Europe · Reformation to revolution
Luxembourg
1815–present
At the Congress of Vienna (Final Act, 9 June 1815) the former duchy was raised to a Grand Duchy and given to William I of the Netherlands in personal union, while simultaneously joining the German Confederation (with a Prussian garrison in the fortress).
- Existed
- 1815–present
- Shown on the map
- 1715–1814, 1890–1914, 1919–1939, 1945–2024 (4 periods)
- Peak area
- 3k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
At the Congress of Vienna (Final Act, 9 June 1815) the former duchy was raised to a Grand Duchy and given to William I of the Netherlands in personal union, while simultaneously joining the German Confederation (with a Prussian garrison in the fortress). The First Treaty of London (1839) ceded the western, French-speaking part to the new Kingdom of Belgium, leaving the smaller Grand Duchy effectively independent but still in personal union with the Dutch crown (through William I, II and III). The Luxembourg Crisis of 1866–67, which nearly caused a Franco-Prussian war, was resolved by the Second Treaty of London (11 May 1867), which reaffirmed independence, imposed perpetual neutrality, and required demolition of the fortress. The personal union ended in 1890: on the death of William III, the Dutch throne passed to his daughter Wilhelmina, but Luxembourg, bound by the Nassau Family Pact's agnatic succession, passed to a distant male relative, Grand Duke Adolphe of Nassau-Weilburg (1890–1905), founding the modern independent grand-ducal dynasty. Luxembourg is today the world's only sovereign grand duchy and a founding member of the European institutions.
Common questions
- What was Luxembourg?
- At the Congress of Vienna (Final Act, 9 June 1815) the former duchy was raised to a Grand Duchy and given to William I of the Netherlands in personal union, while simultaneously joining the German Confederation (with a Prussian garrison in the fortress).
- When did Luxembourg exist?
- Luxembourg existed 1815–present. On this map it is drawn 1715–1814, 1890–1914, 1919–1939, 1945–2024.
- How large was Luxembourg?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Luxembourg covered about 3,000 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 territory as the primary basis, cross-checked against Encyclopædia Britannica and specialist snippets, and flags entries built on unreliable foundations — the 911 treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte known only from Dudo of Saint-Quentin, and Arnaud Amalric's alleged order at Béziers attested only decades after the fact. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Luxembourg en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg
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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