Episode 7.10 - Jacob Kettler

Jacob Kettler was the Baltic German Duke of Courland and Semigallia, part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th century. Kettler decided the best way to modernize his duchy was to copy the major powers of Western Europe, by making the Duchy of Courland a colonial power.

Sources

• Karin Jekabsen-Lemanis, “Balts in the Caribbean: The Duchy of Courland's attempts to colonize Tobago Island, 1638 to 1654”, Caribbean Quarterly , June 2000

• Edgar Anderson, “The Couronians and The West Indies, The First Settlements”, Caribbean Quarterly, June, 1959

• National History Museum of Latvia, The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia. 1561-1795

• Allgemaine Deutsche Biographie

Names Mentioned

• Charles I of England

• Charles Gustav

• Frederick Casimir

• Louise Charlotte