Duchy of Lithuania Duchy of Lithuania Duchy of Lithuania (; ) was a state-territorial formation of ethnic Lithuanians, that existed from the 13th century until 1413. Most of the time it was a constituent part and a nucleus of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Other alternative names of the territorial formation, used in different periods, were Aukštaitija or Land of Lithuania (13th century), Duchy of Vilnius (14th – early 15th centuries), Lithuania Propria or simply Lithuania (in a narrow sense). The formation emerged in the central and eastern part of the present-day Lithuania, known as Aukštaitija, as the Lietuva Land (). It is
Grand Duchy of Lithuania Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that lasted from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia and Austria. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija. The Grand Duchy expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus' and other Slavic lands, including what is now Belarus and parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent, in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe. It was a multi-ethnic and