page_title: Electorate of Hanover
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Electorate of Hanover / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Sketch map of the state of Hanover, c.1720 showing territorial acquisitions and some neighbouring states and imperial cities; drawn in Adobe Photoshop by hand using a pen tablet.
context_page_description: The Electorate of Hanover was an Electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, located in northwestern Germany and taking its name from the capital city of Hanover. It was formally known as the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. For most of its existence, the electorate was ruled in personal union with Great Britain and Ireland following the Hanoverian Succession.
  The Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg had been split in 1269 between different branches of the House of Welf. The Principality of Calenberg, ruled by a cadet branch of the family, emerged as the largest and most powerful of the Brunswick-Lüneburg states. In 1692, the Holy Roman Emperor elevated the Prince of Calenberg to the College of Electors, creating the new Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The fortunes of the Electorate were tied to those of Great Britain by the Act of Settlement 1701 and Act of Union 1707, which settled the succession to the British throne on Queen Anne's nearest Protestant relative, the Electress Sophia of Hanover, and her descendants.
  The Prince-Elector of Hanover became King of Great Britain in 1714. As a consequence, a reluctant Britain was forced time and again to defend the King's German possessions.
context_section_description: The electorate comprised large parts of the modern German state of Lower Saxony in Northern Germany. Beside the Principality of Calenberg it also included the former princely lands of Göttingen and Grubenhagen as well as the territory of the former County of Hoya.
  In 1705 Elector George I Louis inherited the Principality of Lüneburg with the Duchy of Saxe-Lauenburg upon the death of his uncle Duke George William of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1715 he purchased the Duchies of Bremen-Verden from King Frederick IV of Denmark (confirmed by the 1719 Treaty of Stockholm), whereby his former landlocked electorate gained access to the North Sea.
  In 1700 the territories forming the electorate introduced – like all Protestant territories of imperial immediacy – the Improved Calendar, as it was called by Protestants, in order not to mention the name of Pope Gregory XIII. So Sunday 18 February Old Style was followed by Monday 1 March New Style.
caption: Sketch map of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg including the Hanover electorate (blue) and the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (green), c. 1720: Elector George I Louis acquired Saxe-Lauenburg and Bremen-Verden, his successor George II Augustus gained Land Hadeln (1731, in the map the bulk of the beige tip at the Elbe estuary) and George III acquired the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück (1803)
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