4.31 Europe: a.d. 1701 to 1800  (Page 5/28)

At the end of the Great Northern War, which will be discussed again later, Prussia had acquired the city of Stettin and some Baltic islands. Having been raised as a warrior prince, Frederick II, later to be called Frederick the Great, hastened to put the Prussian war machine to work by invading Silesia and provoking war with the Habsburg Empire. (Ref. 131 ) He gained not only Silesia but after three wars with the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, also gained a part of Poland. The Seven Years War (1756-1763), the last one with the Habsburgs, involved Prussia, Hanover and England on one side and France, Austria and Russia on the other. After initial- victories through Saxony and Bohemia, Frederick began to meet def eat and was pushed back so that at one time the Russians even occupied Berlin. In the f inal Peace of Hubertusburg, Saxony was restored to its pre-war size, Silesia was retained by Prussia and Frederick agreed to vote f or Maria Theresa's son Joseph for emperor when the occasion developed. Frederick estimated that that war alone cost him 853,000 troop casualties and 33,000 civilian deaths. (Ref. 222 ) Furthermore, he had developed a great fear of Russia and started a campaign of vilification while at the same time plotting that future relations with that country should be based on friendship. Thus, in 1770 he made an alliance with Catherine the Great. In the newly gained Silesia, the government combined with land owners to invest in mining, iron and textiles. In Prussia proper Berlin had 140,000 people by 1777. (Ref. 8 ) Imported techniques, including artificial drainage and canalization particularly, allowed considerable new land to be brought under cultivation and thus added wealth. (Ref. 279 )

Frederick the Great actually hated the German language and thought that anything French was great. He had a long and close relationship with Voltaire, as fellow philosopher, poet and confidant. At one and the same time he had a great mind, while being a benevolent king and a great general. But he was also an untrustworthy ally and a power-mad monarch.

The advancement of Prussia as the dominant northern Germanic state did not occur by accident. Frederick William II came to the throne in 1786 and when France declared a new war on Austria in April of 1792 Prussia and most German states sided with the new Emperor Francis II. Austro-Prussian forces met severe defeat at Valmy, allowing the French to take the offensive on all fronts. Russia invaded Poland and in spite of the deterioration of the Prussian armies, in the resulting last partition of unfortunate Poland, Warsaw and environs with its 1,000,000 people fell to Prussia. In the Peace of Basel of 1795 Prussia recognized the legal status of the republican government of France, while the latter promised neutrality of the German states north of the Main. (Ref. 184 )

But Prussia was not all militarism. In 1717 Frederick William I had made primary education compulsory and in 20 years he founded 1,700 schools. German universities became excellent, although German literature suffered some from lack of national consciousness and the influence of French among the aristocracy. German intellectuals remained cosmopolitan and considered nationalism as a "political monstrosity". The development of science and philosophy shared with powerful secularizing forces in weakening the influence of religion on German life. Art and architecture was not at its best, but music was supreme, with Handel and Bach. Bach's works are said to be the Reformation put to music and he is accepted as the "greatest musical poet that has ever existed". (Ref. 8 ) Christian Thomasius furthered the cause of the German language by lecturing at the university in German, rather than Latin. A literary revival was initiated near the end of the century as the works of the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began to appear. Frederick von Schiller contributed some fine dramas. Gottfried Leibniz, scientist and mathematician, founded the Academy of Sciences.