Europe · The modern states
Kingdom of Bavaria
1806–1918
Bavaria was elevated from electorate to kingdom on 1 January 1806, with Maximilian I Joseph as first king, rewarded for its French alliance and joining the Confederation of the Rhine.
- Existed
- 1806–1918
- Shown on the map
- 1806–1870
- Peak area
- 91k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
Bavaria was elevated from electorate to kingdom on 1 January 1806, with Maximilian I Joseph as first king, rewarded for its French alliance and joining the Confederation of the Rhine. The dominant reformer was minister Maximilian von Montgelas, whose reforms (c. 1799–1817) created a modern centralized bureaucratic state: administrative rationalization, secularization of church lands, legal equality, abolition of serfdom, and a written constitution (1808, revised into the more lasting 1818 constitution). Bavaria fought alongside France and gained substantial territory (Tyrol, briefly; Salzburg; Franconian and Swabian lands). It changed sides via the Treaty of Ried (8 October 1813), preserving its royal status and most gains at the Congress of Vienna. It endured as a kingdom until the revolution of 1918.
Common questions
- What was the Kingdom of Bavaria?
- Bavaria was elevated from electorate to kingdom on 1 January 1806, with Maximilian I Joseph as first king, rewarded for its French alliance and joining the Confederation of the Rhine.
- When did the Kingdom of Bavaria exist?
- The Kingdom of Bavaria existed 1806–1918. On this map it is drawn 1806–1870.
- How large was the Kingdom of Bavaria?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Kingdom of Bavaria covered about 91,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, napoleon.org (Fondation Napoléon), the Deutsches Historisches Museum, and academic studies (H-France Review, the *Napoleonica* journal) on the Revolution's and Napoleon's contested death tolls and legacy. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Kingdom of Bavaria en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Bavaria
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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