32.3 Europe: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 4/28)

In spite of the turmoil, Italy continued to be a center for scientific and medical studies. Luigi Galvani started electro-physiology with electrical stimulation of nerves; Allessandro Volta developed a battery. Giovanni Morgagni, at the medical school at Padua for 56 years, is considered the "father" of pathological anatomy, describing the changes associated with such diseases as cirrhosis of the liver, kidney tuberculosis, syphilitic brain lesions and pneumonic consolidation of lungs. (Ref. 125 )

Central europe

Germany

After a long period of disorderly aftermath of the horrors of the Thirty Years War, the German-speaking people, with peace, stability and their natural strength, returned to add to the European civilization, particularly in music and Rococo style architecture. (Ref. 33 ) Germany was made up of 20,000,000 people divided into more than 300 practically independent states, each with its own sovereign prince, but all loosely subject to the head of the rather phantom Holy Roman Empire. The average east German village was still somewhat "servile" in 1750, however, and serfs still owed their masters heavy services and payments and they were not allowed to leave their estates in most German areas as late as 1788. (Ref. 213 ) In spite of considerable river traffic on the Rhine, Elbe and Oder rivers, overland transport still carried 5 times as much goods as waterways. It has been estimated that there were 40,000 horses used as dray animals, not including those on farms. (Ref. 292 )

The story of this country f rom this time on was that of the power policies of two royal families - the Prussian Hohenzollerns, - represented by Frederick I, Frederick William I and Frederick 11 and their counter-parts, the Austrian Habsburgs. The complete power structure also involved Catherine II of Russia and to some extent, England. We shall try to clarify this situation by discussing some of the individual states, separately.

Prussia

The Junker landlords of Prussia distinguished themselves by competent management and their quick adoption of improved agricultural techniques. (Ref. 8 ) On the political side, the Prussian Elector Frederick III