Prussia

Here it will be necessary to retrace our steps in order briefly to consider the political and dynastic relations of the other parts of-the Prussian state. In the 12th c. the northern mark, comprising probably the territory between the Elbe and the Oder, as far as its continence with the Spree, was held by the immediate descendants of Albert the bear of Luxemburg, its first hereditary markgraf, who, during the next two or three centuries. extended their dominions eastward, beyond the Oder into Further Pomerania. On the extinction of this line, known as the Ascanian house, a remote kinsman, Frederick Vi.. count of Hohenzollern, and markgraf of Nfirnberg, became possessed, -partly by pur chase and partly by investiture from the emperor, of the Brandenburg lands, which, in his favor, were constituted into an electorate. This prince, known as the elector Fred erick I., received his investiture in 1417. He united under his rule, in addition to his hereditary Franconian lands of Anspach and Baireuth, a territory of more than 11,000 sq. miles. His reign was disturbed by the insubordination of the nobles, and the con stant incursions of his Prussian and Polish neighbors, but by his firmness and resolution he restored order at home and enlarged his boundaries. Under Frederick's successors the Brandenburg territory was augmented b3'-' the addition of many new acquisitions, although the system of granting appanages to the younger members of the reigning house, common at that time, deprived the electorate of some of its original domains, as for instance the markgrafate of Anspach, which passed, on the death of the elector Albert Achilles in 1486, as an independent state to his younger sons and their descend ants. The most considerable addition to the electorate was the one to which reference has already been made, and which fell to the elector John Sigismund through his mar riage in 1609 with Anne, daughter and heiress of Albert Frederick the insane, duke of Prussia. In consequence of this alliance, the duchy of Cleves, the countships of Ravens berg, the Mark, and Limburg, and the extensive duchy of Prussia, now known as East Prussia, became incorporated with the Brandenburg territories, which were thus more than doubled in area. The reign of John Sigisrnund's successor, Georg-Wilhelm (1619-40). was distracted by the miseries of 'the thirty years' war, and the country was alternately the prey of the Swedish and imperial armies; and on the accession of Georg Wilhelm's son, the great elector Frederick-William (q.v.), in 1640, the electorate was sunk in the lowest depths of social misery and financial embarrassment. BM so wise, prudent, and vigorous was the government of this prince, that at his death in 1688 he left a well-filled exchequer, and a fairly equipped army of 38,000 men; while the elect orate, which now possessed a population of one and a half million, and an area of 42,000 sq.m., had been raised by his genius to the rank of a great European power. His suc cessors, Frederick III. (q.v.) (1688-1713), and Frederick-William I. (1713-40), each in Iris own way increased the power and credit of Prussia, which had been in 1701 raised to the rank of a kingdom. The latter monarch was distinguished for his rigid economy of the public money and an extraordinary penchant for tall soldiers, and left to his son. the great Frederick II. (q.v.), a compact and prosperous state, a well-disciplined army. and a sum of nearly nine Million thalers in his treasury. Frederick II. (1740-86) dex terously availed himself of the extraordinary advantages of his position to raise Prussia to the rank of one of the greatest political powers of Europe. In the intervals between his great wars, he devoted all his energies to the improvement of the state. by encouraging agriculture, trade, and commerce, and reorganizing the military, financial, and judicial departments of the state. By his liberal views in regard to religion,, science, and government, he inaugurated a system whose results reacted on the whole of Europe; and in Germany, more especially, he gave a new stimult:s to thought, and roused the dormant patriotism of the people. Frederick was not over. scrupulous in his means of enlarging his dominions, as he proved by sharing in the first partition of Poland in 1772, when he obtained as his portion nearly all west Prussia, and several other districts in east Prussia. His nephew and successor, Frederick-William II. (1780-97), aggrandized his kingdom by the second and third partitions of Poland in 1793 and 1793. Prederiek-William III. (q.v.), (1797-1840), who had been educated under the direction of his grand-uncle, Frederick the great, succeeded his father in 1797, at a time of extreme difficulty, when continental rulers had no choice beyond being the opponents, the tools, or the victims of French republican ambition. By endeavoring to maintain a neutral attitude, Prussia lost her political importance, and gained no real friends, but many covert enemies. But the calamities which this line of policy brought upon Prussia roused Frederick-William from his apathy, and with energy, perseverance, and self denial worthy of all praise, lie devoted himself, with his minister count llardenberg, to the reorganization of the state. In the ten years which succeeded the battle of Waterloo, Prussia underwent a complete reorganization. Trade received a new impulse through the various commercial treaties made with the maritime nations of the world, the forma tion of excellent roads, the establishment of steam and sailing packets on the great rivers, and at a later period the organization of the customs-treaty, known as the Zoliverein (q.v.), between Prussia and the other states of northern Germany, and through the for mation of an extended net-work of railways. The most ample and liberal provision was made for the diffusion of education over every part of the kingdom, and to every class, In like manner, the established Protestant church was enriched by the newly inaugurated system of government supervention, churches were built, the emoluments of the clergy were raised, and their dwellings improved; but not content with that, the king wished to legislate for the church in accordance with a set plan; and when the various Protest ant churches refused to be joined in the union prescribed for them, difficulties arose. This tendency to over-legislation has long been the predominating evil feature of Prussian administration; and the state, without regard to the incongruous elements of which it was composed, was divided and subdivided into governmental departments, which, in their turn, under some head or other, brought every individual act under governmental super vision, to the utter annihilation of political independence. The people, when they gradually began to comprehend the nature of this administrative machinery, saw that it made no provision for political and civil liberty. and demanded of the king the fulfillment

cf the promise he lied given in 1815 of establishing a representative constitution for the whole kingdom. Tins demana was not acceded to by the king, and its immediate fruits were strenuous efforts on his part to check the spirit of liberalism. Every measure taken by other sovereigns to put down political movements was vigorously abetted by him. biding wills the pietists of Germany, he introduced a sort of Jesuitical despotism, which was continued by his successor, Frederick-William IV. The Landstitnde or provincial estates, organized in accordance with the system of the middle ages, were the sole and inadequate mode of representation granted to Prussia in this reign, notwithstanding the pledge made to the nation for a full and general representative government. An attempt made forcibly to unite Lutheran and reformed churches excited universal indignation, while the imprisonment, at a later period, of the archbishops of Cologne and Gnesen for their conduct in regard to the vexed question of mixed marriages. involved the king in a long and fruitless dispute with the pope. The accession of Frederick-William IV. in 1840 seemed to open a better prospect to the friends of constitutional freedom, but the reality was scarcely equal to the expectations which had been warranted by the profes sions of the government. Still, new hopes and requirements had been excited, and anew life was infused into every department of the state. Every branch of science, art, and literature was to receive the attentive consideration of the sovereign, who professed to be (and, doubtless, in a sort of way, was) actuated by a love of universal progress. He made similar professions in regard to religious toleration, but the pietistic tendencies of his government exerted a forced and prejudicial influence in every depart ment of the state; while the bureaucratic spirit of over-governing which characterized the administration was becoming daily more and more to the nation, and gave rise to the formation of free churches or Protestant communities; while a contemporane ous exeitetnent which had arisen in the Roman Catholic church of Prussia, as the result of the schismatic movement due to the stand taken by the chaplain Rouge (q.v.) on the exhibition of the so-called holy coat of Troves (q.v.), further complicated the relations between church and state. The king and his advisers, underrating the importance of the movement of 1848 in Germany. thought they bad satisfied the requirements of the hour by granting a few unimportant reforms, and making equivocal promises of further concessions. When at length, however, the citizens and troops came into collision, and blood was sited. Frederick-William came forward as the professed regenerator of his country, offering; to lay down his royal title and merge his kingdom in the common fatherland, for the salvation of which he recommended a cordial union of all. German princes and people in one bond, and proposing himself as the guide and leader of this new Germany. His own subjects, and many Germans in other states, hailed with delight professions which seemed to give a living embodiment to ,the national desire for unity. The publication of a political amnesty, the nomination of a liberal ministry, the recogni tion of a civic guard, the retirement of the prince of Prussia, the heir-presumptive—with whom every arbittary measure of government was believed to originate—and the sum mons of a representative chamber to discuss the proposed constitution—all tended to allay the general discontent. It might have been well if the German states and the Ger man democracy had resolved at this time to accept the leadership of Prussia, but the so called national assembly at Frankfort declined to do this, and elected the archduke John of Austria lieut.gen. of Germany. A feeling of deep chagrin on the part of the Prussian king was the result of that extremely unwise and unpatriotic act, dictated by a fear of Prussian military strength, and oblivious of the fact that Prussia, in spite of its despotic ,overnmeut, was the country most thoroughly penetrated by Germanic ideas. His ardor in the cause of the fatherland cooled, his pledges to his own subjects remained unfulfilled as long and as completely as the occasion permitted, and his policy became more strongly tinged than before with a jealousy of Austria. His powerful cooperation in putting down the insurrection in Poland, and the democratic party in Baden, gave, however, ample proof. of his determined opposition to every popular demonstration against abso lutism. In the first war of the Sleswick-Holstein duchies, the Prussians acted in concert with the disaffected against their sovereign, the king of Denmark, occupying the ducal provinces in the name and on the behalf of the diet. The latter years of this reign were characterized by great advance in the material prosperity and internal improvement of the country. Extensive lines of railway and post-roads were opened, the river navi gation greatly facilitated, treaties of commeiee formed with foreign countries, and great expansion given to the Prussian and north German zollverein (q.v.), the army put upon a footing of hitherto unprecedented efficiency of arms and artillery, and the educational system of the country still further developed. The political freedom of Prussia did not, however, make equal advance. The chambers which met for the discussion and fram ing of a constitutional mode of government, were constantly interrupted and obstructed iu the prosecution of their task, and fhe constitution was modified every year between 1850 and 1857 until it retained few of its original bases. Wilhelm I., who succeeded his brother in 1861, and in 1871 became German emperor, was no more a lover of constitu tional, or at least of popular, liberty, than any of his predecessors; and for some years he strove hard to check the progress of the popular movement, in so far as it aimed at interference with the absoluteness of the regal power, and he repeatedly rejected Meas ures of reform recommended by the Prussian chamber of deputies; but, on the other hand, it must be allowed that he has shown himself zealous for the honor and greatness of Germany above all other princes of the empire; and the exigences of the gi eat war with France (1S70-71) have compelled the Prussian government•to bring itselrinto closer relations with popular feeling, though constitutional freedom is still far from being fully enjoyed. For the later history of Prussia, both military and political, see GERMANY, also 'GERMANY in SLESWICK-HOLSTED.I; and BISMARCK.