The changes of the Reformation and the difficulty of settling the disputes brought about by the new order led to one of the most disastrous wars that Europe has ever seen, the fatal Thirty Years War. This fearful war between the Protestant princes of the north and the Catholic forces of the imperialists ravished and utterly ruined Germany.
In 1650 Germany was almost a deserted land, the remaining peasants were almost driven to savagery. Hardly any traffic passed along the desolate roads. In the country the people clustered in dilapidated, obscure hovels, rough, brutalised, demoralised. In the towns civilisation was almost at a standstill. By the sword, by famine, by plague, in this horrible war ten million people had perished, leaving only about five millions in the great land of Germany. The population of Berlin fell from 24,000 to 6,000, a mere village. In Hesse, 300 villages, 17 towns, 47 castles were burned out; in Wurtemberg, 3,600 dwellings; and these were comparatively small states. Of all countries, only Ireland after the reign of Elizabeth and the wars of Cromwell has ever been reduced to such a ghastly state. It was this destruction of Germany which left France free to become so powerful and dominant under Louis xiv., and which finished the mediaeval spirit in Europe.
Germany was left divided into innumerable parts. There were reckoned 343 sovereign states in the country; 158 were under lords and princes, 123 were under bishops, 63 were imperial cities, but all were separate and practically self-governing. The confusion was incredible. The imperial power had almost vanished. The emperors, the Hapsburgs, had to confine their attention to their remaining dominions of Austria-Hungary and North Italy. The rest were gone. Switzerland and the United Netherlands became independent, France had gained Alsace and the three bishoprics of Metz, Toule, and Verdun.
Out of all this chaos the state of Prussia rose. It is Prussia which has led and made Germany. But modern Prussia is a new thing. The core of the state is Brandenburg, the great Mark or frontier-province established in the tenth century to keep off the Slavs to the east. Brandenburg lay between the Elbe and the Oder. Beyond the Oder lay heathen Prussia, Prussia proper, inhabited by pagan Slavs. When the crusades to the Holy Land began to wane, the great Crusading Order of the Teutonic Knights turned to preach to their neighbours, the heathen Prussians beyond the Mark of Brandenburg. Thus the Slavs of Prussia became Christian and Germanised, the Teutonic Knights held the eastern frontier against the wild peoples of Russia.
In 1415 Frederick of Hohenzollern, one of the Emperor’s counts, was made Elector of Brandenburg by Sigismund, for Frederick had been a staunch friend to Sigismund all through the stormy times of the Council of Constance, when popes were deposed and Huss was burned. The Hohenzollerns had been minor princes, imperial counts of Nuremberg. Barbarossa long ago had said that he saw the day when the Hohenzollerns would displace the Hohen- staufens, his own imperial house. But the Hohenstaufens were gone before the Hohenzollerns rose to power. Barbarossa overlooked the Hapsburgs, that family which produced so few great men, yet which ruled for so many centuries over such large territories.
When the Hohenzollerns came to Brandenburg they were isolated between Hanover and Bremen on the west, and the Prussian lands of the Teutonic Knights which lay to the east. The knights were doing badly. They were defeated by the Poles, and Poland seized a great strip of territory, called West Prussia, intervening between Brandenburg and Prussia proper, and stretching to the sea at Danzig. So that Brandenburg’s new neighbour was Poland; Prussia was cut off to the east.
The Teutonic Order needed a new chief. Albert of Hohenzollern was chosen Grand Master in 1511. He was a cousin of the Hohenzollerns across in Brandenburg. He wanted to establish a realm for himself. Wisely, he calculated that if he became Protestant, then, after the Reformation was secure his family might really establish itself as dukes of Prussia. This actually came to pass. The Albertian Hohenzollerns ruled Prussia.
But this line died out, and the cousin Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg became heirs to Prussia. John Siismund of Hohenzollern, Elector of Brandenburg, became now also Duke of Prussia in 1618. But his two countries or lands did not touch: the Polish province of West Prussia lay between them. After this the Hohenzollerns inherited Cleves and Berg, away on the Rhine. So now they ruled three separate territories in North Germany.
During the Thirty Years War George William, Elector of Brandenburg, played a very poor part. He did not want to take either side, so the Electorate was ravaged by both parties, and suffered horribly. But in 1610 the strong ruler Frederick William came to power. He was called the Great Elector. At the Peace of Westphalia he compelled the parties to yield Magdeburg and East Pomerania to Brandenburg. Pomerania lay just between Brandenburg and the sea, Magdeburg lay to the south. So Frederick William stretched his central territory to the Baltic, and had a sea-board, and advanced his frontier southwards towards Saxony.
The Great Elector wanted to raise his estate from the position of shame into which it had fallen in the Thirty Years War. He made himself master in his own lands, suppressed the estates or parliaments of Brandenburg, East Prussia, and Cleves, and thus obtained clear, single control. This made for unity and success. Then he strengthened his armies and defeated the Poles, making them promise not to attack East Prussia. This was a great step. Next he defeated the French and Swedes when they advanced into Brandenburg, beat them in a fierce battle. For this remarkable victory he received the title of the Great Elector.
He now turned his attention to the commercial prosperity of his realm. He had canals constructed, and encouraged trade along the still waters. His final step for the promotion of industry was taken when, in 1685, he gave houses and many privileges in Berlin and the country round to the Huguenots who were fleeing from the persecutions of the ageing, short-sighted Grand Monarch of France. After the settlement of these Huguenots, Berlin, the central city of Brandenburg, began her course of industrial greatness, while the agriculture in the provinces round was immensely improved by these more civilised new-comers. Thus a new source of riches and strength to the State was established.
Frederick William was succeeded in 1688 by his son, the Elector Frederick hi., a pompous and foolish man. At this time kings were being made. The Elector of Hanover was to be King of England, the Elector of Saxony was King of Poland, the Duke of Holstein was King of Denmark. Brandenburg might easily hope for the same title. When the nations began to unite against Louis xiv., after that old monarch claimed Spain for his grandson Philip, the Emperor Leopold thought Brandenburg would make a splendid ally against France. Brandenburg asked for the kingly title. The Emperor agreed, sp long as the Elector Frederick should not take his title from any of the territory of the Empire. Now Brandenburg was supposed to be subject to the empire, whilst Prussia was not. So that the Elector Frederick in. of Brandenburg, instead of becoming King of Brandenburg, became King Frederick I. of Prussia. He died shortly after achieving this new dignity. His soldiers had fought well at Blenheim, and kept up the new Prussian reputation.
Frederick I., was succeeded in 1713 by Frederick William I., his son. Frederick William I. of Prussia is one of the strangest men. He utterly despised his father’s vanity and pomp of ceremony, and at once dismissed all the showy ministers. Then he turned to his kingdom. ‘ We remain King and Master,’ he wrote, ‘ and we do what we like.’ He appointed royal officials, paid them badly, watched them strictly, and punished them harshly if they were guilty of the least offence. His lands were poor in comparison with those of France or Britain or Bavaria. He was bent on making them produce as much as they could, and in getting out of them all the taxes possible, without damaging the rate of production. His rage against any form of financial dishonesty among his officials was beyond bounds terrible.
His other mania was the production of a perfect” army. When he came to the throne in 1713 the army numbered 38,000 men; by 1739 it had more than 83,000, and this was peace strength. The great France had 160,000 soldiers, and Austria about 100,000. But these were first- rate powers, Prussia was as yet insignificant. And then Frederick William, who was rather a drill-sergeant than a king, clothed, armed and disciplined his forces to a rare pitch of perfection. He made a regiment of giant grenadiers, ransacked the lands for them, and he went almost mad in his admiration of this corps. Yet he was no soldier, and did no fighting. He is the insane royal drill-sergeant.
He had a son Frederick. Frederick William was a coarse, foul-mouthed, uneducated bully, drinking, feeding, smoking, yelling, and domineering. The son was just the opposite, delicate and sensitive, cultured, almost French in his education, loving books and painting and philosophy. The father tormented and tortured his son incredibly, loathed him, calling him a weakling and a ninny and a paltry knave. The young Frederick escaped from court at last, for his father had always taunted him to this. He was caught, brought back, and condemned to death by his father. The violent king raved, and would have shot his son at once. The nobles would not permit it. So, grudgingly, Frederick William spared the life of the young man, whom he almost longed to annihilate. Instead he executed the Crown Prince’s dear friend, and brutally punished others of his son’s companions.
The young prince yielded, since there was nothing else to do. Like his friend Voltaire, the famous French writer, he was a sceptic in matters of religion: with a bitter heart he professed the religious opinions his father forced on him: he took a wife he neither loved nor wanted, at his father’s command: and he obediently began the dreary hack-work of administration to which he was driven.
All the while, the young Frederick was a far finer, more intellectual, and even a much stronger man, in his soul and his will, than the bullying Frederick William his father. But by the time the prince came to the throne, in 1740, the sweetness of his nature was spoiled, his soul embittered. He did not believe in kindness any more. He saw that force, and force alone, triumphed: it was no use a man’s being sensitive and wise: he must merely be unbreakably strong.
So the new King Frederick II. came to the throne of Prussia. He became one of the most famous men of the modern world, Frederick the Great, one of the makers of Europe.
At the very beginning of his reign Frederick invaded Silesia, which stretchcd south of Brandenburg, and belonged to Austria. The War of the Austrian Succession followed, when Prussia and France fought Austria and Britain. When peace was made in 1748 Prussia kept the large territory of Silesia, though France, who had beaten Britain at Fontenoy, had to give up everything.
Soon war began again. This time it was Britain and Prussia against France and Austria, in the Seven Years War. In this war the great Pitt, Earl of Chatham, arose in England, and Britain secured Canada and India from France. But Prussia suffered terribly, almost as badly as in the Thirty Years War. Frederick had to face the much improved armies of Austria in the south, and the strength of France on the west, whilst Elizabeth, Czarina of Russia, joined Austria and attacked him in the east. Against these three, the greatest powers in Europe, Frederick had no ally but Britain, and Britain was a naval power, she could not at first help him on land.
Frederick showed himself one of the finest soldiers the world has known, a master of campaign and of battle attack. In 1757 he won the great victory of Leuthen, by his quite new methods of attack; and in the same year he defeated the French so easily, by his skilful handling of his troops in the battle of Rossbach, that the enemy was not only beaten but put to shame. Napoleon afterwards said that the battle of Rossbach was the beginning of the French Revolution. He meant that an absolute monarch could only keep firm on his throne by winning military victories, and that if his armies suffered such humiliating defeats, as did those of Louis xv. at Rossbach, then his people were bound to turn against him. Pitt also proved a great ally to Frederick, unexpectedly sending him over many troops from England. For Pitt was a gi-eat war-master.
In spite of everything, in spite of all his patient endurance and skill, Frederick was heavily beaten by the Russians in 1759. In 1760 Russians and Austrians entered Berlin. In 1761 the whole of Prussian territory was in the hands of the enemy. The splendid troops with which Frederick had set out were for the most part killed or taken prisoners. His money was exhausted. And then, worst of all, George III. in England caused Pitt to resign, and the one ally became useless. Prussia now seemed destined to disappear again, divided between the Empire and Russia. Frederick, in his bitter despair, even thought of suicide.
Then suddenly he was saved by the death of the Czarina Elizabeth, who hated him determinedly. Her . weak- minded nephew Peter hi. worshipped Frederick, calling him ‘ my king, my master.’ Russia at once made alliance with Prussia, and the whole situation changed. But this only lasted for four months, when poor Peter III. was overthrown and put to death by his own wife, the Czarina Catherine II. She at once withdrew from the alliance with Frederick. But Prussia was saved, Austria ousted. The powers were exhausted by the struggle. In 1763 the Peace of Paris was made, and Frederick still kept Silesia, which Austria so badly wanted back.
Prussia was now the wonder of Europe. A new kingdom of the second rate, she had maintained herself against the three greatest powers. Frederick’s system of government, his management of the war, were looked upon with admiration and amazement. Even the neighbours he had beaten began to imitate him.
In the eighteenth century most of the countries of Europe became stronger, more united, more prosperous and developed in every way, through the concentration of the power into the hands of the Crown, which ruled wisely and well. This period is called the age of the Enlightened Despot. Austria, Russia, Denmark, Sweden and Prussia are examples of the great advance made by countries whose monarchs united the scattered powers of their realm into one wise, strong control. But Prussia is the finest example, and she is the very opposite of the Grand Monarchy of France. Frederick’s court was simple and natural, there was no show, no pomp. It is said that once, when Frederick the Great walked out in Berlin, he saw on a wall a big placard, or cartoon, abusing him, calling him a bad king and an absurd man. ‘ Hang it higher,’ said Frederick, ‘ so that the people can see it.’
He built up his State again from the foundations. When he was young he had studied the philosophers of France. When he was older he profited by these studies. He at once abolished torture, and established complete religious freedom in his country. He tpok great care of education, as most Prussian rulers have done. He was very anxious to repair slowly the terrible ravages of the war, so that his people should not suffer more than was necessary. Supervising in agriculture and commerce, he gradually made the country once more prosperous and happy. All the power was in his hands, and as he used it to the best advantage, nothing oould have been better for his land and his people. No popular government could have built up Prussia as her early kings built it up.
Though Frederick fought in no more important wars after 1763, he gained great and valuable territories. The old kingdom of Poland was a large country, stretching from the Baltic straight across what is now Russia, to the Black Sea. But because the kings had so little power in Poland, because the numerous nobles remained independent and vain and quarrelsome, the kingdom inevitably fell to pieces. The people could not unite around one central figure, the monarch. Therefore they were powerless against the neighbouring states. In 1772 Frederick suggested that Russia, Austria and Prussia should divide the helpless, useless state of Poland between them. Russia took a great stretch of land, which is now South Russia; Austria took Galicia, and Prussia took that section called West Prussia, which ran along the Vistula to the Gulf of Danzig, cutting off Brandenburg from Prussia proper, or East Prussia. When Frederick annexed the Polish territory, the kingdom of Prussia naturally became one united solid state, stretching from Memel in the north of the Gulf of Danzig down to the river Elbe in one unbroken sweep. The people were German or German speaking, naturally near to one another, uniting naturally. When Frederick died in 1786 his kingdom was the envy of all Germany.
Particularly the Hapsburgs envied the growing, solid power of the Hohenzollerns. The Hapsburgs were still emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. But their lands were their own hereditary dominions: and here they were (1) Archdukes of Austria proper, which was Germanic and Catholic; (2) Kings of Hungary, where the Magyars were constantly claiming independence; (3) Kings and overlords of Bohemia and Moravia, where the Czechs and Slavs were chiefly Protestants; (4) Overlords of North Italy, where the people were utter foreigners to the Austrian Hapsburgs; (5) Overlords of the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium), where the people were Catholic, but either French-speaking or Flemish. Joseph II. of Austria, who succeeded Maria Theresa in 1765, hated, admired, and deeply envied Frederick the Great. He wanted to imitate him, and unite his power. But how could the Hapsburgs unite their dominions, scattered as they were across Europe; still more, how could they hope to unite German Austrians, Magyar Hungarians, Slavonic Czechs, Belgians, Flemings and Italians into one people or one nation? It was quite impossible.
It was revolution which brought the next great changes in Germany and Austria. Northern Europe was at first busy attending to Poland. That diminished country had made some progress, and King Stanislas II. really brought in a good constitution in 1790. But the neighbours of Poland, particularly Russia, did not intend the country to revive. They invaded Poland in 1792. Russia seized large territories, Prussia added to her dominions, to make them more compact. Poland was in a state of insurrection. Russia ordered her to disband her armies. The people now rose in rebellion, under the hero Kosciusko. This is called the Polish Revolution, and North Europe watched it even more closely, at first, than the French Revolution. Russia, Prussia and Austria turned against Kosciusko.
He was bound in the end to be defeated. In 1795 the third and last partition of Poland took place. Russia, Prussia and Austria all took their shares, and all promised that the name of Poland should never appear again on the map of Europe.
But by this time the armies of the French Revolution were becoming dangerous. In 1802 Napoleon had himself declared First Consul for life. This was a clear step towards supreme power. On August 4, 1804, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Francis h., proclaimed himself Francis i. Hereditary Emperor of Austria. At the same time Napoleon had asked the people of France to vote whether he himself should assume the royal title. They voted that he should, by three million votes against two thousand nine hundred. On December 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, in the presence of Pope Pius VII. So new titles came into being.
The Treaty of Luneville in 1801 carried the French frontier to the left bank of the Rhine. Various princes were thus disposed of. It was agreed that they should have compensation elsewhere. The Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire met at Ratisbon to settle the matter. France dictated in the business, and France worked against Austria. One hundred and twelve states were suppressed. Prussia was the chief gainer — she acquired three bishoprics. The political structure of Germany was much simplified from the form in which the Treaty of Westphalia had left it in 1658.
In 1805 a new coalition was formed between Britain, Russia and Austria. Prussia selfishly insisted on remaining neutral. On December 2,1805, Russians and Austrians were utterly defeated at Austerlitz. Napoleon occupied Vienna. In the peace that followed Prussia gave up Cleves and Anspach, but gained the great possession of Hanover. Napoleon forced the newly created kings of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, with thirteen other princes, to form a federation accepting the French Emperor, binding themselves to support him with their armies, and to separate themselves from all other Germanic bodies. Later other kingdoms, Saxony and Westphalia, were added, and the Confederation included the region between the Rhine and the Elbe, and held its Diet at Frankfort. Then Napoleon summoned Francis II. to lay down the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Francis yielded. On August 6, 1800, the abdication was made, and on that day the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist. Francis II. remained Emperor Francis i. of Austria. German independence was for the moment quite under the heel of the little Emperor of the French. But Prussia was as yet intact, though Britain had declared war on her, demanding Hanover, which belonged to the English Crown.
Prussia had not fought with France since 1795. She had been handled very carefully by French diplomacy. Now, however, her turn came. Iler armies were dissatisfied, remembering the glories of Frederick the Great, and counting their neutrality a dishonour. And although Prussia had gained Hanover as the price of her peace, Napoleon was secretly offering this state to Britain again.
Frederick William therefore declared war on France, on October 1, 1806. Within a fortnight, Napoleon was upon him. On October 10, the Prussians lost the battle of Saalfeld, on October 14 they were disastrously defeated at Jena. The Prussian fortresses were occupied. On October 24 Napoleon was at Potsdam. Two days after he visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, took possession of the sword and the Order of the Black Eagle which had belonged to the heroic king, and sent them as trophies to Paris. He remained in Berlin for a month, and issued against Britain the famous Berlin Decrees on November 26.
This six weeks’ conquest of Prussia staggered Europe. Napoleon seemed a miracle. Prussia had collapsed like a house of cards. Only in the north-east the King kept up a fierce resistance, relying on the Russians. But in June 1807 the Prussian and Russian armies were murderously broken by Napoleon at Friedland. Prussia and Russia then accepted the Peace of Tilsit, which marked the summit of Napoleon’s career. At this moment he seemed superhuman, almost a god. The Czar Alexander made an alliance with him against Britain. Russia lost nothing, but Prussia was heavily crushed. Large Prussian territories were taken away, and given to the King of Saxony. Napoleon made his brother, Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia. Prussia was compelled to join in the blockade of Britain, to admit French garrisons in all her fortresses, to pay a huge indemnity, and to reduce her army to a very small standing. The kingdom was almost wiped out.
After the Peace of Tilsit, however, Napoleon’s fortune declined. He was not successful in his naval conflict with Britain, nor in his Peninsular War, and then he made his utterly disastrous invasion of Russia.
Meanwhile there was a new brave spirit roused in Prussia. Germany was under the heel of Napoleon. Now, with great heroism Prussia began to set her government in order, reorganise her armies, and in a new spirit to prepare for better days. Under the minister Stein serfdom was abolished, the peasants were given a direct interest in the State, whilst conscription, which was already applied to the peasants, was applied just the same to the upper classes. This patient working for improvement and strength, even whilst the French troops were in their garrisons, shows the deep courage of the Prussians.
As the French army, after the catastrophe of the advance to Moscow, began the retreat into Germany, the Prussian armies began to join the Russians. In January 1813 the Prussian king left Berlin for Breslau, and iscued the appeal for liberty. The whole German nation rose. English money supplied them with food and clothing, otherwise they could not have stirred. But again Napoleon, gathering a huge army, defeated the Germans at Lutzen and occupied Dresden. Crossing the Elbe, he once more defeated Blucher and the Prussians, and then he made an armistice with them.
All the while Britain spent her money freely in helping Prussia and Russia, and in keeping them in the Coalition, into which she persuaded Austria to enter. When, in a few weeks, the armistice ended, Napoleon found himself in Dresden confronted by a world in arms. He won the last great battle of Dresden, driving back the Russians and Prussians after two days’ fighting. This was in August 1813.
The end was near. Instead of pursuing the enemy into Bohemia, Napoleon had set his mind on marching to Berlin. It was a mistake. The allies gathered their forces. They were 300,000 men against Napoleon’s 180,000 when the two armies met in October. The Battle of Leipsic, or the Battle of the Nations, as it was called, was really a week’s campaign, and it resulted in the complete overthrow of the French. Napoleon retired sullenly towards Paris. The allied armies pressed after him. Napoleon was forced to surrender. He abdicated in 1814, and retired to Elba.
The Battle of Leipsic completely destroyed Napoleon’s work in Germany. The great Confederation of the Rhine, made of German princes bound to support Napoleon, was dissolved. The princes recovered their territories, the fortresses of the Elbe were regained. Blucher, the Prussian general, marching with the allied armies after Napoleon into France, won victories that led to the surrender of the Emperor of the French.
After the Hundred Days, Wellington with Blucher’s assistance finally defeated the French at Waterloo, and Europe saw the last of Napoleon. Europe now wanted peace. When the allied statesmen met at the Congress of Vienna, they had the whole of Europe to settle. One of the most difficult problems was Germany. France went back to her frontiers of 1792. The old, decrepit Holy Roman Empire was not restored. Thirty-nine sovereign princes and free cities were recognised in Germany — the three hundred and fifty of the Peace of Westphalia thus reduced to about a tenth of the number. These thirty-nine states were joined into a perpetual ‘ German Confederation,’ of which the president was Austria, whilst Prussia was by far the most powerful, and next to Prussia, Bavaria, which was Catholic, and had long been a favoured ally of Napoleon.
