query: When was Lithuania founded?
passage: History of Lithuania
On February 16, 1918, Lithuania was re-established as a democratic state. It remained independent until the outset of World War II, when it was occupied by the Soviet Union under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Following a brief occupation by Nazi Germany after the Nazis waged war on the Soviet Union, Lithuania was again absorbed into the Soviet Union for nearly 50 years. In 1990–1991, Lithuania restored its sovereignty with the Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania. Lithuania joined the NATO alliance in 2004 and the European Union as part of its enlargement in 2004.
passage: Lithuania Minor
The state of the Teutonic Order became Prussia in 1525 and the concept Lithuania Minor has appeared around that time (1517–26). Lithuania Minor was part of Prussia until 1701, the Kingdom of Prussia until 1871, the German Empire until 1918 and the German Reich until 1945. The political border set by the Treaty of Melno had been the same since the treaty to 1923, when the Klaipėda region (Memelland) was incorporated into Lithuania.