Hanover (state)

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Hanover

Image:Hanover Flag.gif	Image:G1&2 Arms.png
(Flag of Hanover)	(Royal Coat of Arms)

Capital

Hanover

Head of State

King of Hanover

Hanover (German: Hannover) is a historical territory in today's Germany.

1 History
2 Dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Princes of Calenberg, and Electors of the Holy Roman Empire, 1692-1803
3 Kings of Hanover, 1814-1866
4 Presidents of the Province of Hanover, 1867-1946
5 See also

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History

It was an independent kingdom from 1814 to 1866 and a province of Prussia from 1866 to 1946. Hanover was originally called the Principality of Calenberg, which was a subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The Principality of Calenberg existed from 1432 until 1803. Hanover is named after its capital, Hanover.

The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, a state of the Holy Roman Empire, was frequently subdivided into different principalities, each of which was ruled by a duke; one of these was the Principality of Calenberg. It was first created when it was split off from the Principality of Brunswick in 1432. It fell to the Principality of Wolfenbüttel in 1584. In 1635 it was separated again from Wolfenbüttel, together with the Principality of Göttingen, with which it would stay joined.

In 1636, the capital of the Principality of Calenberg was moved from Pattensen to Hanover, and hence it also became known as Hanover.

In 1692, Duke Ernest Augustus received the additional title of prince-elector. The principality was then also known as the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg or, informally, the Electorate of Hanover. In 1714, the Hanoverian electors became kings of Great Britain (see House of Hanover). The influence of the electors in Germany grew also: they inherited the Principality of Lüneburg in 1705, and the formerly Swedish territories of Bremen and Verden in 1719. As part of the German Mediatisation of 1803, the Electorate received the Bishopric of Osnabrück.

In 1803, the Electorate was occupied by France, which ruled over it in some form or another for the next ten years. From 1807 on, the Hanoverian territority was part of the Kingdom of Westphalia. In 1813, the Electorate was restored, and in October of 1814 it became the Kingdom of Hanover at the Congress of Vienna, in order to make George III equal to the upstart King of Württemberg in German affairs. The Congress of Vienna installed a territorial exchange between Hanover and Prussia, in which Hanover increased its area substantially. Hanover gained the Bishopric of Hildesheim, East Frisia, the Lower County of Lingen, and the northern part of the Bishopric of Münster. It lost those parts of the Duchy of Lauenburg to the right of the Elbe, and several small exclaves in the east.

The personal union with the United Kingdom ended in 1837 on the accession of Queen Victoria because the succession laws (Salic Law) in Hanover prevented a female inheriting the title if there was any surviving male heir (in the United Kingdom, a male only took precedence in respect to siblings). In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, Hanover was annexed by Prussia and became a province (38,511 km², 3.5 million inhabitants in 1939). In 1946, the British military administration made Hanover the main part of the state of Lower Saxony, along with the states of Oldenburg, Brunswick, and Schaumburg-Lippe.