Q What is the origin of Bavaria? Is it named after the Barbarians? Was it ever an independent country. - Bill Hutchinson, Chester-le-Street.

A Bavaria is the largest state in Germany, encompassing the south-east of the country including Munich, Germany's third largest city. In German Bavaria is called Bayern and Munich is called Munchen.

As far as I know the name is not connected with Barbarian, although the Romans called the Celts and Germans Barbarians and both lived in Bavaria in ancient times.

For most of its history Bavaria, like many European states, was a semi-independent region, closely allied to the central European dynasties. Bavaria became especially powerful around 1183 under the leadership of Duke Louis Wittelsbach. Later, the Wittelsbachs divided Bavaria into three separate duchies under the control of different branches of the family. This resulted in dynastic squabbles that weakened Bavaria, but which at the same time stimulated the development of strong administrative institutions, within the towns and cities.

Around 1805, Bavaria expanded southward to take in parts of Austria and its boundaries became more or less the same as they are today. Bavaria was elevated in status by a treaty that made it into a kingdom. However, it joined an alliance called the Confederation of the Rhine which brought Bavaria under the effective rule of Napoleon Bonaparte.

In the mid-1800s, Bavaria formed an alliance with Saxony, Hanover and Wurttemberg to counter the alliance of the powerful Germanic states of Austria and Prussia. But it switched its alliance to Austria in the 1860s and then to Prussia in the 1870s.

In 1871, following the Franco-Prussian war, a German Empire was established into which Bavaria was incorporated. It retained some regional independence under the continuous leadership of the Wittelsbach family but this dynasty was finally overthrown in a socialist coup in 1918. This resulted in a period of political turmoil that culminated in Bavaria's incorporation into the German Weimer Republic in 1919.

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