THE GREAT ELECTOR When Frederick William, the "Great Elector," became ruler of Brandenburg in 1640 he found the country in a very deplorable condition. His first task was to restore order and in this he was eminently successful. He freed Brandenburg of the Swedes, and in 1647 secured his title to Cleves, Mark and Ravensberg.
The terms of the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 are the best commentary on the general success of the elector's policy. Al though he was obliged to give up his claim to the western part of Pomerania in favour of Sweden, he secured the east ern part of that duchy, together with the secularized bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden and Kammin, and other lands, the whole forming a welcome addition to the area of Branden burg. He was also promised the archbishopric of Magdeburg when its administrator, Augustus, duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, should die. This event happened in 168o when he secured the lands of the archbishopric.
In his internal reforms, the elector sought to strengthen the central authority, and to mitigate the constant lack of money, which was perhaps his chief obstacle to success; a work in which he was aided by George, count of Waldeck (162o-92), who be came his chief adviser about this time. He extended the powers of the state council. In foreign policy, he sought to promote an alliance against the Hapsburgs, and at first supported Louis XIV. of France. Becoming aware of the danger to Prussia from the aggressive policy of Louis, Frederick William allied himself with the Empire in 1674; but the humiliating terms of the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, by which Brandenburg was forced to re store western Pomerania to Sweden, caused him to renew the French alliance in 1678 and 1681. Four years later, however, he was incensed by the anti-Protestant policy of Louis XIV., and allied himself with William of Orange.
The great elector died in May 1688. In 1640 the greater part of his territory was occupied by strangers and devastated by war. Brandenburg was merely an appendage of the Empire. Its army was useless; its soil was poor; its revenue was insignificant. At his death the state of Brandenburg-Prussia was inferior to Austria alone among the states of the Empire; it was regarded as the head of German Protestantism; while the fact that one-third of its territory lay outside the Empire added to its importance. Its area had been increased to over 40,000 sq. m. ; its revenue had multiplied sevenfold; and its small army was unsurpassed for efficiency. The elector had overthrown Sweden and inherited her position on the Baltic, and had offered a steady and not ineffectual resistance to the ambition of France.
While thus winning for himself a position in the councils of Europe, Frederick William was not less active in strengthening the central authority within his own dominions. He found Brandenburg a constitutional state, in which the legislative power was shared between the elector and the diet; he left it to his successor substantially an absolute monarchy. Many circum stances assisted to bring about this change, among the chief of which were the want of harmonious action on the part of the estates, and the decline in the political power of the towns. The substitution of a permanent excise for the subsidies granted from time to time by the estates also tended to increase his independ ence, and the officials or Steuerrdthe, appointed by him to collect this tax in the towns, gradually absorbed many of the administra tive functions of the local authorities. The nobles and prelates generally preferred to raise their share of the revenue by the old method of a bede, or contribution, thus weakening the re maining bond between them and the burghers.
Education was not neglected, a trading company was estab lished, and colonies were founded on the west coast of Africa. In religious matters Calvinists and Lutherans were placed upon an equality, but the elector was unable to impress his own spirit of tolerance upon the clergy, who were occupied with ecclesias tical squabbles while the state of education and of public morals left much to be desired. The condition of the peasantry, however, during his reign reached its lowest point, and the "recess," or charter, of 16S3 practically recognized the existence of villeinage. The nobles had compensated themselves at the expense of the peasants for the powers lost to the ruler. The Thirty Years' War afforded them frequent opportunities of replacing the village Schulzen, or magistrates, with officials of their own ; and the fact that their share of taxation was wholly wrung from the peasants made the burden of the latter much heavier than that of the townsmen.