German occupation orders still hung over Riga when, on 19 October 1918, Miķelis Valters and Edvards Traubergs, speaking for the Democratic Bloc, submitted a memorandum to the German Reich Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden. In it, the borders of the future Latvian state were named by districts and by a figure – 63,325 square kilometres – but the central sentence demanded “internationally recognized state independence in the territory of Latvia.” A month before 18 November, independence had already been framed as a diplomatic demand, not merely a wish.

In October 1918, the First World War was nearing its end, Germany was losing the initiative, and Latvia was still under German occupation. The Democratic Bloc and the Latvian Provisional National Council were not one organization, yet both were working toward the same goal: an international basis for a Latvian state.