Riga still felt like a wartime summer when Kārlis Ulmanis’s second Provisional Government began work on 14 July 1919. This was not just a reshuffle after the government’s return to the capital, but a compromise cabinet that included minority representatives – a political arrangement demanded by the Allies at a moment when the Latvian state still depended on its army, diplomacy, and a very fragile administration. Ulmanis himself simultaneously took on the posts of prime minister, minister of supply, and minister of agriculture.

After the Strazdumuiža armistice and the recovery of Riga, Latvia’s Provisional Government had to restore actual authority in the capital, not merely maintain a legal claim to statehood. The July 1919 cabinet worked in the middle of the War of Independence, when the government had to build an army, secure supplies, and retain Allied confidence at the same time.