18th-century history of Germany
History of Germany |
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From the 1680s to 1789, Germany comprised many small territories which were parts of the
Military and diplomatic history
Germany, or more exactly the old Holy Roman Empire, in the 18th century entered a period of decline that would finally lead to the dissolution of the Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. Since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Empire had been fragmented into numerous independent states (Kleinstaaterei). In 1701, Elector Frederick of Brandenburg was crowned "King in Prussia". From 1713 to 1740, King Frederick William I, also known as the "Soldier King", established a highly centralized state.
The term German dualism describes the long conflict between the two largest German states Austria and Prussia from 1740 to 1866 when Prussia finally forced Austria out of the German Confederation.
The
In 1740, King
From 1763, against resistance from the nobility and citizenry, an "
In 1772–95, Prussia took part in the partitions of Poland, occupying western territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which led to centuries of Polish resistance against German rule and persecution. To the east and south of Prussia, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had gradually weakened during the 18th century. Frederick took part in the first of the partitions of Poland, between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1772. The Kingdom of Prussia annexed most of the Polish province of Royal Prussia, including Warmia; the annexed land was organized the following year into the Province of West Prussia. The new territory connected East Prussia (the territory previously known as the Duchy of Prussia) with Pomerania, uniting the kingdom's eastern territories. After Frederick died in 1786, his nephew Fredrick William II continued the partitions, gaining a large part of western Poland in 1793.
In 1795, the Kingdom of Poland ceased to exist and a large area (including Warsaw) to the south of East Prussia became part of Prussia. These new territories were organized into the Provinces of New Silesia, South Prussia, and New East Prussia.
The French Revolution sparked a new war between France and several of its Eastern neighbors, including Prussia and Austria. Following the Peace of Basel in 1795 with Prussia, the west bank of the Rhine was ceded to France.
The Holy Roman Empire was formally dissolved on 6 August 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) resigned. Francis II's family continued to be called Austrian emperors until 1918. In 1806, the Confederation of the Rhine was established under Napoleon's protection.
Politics
From 1640, Brandenburg-Prussia had started to rise under the Great Elector, Frederick William. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 strengthened it even further, through the acquisition of East Pomerania. From 1713 to 1740, King Frederick William I, also known as the "Soldier King", established a highly centralized, militarized state with a heavily rural population of about three million (compared to the nine million in Austria).
In terms of the boundaries of 1914, Germany in 1700 had a population of 16 million, increasing slightly to 17 million by 1750, and growing more rapidly to 24 million by 1800. Wars continued, but they were no longer so devastating to the civilian population; famines and major epidemics did not occur, but increased agricultural productivity led to a higher birth rate, and a lower death rate.[1]
In the
, Prussia became a European great power. This gave the start to the rivalry between Prussia and Austria for the leadership of Germany.From 1763, against resistance from the nobility and citizenry, an "enlightened absolutism" was established in Prussia and Austria, according to which the ruler governed according to the best precepts of the philosophers. The economies developed and legal reforms were undertaken, including the abolition of torture and the improvement in the status of Jews. Emancipation of the peasants slowly began. Compulsory education was instituted.
In 1772–1795 Prussia and Austria took part in the partitions of Poland. Prussia occupied the western territories of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that surrounded existing Prussian holdings, while Austria took the territory of Galicia further south. This occupation led to centuries of Polish resistance against Germanization.
Smaller states
To the west of Austria and Prussia stood the remaining, major, part of Germany. The existence of the two big powers precluded a serious reform of the confederate structure of Germany; but reform of the individual state governments and administrations was not excluded. The general picture was as varied as the political map of the Holy Roman Empire, and it is difficult to generalise. But the impression prevails that, overall, after 1750 and especially after 1770, the general situation of the middle classes improved slightly, both economically and politically. Reforms were carried in a number of large and small states. There were some profligate, vicious and dull-witted rulers, but there were also some outstanding personalities. The bureaucrats, if often corrupt, were more competent and better educated than before.
A large part of Germany still lived under the rule of bishops. Conditions in these ecclesiastical principalities were no less variegated than those of the secular states. All the bishops were scions of the ruling dynasties or the high aristocracy and they considered themselves political rulers who lived and acted in the style of the contemporary secular court society. Their sense of responsibility and their capacity for the administration of their territories also varied greatly. However, even at their best, they could not achieve the continuity of government that some dynastic states began to acquire.[2]
In
Society
Nobility
In a heavily agrarian society, land ownership played a central role. Germany's nobles, especially those in the East – called Junkers –dominated not only the localities, but also the Prussian court, and especially the Prussian army. Increasingly after 1815, a centralized Prussian government based in Berlin took over the powers of the nobles, which in terms of control over the peasantry had been almost absolute. To help the nobility avoid indebtedness, Berlin set up a credit institution to provide capital loans in 1809, and extended the loan network to peasants in 1849. When the German Empire was established in 1871, the Junker nobility controlled the army and the Navy, the bureaucracy, and the royal court; they generally set governmental policies.[5]
Peasants and rural life
Peasants continued to center their lives on the village, where they were members of a corporate body[clarification needed] and helped manage the community resources and monitor the community life.[clarification needed] In the East, they were serfs who were bound permanently to parcels of land. In most of Germany, farming was undertaken by tenant farmers who paid rents and carried out obligatory services to the landlord, who was typically a nobleman. Peasant leaders supervised the fields and ditches and grazing rights, maintained public order and morals, and supported a village court which handled minor offenses.[citation needed] Within the family the patriarch made all the decisions, and tried to arrange advantageous marriages for his children. Much of the villages' communal life centered around church services and holy days. In Prussia, the peasants drew lots to choose conscripts required by the army. The noblemen handled external relationships and politics for the villages under their control, and were not typically involved in daily activities or decisions.[6][7]
In
The agrarian reforms in northwestern Germany in 1770–1870 were driven by progressive governments and local elites. They abolished feudal obligations and divided collectively owned common land into private parcels; and thus created a more efficient market-oriented rural economy; resulting in higher productivity and population growth. It strengthened the traditional social order because wealthy peasants obtained most of the former common land, while the rural proletariat was left without land; many left for the cities or America. Meanwhile, the division of the common land served as a buffer preserving social peace between nobles and peasants.[10] In the east the serfs were emancipated but the Junker class maintained its large estates and monopolized political power.[11]
Around 1800 the Catholic monasteries, which had large land holdings, were nationalized and sold off by the government. In Bavaria they had controlled 56% of the land.[12]
Enlightenment
Before 1750, the German upper classes often looked to France (or, previously, Italy) for intellectual, cultural and architectural leadership; French was the language of high society. By the mid-18th century the "Aufklärung" (
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) broke new ground in philosophy and poetry, as a leader of the Sturm und Drang movement of proto-Romanticism. Weimar Classicism ("Weimarer Klassik") was a cultural and literary movement based in Weimar that sought to establish a new humanism by synthesizing Romantic, classical, and Enlightenment ideas. The movement, from 1772 until 1805, involved Herder as well as polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), a poet and historian. Herder argued that every folk had its own particular identity, which was expressed in its language and culture. This legitimized the promotion of German language and culture and helped shape the development of German nationalism. Schiller's plays expressed the restless spirit of his generation, depicting the hero's struggle against social pressures and the force of destiny.[14]
German music, sponsored by the upper classes, came of age under composers Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), and Ludwig van Beethoven.[15]
In remote Königsberg philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom, and political authority. Kant's work contained basic tensions that would continue to shape German thought – and indeed all of European philosophy – well into the 20th century.[16]
The German Enlightenment won the support of princes, aristocrats, and the middle classes, and it permanently reshaped the culture.[17]
French Revolution 1789–1815
German reaction to the French Revolution was mixed at first. German intellectuals celebrated the outbreak, hoping to see the triumph of Reason and The Enlightenment. The royal courts in Vienna and Berlin denounced the overthrow of the king and the threatened spread of notions of liberty, equality, and fraternity. By 1793, the execution of the French king and the onset of the Terror disillusioned the Bildungsbürgertum (educated middle classes). Reformers said the solution was to have faith in the ability of Germans to reform their laws and institutions in peaceful fashion.[1]
Europe was racked by two decades of war revolving around France's efforts to spread its revolutionary ideals, as well as to annex Belgium and the Rhine's Left Bank to France and establish puppet regimes in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. The French revolutionaries' open and strident republicanism led to the conclusion of a defensive alliance between Austria and Prussia on 7 February 1792. The alliance also declared that any violation of the borders of the Empire by France would be a cause for war. The extremists among the French revolutionaries saw war as a chance to defeat their domestic opponents and embarrass the king, whose Austrian wife, Marie-Antoinette, was Emperor Leopold II's sister. They demanded that Austria not only disarm but abandon all alliances directed against France. Upon Leopold II's refusal, France declared war on Austria and Prussia on 20 April.
Prussia tried to remain neutral while imposing tight controls on dissent, but with German nationalism sharply on the rise, the small nation blundered by going to war with Napoleon in 1806. Its economy was weak, its leadership poor, and the once mighty Prussian army was a hollow shell. Napoleon easily crushed it at the
After Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia in 1812, including the deaths of many Germans in his invasion army, Prussia joined with Russia. Major battles followed in quick order, and when Austria switched sides to oppose Napoleon his situation grew tenuous. He was defeated at the Battle of Leipzig in late 1813, and his empire quickly unraveled. One after another the German states switched to oppose Napoleon, but he rejected peace terms. Allied armies invaded France in early 1814, Paris fell, and in April Napoleon surrendered. He returned for 100 days in 1815, but was finally defeated by the British and German armies at Waterloo. Prussia was the big winner at the Vienna peace conference, gaining extensive territory.[1]
See also
- 18th-century German literature
- Kingdom of Prussia
- German dualism
- Austrian Empire
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-822120-3.
- ^ a b Holborn, Hajo (1964). A History of Modern Germany: 1648–1840. pp. 291–302.
- ^ Whaley, Joachim (2012), Germany and the Holy Roman Empire, vol. II, Oxford University Press, p. 499.
- ^ Ingrao, Charles W. (2003). The Hessian Mercenary State: Ideas, Institutions, and Reform under Frederick II, 1760–1785.
- ^ Segarra, Eda (1977). A Social History of Germany: 1648–1914. pp. 37–55, 183–202.
- ^ ISBN 9780841903326.
- ^ For details on the life of a representative peasant farmer, who migrated in 1710 to Pennsylvania, see Bernd Kratz, "Jans Stauffer: A Farmer in Germany before his Emigration to Pennsylvania",Genealogist, Fall 2008, Vol. 22 Issue 2, pp 131–169
- ^ "Decree on the Abolition of Personal Serfdom in Schleswig-Holstein". GHDI. 1804. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
- ^ Ford, Guy Stanton (1922). Stein and the era of reform in Prussia, 1807–1815. Princeton University Press. pp. 199–220.
- ^ Brakensiek, Stefan (April 1994), "Agrarian Individualism in North-Western Germany, 1770–1870", German History, vol. 12, no. 2, pp. 137–179
- ^ Perkins, J. A. (April 1986), "Dualism in German Agrarian Historiography", Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 287–330
- ISBN 9780717116799.
- ^ Gagliardo, John G. (1991). Germany under the Old Regime, 1600–1790. pp. 217–34, 375–95.
- ^ Richter, Simon J., ed. (2005), The Literature of Weimar Classicism
- ^ Owens, Samantha; Reul, Barbara M.; Stockigt, Janice B., eds. (2011). Music at German Courts, 1715–1760: Changing Artistic Priorities.
- ^ Kuehn, Manfred (2001). Kant: A Biography.
- ^ Van Dulmen, Richard; Williams, Anthony, eds. (1992). The Society of the Enlightenment: The Rise of the Middle Class and Enlightenment Culture in Germany.
- ^ Gagliardo, John, G., (1980) Reich and Nation. The Holy Roman Empire as Idea and Reality, 1763-1806, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, p. 142.
- ^ Owen Connelly, Napoleon's satellite kingdoms (1966) ch 6
- ^ Diethher Raff, History of Germany from the Medieval Empire to the Present, (1988), pp. 34–55, 202–206
Further reading
- Asprey, Robert B. Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma (2007) excerpt and text search
- Blanning, Tim. Frederick the Great: King of Prussia (2016), major new scholarly biography
- Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600–1947 (2006)
- Holborn, Hajo. A History of Modern Germany: vol 2: 1648–1840 (1961)
- Hughes, Michael. Early Modern Germany, 1477–1806 (1992).
- Lewis, Margaret Brannan. Infanticide and Abortion in Early Modern Germany (2016).
- Robisheaux, Thomas. Rural society and the search for order in early modern Germany (2002).
- Rowlands, Alison. "Witchcraft and old women in Early Modern Germany." Past & present 173 (2001): 50–89. in JSTOR
- Sagarra, Eda. A Social History of Germany, 1648–1914 (1977) online
- Schindler, Norbert. Rebellion, community and custom in early modern Germany (2002).
- Schulze, Hagen. The Course of German Nationalism: From Frederick the Great to Bismarck 1763–1867 (1991)
- Sheehan, James J.German History: 1770–1866 (1989)
- Smith, Helmut Walser, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History (2011), 862 pp; 35 essays by specialists; Germany since 1760 excerpt
- Wilson, Peter H.Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War (2009)
- Wunder, Heide. He is the sun, she is the moon: Women in early modern Germany (Harvard UP, 1998).