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The Kingdom of Saxony was the fifth state of the German Empire in area and third in population; in 1905 the average population per square mile was 778.8. Saxony was the most densely peopled state of the empire, and indeed of all Europe; the reason was the very large immigration on account of the development of manufactures.
Old Saxony was the homeland of the Saxons during the Early Middle Ages. It corresponds roughly to the modern German states of Lower Saxony , eastern part of modern North Rhine-Westphalia state ( Westphalia ), Nordalbingia ( Holstein , southern part of Schleswig-Holstein ) and western Saxony-Anhalt ( Eastphalia ), which all lie in northwestern ...
Following the defeat of Saxony's ally Prussia at the Battle of Jena in October 1806, Saxony joined the Confederation of the Rhine, subordinating itself to the First French Empire, then the dominant power in Central Europe. On 20 December 1806 Frederick Augustus III, the last elector of Saxony, became King Frederick Augustus I.
Saxony has a long history as a duchy, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire (the Electorate of Saxony), and finally as a kingdom (the Kingdom of Saxony).In 1918, after Germany's defeat in World War I, its monarchy was overthrown and a republican form of government was established under the current name.
The dukes of Saxony became kings (Henry I, the Fowler, 919) and later the first emperors (Henry's son, Otto I, the Great) of Germany during the tenth century, but they lost this position in 1024. The duchy was divided in 1180 when Duke Henry the Lion refused to follow his cousin, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa , into war in Lombardy .
The Duchy of Saxony (Low German: Hartogdom Sassen) was originally the area settled by the Saxons in the late Early Middle Ages, when they were subdued by Charlemagne during the Saxon Wars from 772 AD and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire by 804.
Saxony became culturally, economically, and governmentally advanced compared to the other German states of the time. After the western part of Saxony reverted to the main Wettin line following the death Duke William III in 1482, Saxony became the second power in the Holy Roman Empire next to the Habsburg domains.
The history of Saxony-Anhalt began with Old Saxony, which was conquered by Charlemagne in 804 and transformed into the Duchy of Saxony within the Carolingian Empire.Saxony went on to become one of the so-called stem duchies of the German Kingdom and subsequently the Holy Roman Empire which formed out of the eastern partition of the Carolingian Empire.