Key Facts
- Duration
- 1806–1918 (112 years)
- Peak area
- 75,865 km²
- Peak population
- 4,774,464
- Ruling dynasty
- House of Wittelsbach
- Position in German Empire
- Second in size, power, and wealth after Prussia
Imperial Zenith Metrics
Territorial Scale Comparison
Peak area vs modern sovereign states
Historical Trajectory
Phase I: Rise
The Kingdom of Bavaria was founded in 1806 when Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach was elevated to king, succeeding the former Electorate of Bavaria. The kingdom's modern borders were largely fixed after 1814 by the Treaty of Paris, under which Bavaria ceded Tyrol and Vorarlberg to the Austrian Empire in exchange for Aschaffenburg and Würzburg, consolidating its territory in Central Europe.
Phase II: Zenith
At its height, Bavaria was the second largest and most powerful state within the German Empire after unification in 1871, retaining considerable autonomy as a federated kingdom. Munich flourished as a cultural and administrative center, and the Wittelsbach monarchy maintained its prestige and distinct Bavarian identity within the broader imperial framework throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Phase III: Decline
The kingdom's end came abruptly in November 1918 amid the German Revolution triggered by World War I. King Ludwig III was deposed and Bavaria was proclaimed a republic, initially under a revolutionary socialist government. The House of Wittelsbach's 112-year reign over the kingdom concluded, and Bavaria was reconstituted as the Free State of Bavaria, the form it retains to the present day.
Notable Imperial Reigns
Selected rulers mapping the empire’s trajectory