric latitudes are equal at the equator and at the poles but at other latitudes they differ by a few minutes of arc. Taking the value of

3174-454: 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 ethnic Latvians ' moves toward independence. With

3243-451: The latitude and longitude of a geographical feature without specifying the ellipsoid used. Many maps maintained by national agencies are based on older ellipsoids, so one must know how the latitude and longitude values are transformed from one ellipsoid to another. GPS handsets include software to carry out datum transformations which link WGS84 to the local reference ellipsoid with its associated grid. The shape of an ellipsoid of revolution

3312-538: The meridian arc between two given latitudes is given by replacing the limits of the integral by the latitudes concerned. The length of a small meridian arc is given by When the latitude difference is 1 degree, corresponding to ⁠ π / 180 ⁠ radians, the arc distance is about The distance in metres (correct to 0.01 metre) between latitudes ϕ {\displaystyle \phi }  − 0.5 degrees and ϕ {\displaystyle \phi }  + 0.5 degrees on

3381-458: The polar circles is its complement (90° - i ). The axis of rotation varies slowly over time and the values given here are those for the current epoch . The time variation is discussed more fully in the article on axial tilt . The figure shows the geometry of a cross-section of the plane perpendicular to the ecliptic and through the centres of the Earth and the Sun at the December solstice when

3450-584: The pope. In 1237 the area passed into the rule of the Teutonic Order owing to the amalgamation of this order with that of the Brethren of the Sword. The Livonian Confederation was a loosely organized confederation formed by the German-led Livonian Order and various bishoprics that encompassed much of present-day Estonia and Latvia. It existed from 1228 to the 1560s, when it was dismembered by

3519-567: The prevailing denomination, Lutheranism ; the rest belonged to the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. There was a small but vigorous Jewish population. During World War I , Courland formed part of the Eastern Front theatre of operations that saw fighting primarily between forces of the Russian and German Empires . Following Russia's Great Retreat of 1915, Courland came under

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3588-503: The reference ellipsoid to the plane or in calculations of geodesics on the ellipsoid. Their numerical values are not of interest. For example, no one would need to calculate the authalic latitude of the Eiffel Tower. The expressions below give the auxiliary latitudes in terms of the geodetic latitude, the semi-major axis, a , and the eccentricity, e . (For inverses see below .) The forms given are, apart from notational variants, those in

3657-466: The rotation axis of the Earth. The primary reference points are the poles where the axis of rotation of the Earth intersects the reference surface. Planes which contain the rotation axis intersect the surface at the meridians ; and the angle between any one meridian plane and that through Greenwich (the Prime Meridian ) defines the longitude: meridians are lines of constant longitude. The plane through

3726-417: The rotation of an ellipse about its shorter axis (minor axis). "Oblate ellipsoid of revolution" is abbreviated to 'ellipsoid' in the remainder of this article. (Ellipsoids which do not have an axis of symmetry are termed triaxial .) Many different reference ellipsoids have been used in the history of geodesy . In pre-satellite days they were devised to give a good fit to the geoid over the limited area of

3795-512: The sanatorium, after years of post -Sovietic abandonment, was purchased by Ominasis Italia and renovated according to a project by the architect Cesare Stefano Bernardinelli . In 2014, the old abandoned hotel on Tūristu iela was demolished and the space is currently blank, with one last building to be demolished. The state hotel is being renovated for tourism again. 56°56′18″N 23°29′22″E  /  56.9383°N 23.4894°E  / 56.9383; 23.4894 Courland Courland

3864-515: The semi-major axis and the inverse flattening, ⁠ 1 / f ⁠ . For example, the defining values for the WGS84 ellipsoid, used by all GPS devices, are from which are derived The difference between the semi-major and semi-minor axes is about 21 km (13 miles) and as fraction of the semi-major axis it equals the flattening; on a computer monitor the ellipsoid could be sized as 300 by 299 pixels. This would barely be distinguishable from

3933-420: The sphere is 111.2 km (69.1 statute miles) (60.0 nautical miles). The length of one minute of latitude is 1.853 km (1.151 statute miles) (1.00 nautical miles), while the length of 1 second of latitude is 30.8 m or 101 feet (see nautical mile ). In Meridian arc and standard texts it is shown that the distance along a meridian from latitude ϕ to the equator is given by ( ϕ in radians) where M ( ϕ )

4002-403: The squared eccentricity as 0.0067 (it depends on the choice of ellipsoid) the maximum difference of ϕ − θ {\displaystyle \phi {-}\theta } may be shown to be about 11.5 minutes of arc at a geodetic latitude of approximately 45° 6′. The parametric latitude or reduced latitude , β , is defined by the radius drawn from the centre of

4071-454: The standard reference for map projections, namely "Map projections: a working manual" by J. P. Snyder. Derivations of these expressions may be found in Adams and online publications by Osborne and Rapp. The geocentric latitude is the angle between the equatorial plane and the radius from the centre to a point of interest. When the point is on the surface of the ellipsoid, the relation between

4140-468: The study of geodesy, geophysics and map projections but they can all be expressed in terms of one or two members of the set a , b , f and e . Both f and e are small and often appear in series expansions in calculations; they are of the order ⁠ 1 / 298 ⁠ and 0.0818 respectively. Values for a number of ellipsoids are given in Figure of the Earth . Reference ellipsoids are usually defined by

4209-706: The summer of 1941, the German Wehrmacht's Army Group North headed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb overran Courland, along with the rest of the Baltic littoral. During the German occupation Courland was administered as Liepāja County area ( Kreisgebiet Libau ). In 1944 the Red Army lifted the siege of Leningrad and re-conquered the Baltic countries along with much of Ukraine and Belarus . However, some 200,000 German troops held out in Courland. With their backs to

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4278-413: The ten districts were Jelgava (Mitau), Courland's capital (pop. 35,011 in 1897); Liepāja (Libau) (pop. 64,500 in 1897); Bauska (6,543); Jaunjelgava (Friedrichstadt) (5,223); Kuldīga (Goldingen) (9,733); Grobiņa (1,489); Aizpute (Hasenpoth) (3,338); Ilūkste (Illuxt) (2,340); Talsi (Talsen) (6,215); Tukums (Tuckum) (7542); and Ventspils (Windau) (7,132). 75% of the population belonged to

4347-406: The term "latitude" normally refers to the geodetic latitude as defined below. Briefly, the geodetic latitude of a point is the angle formed between the vector perpendicular (or normal ) to the ellipsoidal surface from the point, and the plane of the equator . Two levels of abstraction are employed in the definitions of latitude and longitude. In the first step the physical surface is modeled by

4416-407: The theory of map projections: The definitions given in this section all relate to locations on the reference ellipsoid but the first two auxiliary latitudes, like the geodetic latitude, can be extended to define a three-dimensional geographic coordinate system as discussed below . The remaining latitudes are not used in this way; they are used only as intermediate constructs in map projections of

4485-520: The time of the Northern Crusades in the early 13th century, most land was owned by nobles descended from the German invaders. In 1863, the Russian authorities issued laws to enable Latvians, who formed the bulk of the population, to acquire the farms which they held, and special banks were founded to help them. By this means, some occupants bought their farms, but the great mass of the population remained landless, and lived as hired labourers, occupying

4554-630: The western side, which is fertile and densely inhabited, except in the north, and the eastern side, less fertile and thinly inhabited. Nearly one hundred rivers drain Courland, but only three of these rivers – the Daugava, the Lielupe and the Venta – are navigable. They all flow northwestward and discharge into the Baltic Sea . Owing to its numerous lakes and marshes, Courland has a damp, often foggy, and changeable climate; its winters are severe. In ancient times

4623-523: 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

4692-443: Was created between Ķemeri and Moscow . The connection with the beach of Jaunķemeri was provided by electrical tram . Nerve disease as well as diseases of joints, bones, and muscles were treated in the resort. Treatment with sulfuring water and mud baths was also carried out. The annual number of people visiting the resort reached 8,300. During World War I , the battles between German and Russian forces lasting several years were only

4761-592: Was then known as James Island . In 1795, the last Duke, Peter von Biron , ceded the Duchy to the Russian Empire . The former Bishopric of Courland was directly incorporated into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as the District of Pilten of the Wenden and later Inflanty Voivodeship . After annexation by the Russian Empire , the territory of the former Duchy formed the Courland Governorate . From

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