Editing Principality of Calenberg (section)

== Economic and social history ==
The Principality of Calenberg was initially a rather insignificant territory and Welf lordship developed here quite late. By the reign of George of Calenberg in 1636, the principality had experienced 140 years of almost continuously poor government that cared little about the state. In the [[Middle Ages]] and the [[Renaissance]] the cultural centres lay outside Calenberg in the towns of [[Braunschweig|Brunswick]], [[Hildesheim]] and [[Lüneburg]]. New centres were created at the residences of [[Wolfenbüttel]] and [[Celle]]. Even the city of [[Hanover]] was not governed by the Calenberg princes until 1636. The other towns remained unimportant.

Only after the reign of George of Calenberg and its subsequent elevation to the electorate did the former Principality of Calenberg become the nucleus of what later became the German state of [[Lower Saxony]].