This body which called itself and still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire.

2. The Holy Roman Empire was a phantom state, and after the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), its elaborate constitutional system no longer worked. The princes reigned supreme, as the Emperor was unable to enforce orders, pass laws, raise taxes, mount armies, or conduct foreign affairs. There were instead some 300+ petty states, whose princes pretended towards absolutism a la Louis 14th. Each prince had his own army, built mini-Versailles, and taxed his people in order to afford them. These taxes impaired commerce � a cargo shipped 400 miles down the Rhine River had to pass through 30 different jurisdictions, and was subject to so many tariffs and tolls that the shipment was impractical! The Holy Roman Empire was a phantom state, and after the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), its elaborate constitutional system no longer worked. The princes reigned supreme, as the Emperor was unable to enforce orders, pass laws, raise taxes, mount armies, or conduct foreign affairs. There were instead some 300+ petty states, whose princes pretended towards absolutism a la Louis 14th. Each prince had his own army, built mini-Versailles, and taxed his people in order to afford them. These taxes impaired commerce � a cargo shipped 400 miles down the Rhine River had to pass through 30 different jurisdictions, and was subject to so many tariffs and tolls that the shipment was impractical!

3. Hapsburg map Since the HRE was just a fa�ade, two states were able to develop vigorously and independently in the late 17C. One was Austria, ruled by the Hapsburgs (who also monopolized the position of HRE), who also ruled over territories situated to the east of the empire. Austria Bohemia Silesia Galicia Hungary (acquired in 1699) Croatia The Hapsburg�s subjects spoke some ten languages and practiced at least 8 different religious creeds. No part of Europe was more heterogeneous ethnically and culturally. Since the HRE was just a fa�ade, two states were able to develop vigorously and independently in the late 17C. One was Austria, ruled by the Hapsburgs (who also monopolized the position of HRE), who also ruled over territories situated to the east of the empire. Austria Bohemia Silesia Galicia Hungary (acquired in 1699) Croatia The Hapsburg�s subjects spoke some ten languages and practiced at least 8 different religious creeds. No part of Europe was more heterogeneous ethnically and culturally.

4. Hapsburg family tree

5. Leopold I VERY Catholic! German culture/language for the elites VERY rural and VERY unequal: Agricultural landlords were encouraged to exploit the peasantry, but in return, were discouraged from taking active part in governmental administration or legislation. The ROBOT � all peasants req�d to give 3 days/week of unpaid service to his lord! VERY Catholic! German culture/language for the elites VERY rural and VERY unequal: Agricultural landlords were encouraged to exploit the peasantry, but in return, were discouraged from taking active part in governmental administration or legislation. The ROBOT � all peasants req�d to give 3 days/week of unpaid service to his lord!

6. Prince Eugene

7. Ottoman siege

8. John Sobieski

9. Charles VI

10. Maria Theresa Written by Luise Gottsched, one of the brightest women of the 18th Century. She wrote exceedingly well. But after her husband began his Dictionary of the German Language & Model Grammar she dropped all her own literary work to assist him. About eleven o'clock, a man-servant, dressed in gorgeous livery, came and told us to follow him. He led us through a great many frescoed corridors and splendid rooms into a small apartment which was made even smaller by a Spanish screen placed across it. We were told to wait there. In a few moments, the Mistress of Ceremonies came. She was very gracious to us. In a little while, her Majesty entered followed by the three princesses. My husband and myself each sank upon the left knee and kissed the noblest, the most beautiful hand that has ever wielded a scepter. The Empress gently bade us rise. Her face and her gracious manner banished all the timidity and embarrassment we naturally felt in the presence of so exalted and beautiful a figure as hers. Our fear was changed to love and confidence. Her Majesty told my husband that she was afraid to speak German before the Master of that language. "Our Austrian dialect is very bad, they say," she added. To which my man answered that, fourteen years before, when he listened to her address at the opening of the Landtag, he had been struck by the beauty and purity of her German. She spoke, on that occasion, he said, like a goddess. Then the Empress laughed merrily, saying A>Tis lucky I was not aware of your presence or I should have been so frightened that I should have stopped short in my speech." She asked me how it happened that became so learned a woman. I replied, "I wished to become worthy of the honor that has this day befallen me in meeting your Majesty. This will forever be a red-letter day in my life." Her Majesty said, "You are too modest. I well know that the most learned woman in Germany stands before me." My answer to that was "According to my opinion, the most learned woman, not of Germany only, but of all Europe, stands before me as Empress." Her Majesty shook her head. "Ah, no," she said, "my familiar acquaintance with that woman forces me to say you are mistaken." Her husband, the Emperor Franz I, joined our group and chatted with us most affably. Some of the younger children were called in and properly reverenced. Then the Empress asked if we would like to see her remaining babies, upstairs. Of course, we were enchanted at the thought. Following the Mistress of Ceremonies, we went upstairs to the three little angels there, whom we found eating their breakfast under the care of the Countess Sarrau. After kissing the little, highborn hands, we were conducted through the private rooms of the palace, an honor not vouchsafed to one stranger out of a thousand. Finally we returned to the waiting room, where all congratulated us upon the unusual honor shown. Written by Luise Gottsched, one of the brightest women of the 18th Century. She wrote exceedingly well. But after her husband began his Dictionary of the German Language & Model Grammar she dropped all her own literary work to assist him. About eleven o'clock, a man-servant, dressed in gorgeous livery, came and told us to follow him. He led us through a great many frescoed corridors and splendid rooms into a small apartment which was made even smaller by a Spanish screen placed across it. We were told to wait there. In a few moments, the Mistress of Ceremonies came. She was very gracious to us. In a little while, her Majesty entered followed by the three princesses. My husband and myself each sank upon the left knee and kissed the noblest, the most beautiful hand that has ever wielded a scepter. The Empress gently bade us rise. Her face and her gracious manner banished all the timidity and embarrassment we naturally felt in the presence of so exalted and beautiful a figure as hers. Our fear was changed to love and confidence. Her Majesty told my husband that she was afraid to speak German before the Master of that language. "Our Austrian dialect is very bad, they say," she added. To which my man answered that, fourteen years before, when he listened to her address at the opening of the Landtag, he had been struck by the beauty and purity of her German. She spoke, on that occasion, he said, like a goddess. Then the Empress laughed merrily, saying A>Tis lucky I was not aware of your presence or I should have been so frightened that I should have stopped short in my speech." She asked me how it happened that became so learned a woman. I replied, "I wished to become worthy of the honor that has this day befallen me in meeting your Majesty. This will forever be a red-letter day in my life." Her Majesty said, "You are too modest. I well know that the most learned woman in Germany stands before me." My answer to that was "According to my opinion, the most learned woman, not of Germany only, but of all Europe, stands before me as Empress." Her Majesty shook her head. "Ah, no," she said, "my familiar acquaintance with that woman forces me to say you are mistaken." Her husband, the Emperor Franz I, joined our group and chatted with us most affably. Some of the younger children were called in and properly reverenced. Then the Empress asked if we would like to see her remaining babies, upstairs. Of course, we were enchanted at the thought. Following the Mistress of Ceremonies, we went upstairs to the three little angels there, whom we found eating their breakfast under the care of the Countess Sarrau. After kissing the little, highborn hands, we were conducted through the private rooms of the palace, an honor not vouchsafed to one stranger out of a thousand. Finally we returned to the waiting room, where all congratulated us upon the unusual honor shown.

11. Joseph II

12. Enlightened Despotism

13. Joseph�s Reforms

15. Frederick William the Great Elector One of the greatest rulers in all of Europe in his day. His chief possession was Brandenburg, a flat country with unproductive sandy soild, cut off from the Baltic coast, whose several thousand inhabitants raised grain and brewed beer. Over 100 miles away to the east, separated by Poland, lay his other territory, Prussia. One of the greatest rulers in all of Europe in his day. His chief possession was Brandenburg, a flat country with unproductive sandy soild, cut off from the Baltic coast, whose several thousand inhabitants raised grain and brewed beer. Over 100 miles away to the east, separated by Poland, lay his other territory, Prussia.

17. How did he build a powerful state? FW created a permanent standing army. The count quoted here was actually talking about the army under FWI, but it fits!How did he build a powerful state? FW created a permanent standing army. The count quoted here was actually talking about the army under FWI, but it fits!

18. Junkers Shrewd and tough, the noble landlords of Prussia and Brandenburg. Climbed to power by squeezing the peasants below. To pay for his army, FW gave the Junkers the right to do whatever they wished with their peasants and immunity from taxation, so long as they submitted to him a military tax that they squeezed from their serfs. Under FW, Prussian peasants paid twice per capita what French subjects of Louis 14 paid! Thus, FW�s success was built on a partnership with the nobility. Shrewd and tough, the noble landlords of Prussia and Brandenburg. Climbed to power by squeezing the peasants below. To pay for his army, FW gave the Junkers the right to do whatever they wished with their peasants and immunity from taxation, so long as they submitted to him a military tax that they squeezed from their serfs. Under FW, Prussian peasants paid twice per capita what French subjects of Louis 14 paid! Thus, FW�s success was built on a partnership with the nobility.

19. Junkers Shrewd and tough, the noble landlords of Prussia and Brandenburg. Climbed to power by squeezing the peasants below. To pay for his army, FW gave the Junkers the right to do whatever they wished with their peasants and immunity from taxation, so long as they submitted to him a military tax that they squeezed from their serfs. Under FW, Prussian peasants paid twice per capita what French subjects of Louis 14 paid! Shrewd and tough, the noble landlords of Prussia and Brandenburg. Climbed to power by squeezing the peasants below. To pay for his army, FW gave the Junkers the right to do whatever they wished with their peasants and immunity from taxation, so long as they submitted to him a military tax that they squeezed from their serfs. Under FW, Prussian peasants paid twice per capita what French subjects of Louis 14 paid!

20. Attracted thousands of persecuted Calvinist textile workers from France, who helped build FW�s uniform-manufacturing industry. Attracted thousands of persecuted Calvinist textile workers from France, who helped build FW�s uniform-manufacturing industry.

21. Frederick I

22. Frederick William I

23. Frederick William I

24. Sergeant King

25. Frederick William I, the crude, obese ruler of Prussia, who seemed to have had a particularly virulent loathing of his eldest son and half namesake. It didn't take the young Frederick long to begin aggravating the bully king. A frail and sickly infant, the prince was a gross insult to his father's vision of what a future monarch should be. Big Fred would often storm into the boy's nursery, mercilessly poking and prodding him as if he were some odious specimen. It got much worse. Holding that "all learned men are fools," the blustering king hated the arts, literature and science -- indeed he went out of his way to insult members of the esteemed Academy of Sciences, founded by his own father. Prince Frederick had the misfortune of preferring the very pursuits his father despised. And so he was regularly beaten and tormented by the king, left tearful and trembling. Prince Frederick's sister and soul mate, Wilhelmina, often witnessed the ruthless treatment. "The king could not bear my brother," she once recalled. "He abused him whenever he laid eyes on him, so that Frederick became obsessed with a fear of him which persisted even after he reached the age of reason." Determined to eradicate all his son's cultured interests, King Frederick William ordered a brutal regimen intended to mold the boy into a miniature version of himself -- meaning cruel and hostile. As for music, plays and other "dissipations," young Frederick's tutors were ordered, on pain of death, to "inspire him with a disgust of them." The king would freak at any "foppish" tendency his son might show, once beating him senseless for using a three-pronged silver fork instead of the standard two-pronged steel one. Most everything the prince did inspired his father's violent wrath, the relationship deteriorating to such a level of spite that Frederick once wrote the king begging for understanding. The king's reply was written in the glowing warmth of the third person: The prince, wrote the king, "has a willful and wicked disposition; he does not love his father. A son who loves his father does the will of that father, not only in his presence, but also when he is not there to see. He knows perfectly well that I cannot endure an effeminate boy, who is without a single manly inclination, who cannot ride, nor shoot ... He has no pleasure but to follow his own head. That is my answer." Frederick William was also growing increasingly paranoid of a plot to kill him, imagining his son at the center of it. He once accused young Frederick in the presence of half a dozen Prussian officers of intending to murder him, not in a direct attack, "since you are too cowardly," but rather by stabbing him in the back. Another encounter led the king to repeatedly strike his cringing son, saying contemptuously, "Had I been treated so by my father, I would have blown my brains out. But this fellow has no honor, he takes all that comes." Finally Prince Frederick could take no more. He tried to escape, hoping to seek refuge at the court of his cousin George II in England. His plan was discovered, however, and the prince was arrested and sent to a hellish prison. The king ordered Frederick and his friend, Lt. Hans von Katte, court-martialed. The military tribunal, however, called it a family matter and refused to try the prince. It did, however, sentence von Katte to life imprisonment. Waving aside the verdict, King Frederick sought his own revenge. Von Katte was beheaded, Frederick forced to watch. Eventually humbling himself before the king, Prince Frederick was able to make an uneasy truce as he waited out his father's demise. His patience paid off. At 28 he assumed the throne as Frederick II, later becoming known to the world as Frederick the Great -- famed poet, musician and military giant who set the stage for the emergence of the German empire. Source: http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/messy/messy5a.html Michael Farquhar is a Washington, D.C., writer and a member of the Washington Post Horizon section staff. Frederick William I, the crude, obese ruler of Prussia, who seemed to have had a particularly virulent loathing of his eldest son and half namesake. It didn't take the young Frederick long to begin aggravating the bully king. A frail and sickly infant, the prince was a gross insult to his father's vision of what a future monarch should be. Big Fred would often storm into the boy's nursery, mercilessly poking and prodding him as if he were some odious specimen. It got much worse. Holding that "all learned men are fools," the blustering king hated the arts, literature and science -- indeed he went out of his way to insult members of the esteemed Academy of Sciences, founded by his own father. Prince Frederick had the misfortune of preferring the very pursuits his father despised. And so he was regularly beaten and tormented by the king, left tearful and trembling. Prince Frederick's sister and soul mate, Wilhelmina, often witnessed the ruthless treatment. "The king could not bear my brother," she once recalled. "He abused him whenever he laid eyes on him, so that Frederick became obsessed with a fear of him which persisted even after he reached the age of reason." Determined to eradicate all his son's cultured interests, King Frederick William ordered a brutal regimen intended to mold the boy into a miniature version of himself -- meaning cruel and hostile. As for music, plays and other "dissipations," young Frederick's tutors were ordered, on pain of death, to "inspire him with a disgust of them." The king would freak at any "foppish" tendency his son might show, once beating him senseless for using a three-pronged silver fork instead of the standard two-pronged steel one. Most everything the prince did inspired his father's violent wrath, the relationship deteriorating to such a level of spite that Frederick once wrote the king begging for understanding. The king's reply was written in the glowing warmth of the third person: The prince, wrote the king, "has a willful and wicked disposition; he does not love his father. A son who loves his father does the will of that father, not only in his presence, but also when he is not there to see. He knows perfectly well that I cannot endure an effeminate boy, who is without a single manly inclination, who cannot ride, nor shoot ... He has no pleasure but to follow his own head. That is my answer." Frederick William was also growing increasingly paranoid of a plot to kill him, imagining his son at the center of it. He once accused young Frederick in the presence of half a dozen Prussian officers of intending to murder him, not in a direct attack, "since you are too cowardly," but rather by stabbing him in the back. Another encounter led the king to repeatedly strike his cringing son, saying contemptuously, "Had I been treated so by my father, I would have blown my brains out. But this fellow has no honor, he takes all that comes." Finally Prince Frederick could take no more. He tried to escape, hoping to seek refuge at the court of his cousin George II in England. His plan was discovered, however, and the prince was arrested and sent to a hellish prison. The king ordered Frederick and his friend, Lt. Hans von Katte, court-martialed. The military tribunal, however, called it a family matter and refused to try the prince. It did, however, sentence von Katte to life imprisonment. Waving aside the verdict, King Frederick sought his own revenge. Von Katte was beheaded, Frederick forced to watch. Eventually humbling himself before the king, Prince Frederick was able to make an uneasy truce as he waited out his father's demise. His patience paid off. At 28 he assumed the throne as Frederick II, later becoming known to the world as Frederick the Great -- famed poet, musician and military giant who set the stage for the emergence of the German empire. Source: http://www.discovery.com/stories/history/messy/messy5a.html Michael Farquhar is a Washington, D.C., writer and a member of the Washington Post Horizon section staff.

26. Frederick the Great

28. Frederick�s Enlightened Policies

29. Frederick�s Enlightened Policies

30. Growth of Prussia map

31. Differences: BP was more homogenous; Austria thrived on heterogeneity BP was Protestant; Austria was Catholic BP extracted far more money/services per capita from its people, but Austria had a bigger population and was the bigger power Similarities: Neither based sovereignty on nationality (BP was more Polish than German!) Absolutism by partnership with the elite nobility Agrarian Poor peasantsDifferences: BP was more homogenous; Austria thrived on heterogeneity BP was Protestant; Austria was Catholic BP extracted far more money/services per capita from its people, but Austria had a bigger population and was the bigger power Similarities: Neither based sovereignty on nationality (BP was more Polish than German!) Absolutism by partnership with the elite nobility Agrarian Poor peasants

32. Differences: BP was more homogenous; Austria thrived on heterogeneity BP was Protestant; Austria was Catholic BP extracted far more money/services per capita from its people, but Austria had a bigger population and was the bigger power Similarities: Neither based sovereignty on nationality (BP was more Polish than German!) Absolutism by partnership with the elite nobility Agrarian Poor peasantsDifferences: BP was more homogenous; Austria thrived on heterogeneity BP was Protestant; Austria was Catholic BP extracted far more money/services per capita from its people, but Austria had a bigger population and was the bigger power Similarities: Neither based sovereignty on nationality (BP was more Polish than German!) Absolutism by partnership with the elite nobility Agrarian Poor peasants