England's European enemies had seized the opportunity to attack her in a war of revenge. England came out of the contest with glory little tarnished. She had been fighting, not America alone, but France, Spain and Holland, as well; and though she had lost the best part of her old American empire she was not with out compensating gains. She seized Dutch colonies at will; she strengthened her grasp upon India; she won back the undisputed sov ereignty of the ocean by shattering the navy of France; she rebuffed all assailants from the rock of Gibraltar, the key to the Mediterranean; and in some measure she made good even her American loss by the acquisition oi Australia just afterward.
The Partitions of To return to continental Europe in the closing half of the Age of Frederick the Great one more terri torial change calls for attention. Poland had fallen into anarchy under its elective, figure head king and its oligarchic nobles. This an archy gave the neighboring powers excuse for plunder. Catherine II determined to seize a large part of the country. Frederick II per suaded his old enemy, Austria, to join him in compelling Russia to share her booty. The First Partition of Poland (1772) pared off a deep rind. The Second and Third Partitions, which °assassinated the kingdom," had not even the pretext of misgovernment in Poland, for the Poles had earnestly taken up the work of reform. These final divisions took place in 1793 and 1795, after the death of Frederick, amid the wars of the French Revolution. Prussia gained large extent of territory, with valuable sea coast; and most important of all, the additions brought the principal Prussian provinces,— formerly scattered,— into a compact body. But Russia gained far the greatest part of the territory, and she now bordered Germany on the east, as France had come to do earlier on the west, after the destruction of the Bur gundy of Charles the Bold. The wise policy of the Germans, early and late, would have been to support the buffer states against the greed of Russia and France. Failure to do so has left Germany exposed ever since to di rect attack by powerful enemies, and has com pelled her to build up artificial frontiers of fortresses and bayonets, and to accept an un due militant character for all her civilization.
The Beneficent Despots of the 18th Cen In foreign relations, the Age of Fred erick the Great saw little improvement over that of Louis. In the government within the several states, however, there was a benefi cent and significant change. Frederick of Prussia, Catherine of Russia, Charles III of Spain, Leopold of Tuscany, Ferdinand of Naples, Joseph II of Austria, all belonged to a new class of °crowned philosophers" and olent despots" who sat upon the thrones of Europe in the latter half of the 18th century. In Sweden and Portugal, also, great ministers sought to impose a liberal policy upon the monarchs, as Turgot succeeded in doing for a while, even in France. A remarkable school of French writers,— Diderot, Voltaire, Rous seau,— had created a new, enlightened senti ment in the ruling classes, and a new sense of responsibility. Government was no more by the people than before, but despots did try to govern for the people, not for themselves. Sovereigns of themselves no longer as privileged proprietors, but, in Frederick s phrase, as the first servants of their states?) All these rulers planned far-reaching reforms,— the ameliora tion or abolition of serfdom, the correction of abuses in the Church, the building up of popu lar education. In Prussia, for a time, much was accomplished. The condition of the peas antry was improved; the administration was rendered economical and efficient; and wealth and comfort began to increase by bounds. But these happy results were secured only by the tireless energy of one of the world's greatest geniuses. On the whole the liberal monarchs made lamentable failures. One man could not lift the weight of a nation. It remained to see what the people could do for themselves. The age of enlightened despots was the pre lude to the French Revolution.