Frederick 1, although a vain man and one who lived in a style of sumptuous luxury far beyond the scant resources of his state, never theless knew how to play his'cards well as the leading Protestant prince in Germany, his par ticular rival, Augustus the Strong of Saxony, having been shortsighted enough to forego that role by forswearing his Lutheran faith in order to. win the elective royal crown of Poland, a barren and costly honor. Nor was that all.
Frederick I purchased or otherwise acquired from spendthrift Augustus some important Saxon territory; he gained from William III of Orange the territories of Lingen, Mars and Neufchatel; he founded the University of Halle (1694) and at Berlin an Academy of Sciences and an Academy of Arts. Thus he left his states, overburdened by taxation and in an exhausted condition, though somewhat larger in size(1713). Fortunately for little Prussia his son, Frederick William I, was a man of quite a different calibre, a penurious, clear-headed, thoroughly practical man, with eno nonsense about him.° And while the new king's educa tion had been sorely neglected, so that he scorned all mere learning and ridiculed the very institutions his father had created, he had an innate genius for administration and for obtain ing tangible power. His savings filled the empty treasury of Prussia; his army was not large, but well-drilled and equipped by his wise economic policy he made Prussia the model of Europe in this respect; after lengthy bar gaining with the Emperor Charles VI he was allowed the succession to the western duchies of Jiilich (Juliers) and Berg, close to the Bel gian and Dutch borders. As for his share in the tremendous wars during his reign in the North — Poland, Russia, Sweden under Charles XIV and Denmark being engaged— and in the West, they proved in a measure advantageous to him, as he secured the larger part of Swedish Pomerania. Much of the king's time was taken up with the negotiations carried on with the emperor relative to the Pragmatic Sanction and the succession of that monarch's daughter, Maria Theresa, to the throne. On both sides there was much duplicity, and finally Frederick William turned to the hereditary foe of the Hapsburgs, France, and that was the state of affairs when he died from an attack of the gout consequent on imprudent diet, on 31 May 1740, and a man of a very different fibre, his son Frederick II, subsequently surnamed the Great, stepped into his shoes. This son had been grossly maltreated by his ignorant father (whom he hated), so that at one time the young man had planned flight to his uncle, the king of England, and had been sentenced to death by his autocratic father for this piece of youthful folly. The old despot even forced his son to witness the execution of his friend and fellow-plotter, a young army officer named von Katt, but finally forgave him and restored him to favor. Young Frederick had passed the years immediately preceding his accession far away from his father's boorish and niggard court, on a small estate of his own, Rheinsberg, among some choice spirits, both French and German, and had there cherished ambitious dreams and polished his mind in all the refine ments of art and learning of the period. Now, with 28, a good-looking, slender, blue-eyed young man, he mounted the throne, his head and heart full of things he meant to do to render his name famous. When Frederick II began his reign, Prussia had but 48,000 square miles and was thinly peopled. His father had left him the best disciplined army in Europe, num bering 80,000, and 9,000,000 thalers in the trea sury, a sum equivalent to five times the amount to-day. Now Frederick could realize those day dreams of his. At once he began a war of conquest against Austria for the possession of Silesia. After the first and second Silesian War had brought him this province, Frederick II, after a peace, began to consolidate and fructify his gains by wise economic measures. But in 1756 the so-called Seven Years' War broke out, Maria Theresa not having been able to reconcile herself to her loss. This tremendous and desperate struggle was waged with varying for tunes, until at last, by the Peace of Hubertus burg, Prussia was left in possession of Silesia. During the Seven Years' War, Frederick II had at times made headway against the com bined power of France, Austria and Russia, and England, too, taking part, for or against Prussia. It was only by his undaunted energy and superior generalship that Frederick II was able to defend himself against these coalitions. But when peace came, in 1763, Prussia was in a pitiful condition. In 1772 took place the first partition of Poland, in which Frederick II joined and by which Prussia profited. When at last, in 1786, Frederick died, he left his nephew and heir, Frederick William II (1786-97) a territory of 77,000 square miles with 6,000,000 subjects and an army of 200,000. During the 11 years' reign of Frederick Wil liam II the chief event was Prussia's alliance with Austria in order to put down the French revolution, a purpose in which they signally failed, and next to that the further acquisition of 40,000 square miles by the second and third partitions of Poland. Frederick William III (1797-1840) succeeded, by his weak and vacil lating policy, in isolating Prussia and arousing the wrath of Napoleon. In 1806 Prussia was
completely defeated at Jena, and her domain was reduced to less than half its former area. In 1813, however, Prussia acting in concert with Austria and Russia, Napoleon was at last over come by sheer force of numbers and definitely disposed of. At the Congress of Vienna the former possessions of Prussia were restored and new ones added, especially the larger half of Saxony and the remaining portions of Pomerania, as well as valuable territories in the Rhine district. The promise of a liberal con stitution given to the Prussian people was not kept. The only statesmanlike act of Frederick William III was the establishment of the Zoliverein (or free-trade zone) which knitted northern Germany closer together. Frederick William IV (1840-61), a well-meaning monarch of great natural gifts, but of shifting character and erratic mind, went far toward destroying Prussia's prestige and military power, submit ting abjectly to the political yoke of Austria. The part played by him during the revolution of 1848-49 was not free from duplicity. However, under pressure he granted a sort of constitution to his people. The last four years of his life he was insane, and on his death was succeeded by William I (1861-88). It was in his reign, in 1866, that the latent jealousy between Prussia and Austria finally burst into flame in one of the shortest and yet most decisive wars, a war lasting but six weeks. At Sadowa the ancient power and glory of Austria were overthrown and the path for aggrandizement thus made clear for Prussia. Most of the German states, outside of Prussia, had sided against her in 1866, and of these she annexed several at the Peace of Prague, including Hanover, Hesse Cassel, Nassau and Schleswig-Holstein, thus raising Prussia to absolutely the dominant state within Germany and leaving her one of the leading military powers of the world. The Nord deutsche Bund (North German Confederation) was formed by Prussia, under the successful statesmanship of Bismarck, and the latter's far sightedness envisaged even then the war with France. This came about in July 1870 under circumstances which are not quite clear even to-day. Certain it is that Bismarck and the gifted Prussian chief of staff, von Moltke, together precipitated it by some clever juggling with a despatch from their king referring to the French Am bassador, Benedetti, and King William rous ing the French emperor, Napoleon III and the French parliament to outbursts of fury and wounded pride and bringing on a declaration of war from France. The War of 1870-71, in which unexpectedly to the duped Napoleon III, by special the agreements with Prussia, not only the states belonging to the North German Confederation, but also the Southern ones — Bavaria, Baden and Wiirttemberg joined, was disastrous for France from start to finish, and at the Peace of Frankfort, humbled France was forced to yield up Alsace and a portion of Lorraine, and an extortionate war indemnity of five billions of francs. While, however, the war still lasted, on 18 Jan. 1871, in the historical Salle de Glace at Versailles, the German princes offered the formal primacy of Germany and the imperial crown to King William of Prussia, who accepted and thus be came the first German emperor. On 21 March 1871, the new Reischstag (or Imperial Parlia ment) met for its initial session at Berlin. From then on, therefore, the history of Prus sia is properly but a part of that of the Empire as a whole.
Bibliography.— Browning, 0.,