GermanicHistory1

Germanic History - 1

     Germanic History - 1

Brandenburg and Prussia: AD 1657-1701

Since 1525 part of Prussia, on the Baltic, has been a hereditary duchy belonging to
the Hohenzollern family, but they have held it only as a fief of the Polish crown. In
1618 the Hohenzollern line in Prussia dies out and the duchy passes to a Hohenzollern
cousin, the elector of Brandenburg.

On the coast between Brandenburg and the elector's new possession of ducal Prussia
there lies the other part of Prussia. Known as royal Prussia, it includes the valuable
harbour of Gdansk (Danzig). Royal Prussia is fully integrated into the Polish kingdom.

Ducal Prussia, by contrast, is largely German - as a result of German settlers being
brought there in the 13th century to till the soil and to control the pagan Prussians.
This ethnic division, with a Polish region between two German ones, is one of the
more disastrous accidents of history.

The isolation of the Germans in ducal Prussia is irrelevant while Europe still has the
patchwork allegiances of feudalism. But by the 17th century there is a trend towards
self-contained independent states. Inevitably a political pressure builds up to bridge
the territorial gap between Brandenburg and ducal Prussia - particularly after
Brandenburg acquires another long stretch of Baltic coast (that of eastern
Pomerania) in 1648.

In 1657 ducal Prussia acquires a new status, tying it more closely to Brandenburg.
The elector Frederick William of Brandenburg succeeds in that year (through a
well-judged blend of warfare and diplomacy) in severing the feudal link between his
duchy and the Polish kingdom.

Poland is forced to concede its loss of ducal Prussia in the treaty of Wehlau (1657).
With the peace of Oliva (1660), the international community recognizes Prussia as an
independent duchy belonging to Brandenburg.

This achievement enables Frederick William's son, Frederick III of Brandenburg, to
achieve the crucial next step. In 1700 the Austrian emperor, Leopold I, needs
Frederick's assistance in the War of the Spanish Succession. The sweetener is a
significant new title.

There are no German kings within the Holy Roman empire, apart from the Habsburg
emperors' own kingdom of Bohemia. Now, using the legal nicety that Prussia is
outside the empire, Leopold allows Frederick to call himself the "king in Prussia"
(another legal refinement - the more convincing "king of Prussia" is only allowed
from 1740). The new king crowns himself, as Frederick I of the Prussian dynasty, in
Königsberg in 1701.

    The Prussian machine: AD 1701-1740
The new dignity achieved in 1701 by the Hohenzollern, as kings in Prussia, is only
part of the reason for their growing prestige and power during the 18th century.
Their underlying strength derives from the reform of the administration and the army
undertaken by Frederick William (elector of Brandenburg from 1640, known as "the
Great Elector") and continued by his son and grandson, the first two Prussian kings.

Frederick William's internal policy has two main features. He establishes a
permanent system of taxation, thus removing from the estates general their main
source of power; and he spends a large slice of the resulting revenue on a standing
army.

This combination of an absolute monarch with a large and efficient army becomes
characteristic of Prussia. By the time of the Great Elector's grandson, Frederick
William I, the Prussian army amounts to 80,000 men, consisting of 4% of the
population.

The system devised for keeping this many men under arms makes possible the
maintenance of a highly trained citizen army without damage to the economy. Half
the army is made up of foreign mercenaries. The other half is a shifting population of
peasants from Brandenburg and Prussia.

Each peasant is drafted into the army as a young man, but after completing his
training he goes home to his everyday work for ten months of each year. Nobles are
expected to serve their turn in the army too, but the mercantile classes are exempted.

By means of a tightly controlled and lean bureaucracy, Frederick William I manages
to combine this level of mobilization with healthy government finances. In 1740 he
bequeaths to his son, Frederick II, a thriving economy, a large cash surplus and
Europe's best-trained army. Better known as Frederick the Great, the son uses these
advantages to immediate effect - beginning the real expansion of Prussian influence
in both Germany and Europe.

                 The philosopher king: AD 1740

When Frederick II inherits the throne of Prussia, at the age of twenty-eight, he is an
exceptionally cultured young man. For four years he has been conducting a regular
correspondence with Voltaire. He is an accomplished amateur musician, performing
on the flute and composing sonatas and concertos. He is the author of political essays,
including the Antimachiavell of 1740 which puts forward a blueprint for a ruler based
on enlightened principles instead of the ruthless self-interest admired by Machiavelli.

Frederick seems well equipped to undertake, more fully and energetically than
anyone else, the role of 'enlightened despot' which represents an 18th-century ideal.

It is remarkable that the young man retains any faith in enlightenment, since all he
has had from his father is despotism. Frederick William, whose interests are limited to
administration and the army, is alarmed by his son's artistic tendencies. He does his
best to force the boy into a life of military discipline.

Frederick, at the age of eighteen, lays plans - with the help of a friend - to escape
from his father for a visit to England. The scheme is discovered and the prince is
treated as a deserter. He is brought before a court martial and is then imprisoned in a
fortress, where he is compelled to watch the execution of his friend.

Far from being destroyed by this appalling experience, Frederick seems strengthened.
After two years he is reconciled with his father and accepts further military
appointments, while still pursuing his own intellectual and artistic interests. When he
inherits the crown, in 1740, it is clear that he still retains the ideals of the 18-year-old
who tried to break free ten years earlier.

In his first year on the throne Frederick establishes a court orchestra and employs
C.P.E. Bach to play the harpsichord. Two years later he provides Berlin with an opera
house. But he also does something which his father would have admired. He reacts
with startling vigour to the death of the Austrian emperor, Charles VI.

  Frederick the Great and Silesia: AD 1740-1745

Charles VI dies unexpectedly on 20 October 1740. Less than two months later, on
December 16, Frederick II astonishes Europe by marching a Prussian army into the
rich Habsburg province of Silesia. The king of France, Louis XV, hearing the news,
describes the young Prussian as a madman. Frederick himself says that the
opportunity presented by Charles VI's death has the effect of giving 'free rein to his
fever'.

The new Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa (twenty-three to Frederick's twenty-eight) is
also a woman of strong resolve, but Habsburg armies prove no match for Frederick's
Prussians.

Frederick's first victory over the Austrians (at Mollwitz in April 1741) persuades the
French and Bavarians to join in against Maria Theresa. Their intervention is of great
help to the Prussian adventurer, since it fragments Austria's response, but Frederick
shows no interest in becoming involved in a wider European war. He continues to
occupy Silesia and to fight battles only in defence of it. A series of three victories in
1745 display his military skill to such advantage that his contemporaries accord him
the title by which he is known to history, Frederick the Great.

In the previous year the nature of the war has altered. It has become primarily a
conflict between France and Britain.

France's declaration of war on Britain in 1744 shifts the focus of hostilities away from
central Europe. Britain, eager that Austrian armies shall concentrate on France,
persuades Maria Theresa to come to terms with her real enemy, Frederick the Great.
By the treaty of Dresden in 1745 she cedes the greater part of Silesia to Prussia.

For the next few years Maria Theresa remains in the war as a half-hearted ally of
Britain against France. Frederick has sufficient time on his hands to build the rococo
summer palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam, in 1745-7. Both monarchs await the
eventual settlement, which comes in 1748 at Aachen, or Aix-la-Chapelle.

            Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle: AD 1748

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle makes certain adjustments between Austria and Spain
in the patchwork of Italy. Otherwise, with one exception, it restores to their previous
owners the territories occupied during the eight years of the War of the Austrian
Succession. Bavaria, occupied by the Austrians, has already been returned to the
elector. Now the Austrian Netherlands, taken by the French, revert to Austria.

The exception is Silesia. Its sudden seizure by Frederick the Great launched the war
in 1740. Now the international community recognizes his sovereignty over the region,
the possession of which adds about 50% to the population of Prussia.

                Prussian tactics: AD 1740-1745

The successes of Frederick the Great on the battlefield during the early 1740s are
achieved with a new degree of mobility in the employment of troops. A Prussian
attack is an alarming affair for those confronting it. It depends greatly on the
discipline of the standing army which Frederick has inherited from his stern father.

Frederick spreads his infantry out in a shallow formation, usually consisting of just
two or three long lines each of which is only three men deep. This gives him a very
wide front with equivalently great fire power from the soldier's muskets.

A Prussian army lines up in this type of formation about 1000 yards from the enemy.
It then marches forward, as if on a parade ground, to the music of fife and drum.
During this orderly advance (no doubt an extremely tense experience for both sides),
the soldiers hold their fire until at a range of about 100 yards. They then fire a volley,
reload, advance a few more paces and fire another. The final assault is made with the
bayonet, in the socket version devised by Vauban.

Discipline is good enough for Frederick to be able to wheel his line of advance during
an attack. Prussian drill and tactics rapidly provide the pattern which other European
armies attempt to emulate.

             Sequel in Silesia: AD 1756-1759

The loss of Silesia naturally rankles with the empress Maria Theresa of Austria.
Much of her diplomatic policy during the early 1750s is devoted to putting together an
alliance which will enable her to recover her lost territory.

But Frederick is not the man to wait while others plan to deprive him of what he has
won. In a pre-emptive strike, on 29 August 1756, he marches with 70,000 Prussian
soldiers into Saxony (lying between Prussia and Austria). This sudden act of
aggression takes the Saxons unaware, and launches the Seven Years' War.

Frederick is the most talented general of the time. But he fails to achieve the rapid
and decisive victory that he needs, and he is ringed by powerful enemies. Britain, his
only ally, provides him with funds but is reluctant to become more closely involved
(unless to protect Hanover).

In 1757 the Russians advance into Prussia and seem in a position to crush it. But
mysteriously the Russian general withdraws. The probable reason is disagreement
within the Russian royal family. The empress, Elizabeth, hates Prussia, but her heir,
Peter, is a passionate admirer of Frederick the Great. Elizabeth's health is frail. A
Russian general who destroys Prussia at the wrong moment may blight his career.

Frederick makes good use of the reprieve provided by Russia's withdrawal, and does
so against great odds. Prussia is surrounded by enemies (Sweden, Austria and France
in addition to Russia) and Prussian armies confront them alone on the battlefield. The
campaign in the west, against France, is entrusted by Frederick to his brother-in-law
Ferdinand, the duke of Brunswick.

Britain is Frederick's only ally, providing him with a useful financial subsidy but
minimal practical support on the battlefield. There is no major British presence in the
many battles fought in and around Germany during this war (a small force of some
8500 British soldiers serves under Ferdinand of Brunswick from the autumn of 1758).
Britain's main contribution is through her war aganst France, at sea and in north
America.

In 1757-9 Frederick and Ferdinand achieve some remarkable victories, usually
against much greater numbers and with fewer casualties on their own side. Frederick
defeats a French and Austrian army at Rossbach in November 1757 and an Austrian
army at Leuthen a month later. He holds his own against a much larger Russian force
in a heavily contested encounter at Zorndorf in August 1758. Meanwhile Ferdinand
defeats vast French armies at Krefeld in June 1758 and at Minden in August 1759.

This summer of 1759 proves a disastrous period on all fronts for the French. It is also
the moment when the tide turns in the other war going on at the same time - between
Britain and France.

    Prussian stalemate and reprieve: AD 1759-1762

The year 1759, vastly improving the fortunes of Britain, does the opposite for Prussia.
Within less than two weeks of his brother-in-law Ferdinand's victory over the French
at Minden, in August, Frederick himself suffers a disastrous defeat by a Russian and
Austrian army at Kunersdorf. Within a space of six hours he loses 18,000 men, more
than a third of his army.

During the next three years both Frederick and Ferdinand win some engagements and
lose others. The early lustre of their campaign has gone. The war drags on. Prussian
success seems impossible, eventual exhaustion and defeat very probable.

Moreover by the end of 1761 Britain, well satisfied with her own successes
elsewhere, is disinclined to continue subsidising Prussia in an endless continental war.
The prospect for Frederick the Great seems bleak, until he is suddenly rescued by an
event entirely beyond his control. It is an event which has been long and regularly
expected, and which happens now just in time - from Frederick's point of view.

On 5 January 1762 the ailing Russian empress, Elizabeth, dies. Her death transforms
Russian policy overnight.

            Peace and treaties: AD 1762-1763

The new Russian tsar, Peter III, rapidly puts into effect his own pro-Prussian
preferences. By May he has made peace with Frederick. There is an immediate
knock-on effect. Austria, for whom it will be impossible to defeat Prussia without
Russian support, loses heart for the battle.

In the summer of 1762 French and Prussian armies are still engaging each other in
battle from time to time in the western regions of Germany, but the combatants are
ready for peace. The central discussion between Prussia and Austria begins at
Hubertusburg, a hunting lodge between Dresden and Leipzig, on the last day of 1762.
Agreement is reached some six weeks later.

The peace treaty agreed at Hubertusburg between Prussia and Austria maintains the
recent status quo in central Europe. Frederick the Great, twice the aggressor, is
again allowed to keep Silesia.

This conclusion strengthens the influence of Prussia within the German empire and
reduces that of the official imperial power, Habsburg Austria. It also leaves Poland
flanked by two increasingly powerful neighbours, Prussia and Russia, who since 1762
have been in alliance. The development does not bode well for Poland's future.
Austria too attends the feast, when it begins in 1772.

Prussia reformed: AD 1763-1786

Frederick the Great uses the years after the Seven Years' War for a thoroughgoing
revision of his kingdom's administration. As with the reforms of Joseph II, his younger
rival in Austria, the effect of Frederick's measures is to centralize the machinery of
government and to concentrate it ever more in the royal pair of hands. As with
Joseph, the intention is well-meaning even if the method is autocratic.

In the shattered Prussian economy after the war, Frederick uses state subsidies to
restore agriculture and to rebuild towns and villages. He funds these measures by
much improved methods of tax collection and the establishment of various state
monopolies.

Public reserves of grain are built up, so that the price of bread can be kept down in
years of famine. Standards of education are improved, with strict regulation of the
part played by the religious orders. There is official encouragement for the sciences
and the arts, and a new code of laws. Prussia becomes a society much regulated, but
on the whole well regulated.

Frederick's long reign, his military successes, his ceaseless devotion to the
furtherance of Prussia's interests, and his fame as the ruler called by Voltaire the
'philosopher king' all combine to make him the pre-eminent example of the
enlightened despot so much admired in 18th-century political theory.

Frederick in his old age, still devoting himself ceaselessly to the demands of
government, is a familiar figure in Prussia in his threadbare military uniform.
Inspiring both affection and alarm, he becomes known as der alte Fritz, equivalent to
'old Fred'.

The weakness of enlightened despotism as a political system (quite apart from
broader considerations of the subject's liberty) is that it depends entirely on the
talents of the despot in whose hands all authority is gathered.

Frederick the Great has to an exceptional degree the talents necessary for
enlightened despotism. His successors - his nephew and great-nephew, Frederick
William II and Frederick William III - prove less capable.

Frederick William II, succeeding his uncle in 1786, scores a success requiring little
talent or energy in Prussia's gains from the second and third partitions of Poland. But
much of this gain is lost by Frederick William III, confronted early in his reign by the
severe challenge of the Napoleonic wars.

      Three partitions of Poland: AD 1772-1796

Over a period of a quarter of a century Poland is dismembered and consumed by her
neighbours. The process begins during the confusion of a war between Russia and
Turkey. In 1769 Austria takes the opportunity of occupying part of Poland, to the
south of Cracow.

Frederick the Great follows suit in 1770, sending troops to seal off the coastal region
between the two main parts of his realm (Brandenburg and the kingdom of Prussia).
This valuable area, known as Polish royal Prussia, has long been part of the Polish
kingdom. Frederick claims that he is acting only in precaution against an outbreak of
cattle plague. But acquiring royal Prussia would neatly unify his territory.

The first official annexation of Polish land is cynically agreed in 1772 between Russia,
Prussia and Austria. Russia, at war with Turkey, has an interest in keeping Prussia
and Austria in benign mood. She accepts the proposal that each of them should
annexe part of Poland. Russia's influence in the kingdom means that she can force
acceptance of the arrangement on the Poles.

By the treaties of 1772 Austria acquires the region round Lvov. Frederick secures
royal Prussia (with the exception at this stage of the port of Gdansk). And Russia
takes a slice of northeast Poland.

The next two partitions occur when Russia finds new excuses to intervene in Poland's
internal affairs. Russian armies enter the kingdom during a disturbance in 1792, and
are on hand again to tackle a national insurrection in 1794.

On both occasions Polish armies offer strong resistance to superior Russian forces.
But force prevails. After a two-month siege, and a massacre of Poles in the suburbs,
Warsaw falls in September 1794 to a combined Russian and Prussian army.

The second partition, agreed in 1793, benefits only Prussia and Russia. Prussia now
receives Gdansk and a swathe of land stretching south almost to Cracow. Russia
takes a vast slice of eastern Poland, amounting to some 97,000 square miles.

This is greater than the territory which Poland now retains, in a strip from the Baltic
coast down to Cracow and Brody. A few years later, in treaties of 1795 and 1796, this
final Polish remnant is divided between the three predators. Prussia is extended east
to include Warsaw. The Austrian frontier moves north to the same area.. Once again
the lion's share, in the east, goes to Russia.

The second and third partitions of Poland occur during the reign of Frederick the
Great's nephew and successor, Frederick William II. Far less decisive than his uncle,
he plays a relatively feeble role in the first response of Europe's crowned heads to
the republican threat from France.

He is persuaded to join Austria in the invasion of France in 1792, but energetic
French retaliation (combined with his greater interest in winning a good share of
Poland) prompts him to sign a separate treaty with France in Basel in 1795 -
beginning ten years in which Prussia stands on the sideline of Europe's great conflict.
The same policy is followed by his son, Frederick William III, who succeeds him in
1797.

Napoleon against Russia and Prussia: AD 1806-1807

Until 1806 Prussia maintains a nervous neutrality during the warfare between its
powerful neighbours. But the Confederation of the Rhine, organized by Napoleon in
July of this year, seems to threaten Prussian interests. In September Frederick
William III joins Russia against Napoleon.

The result is rapid disaster. Once again Napoleon moves quickly enough to destroy
one of his opponents before the other can arrive in support. Two Prussian armies are
engaged on the same day, 14 October 1806, at Jena and Auerstadt - about thirteen
miles apart.

At both sites the French are victorious. Within six weeks, before Russian assistance
arrives, Napoleon overruns the whole of Prussia.

The Russians prove, at first, rather tougher opponents. A two-day engagement at
Eylau (7-8 February 1807) brings heavy casualties but no advantage to either side.
But at Friedland, on June 14, Napoleon wins a decisive victory over the Russian army.
The result is the extraordinary meeting between Napoleon and the Russian tsar,
Alexander I, on 25 June 1807 near Tilsit. Neither will set foot on territory held by the
other, so it is agreed that they will meet in the middle of the river, the Neman, which
forms the border between them.

An elegant room is built on a raft with a door on either side, each showing the
appropriate imperial eagle. The two emperors cast off from their respective river
banks at the same moment, but the French oarsmen outrow the Russians. Napoleon is
far enough ahead to be able to open the Russian door from the inside and greet the
tsar.

The two men get on well. Together they set about carving up Europe. After two
weeks of conference Russia's ally Prussia has been gravely weakened, by mutual
agreement between the emperors. Russia could easily have fought on after Friedland.
But Prussia is occupied by the French and is helpless.

Prussia's share of Poland is now taken to provide the grand duchy of Warsaw, to be
ruled by the king of Saxony (a newly acquired ally of Napoleon). And Prussian
territory is severely shaved in the west to make room for a kingdom of Westphalia.
French troops will remain in Prussia until an indemnity of 120 million francs has been
paid. And Prussia is to close her ports to Britain as part of Napoleon's new
Continental System..

This painful result keeps Prussia in a cowed state for several years. Like Austria, she
sends troops against Russia in Napoleon's campaign of 1812. But the damage done to
Napoleon that winter finally gives Frederick William III the courage to send Prussia
into war against France for the third time.

           On the winning side: AD 1813-1815

Prussia's declaration of war, in March 1813, brings out of retirement a grand old man
of the Prussian army, Gebhard von Blücher. He is already seventy-one when he
rejoins the colours. The next two years bring him great distinction.

After campaigning successfully during the summer of 1813, he commands the Prussian
army in the great victory at Leipzig in October. He crosses the Rhine on 1 January
1814 and fights his way alongside the Austrians towards Paris, which is captured at
the end of March. Napoleon's first abdication sends Blücher back into retirement,
from which he emerges for one last triumph. Beaten by Napoleon at Ligny in 1815, he
has his revenge two days later at Waterloo.

After an otherwise dismal war, the events of these last two years confirm Prussia's
status as one of the four great powers (Austria, Russia, Prussia, Britain) who have
together toppled Napoleon. This gives the kingdom a proper status in the Congress of
Vienna, where the king is represented by his chancellor, prince von Hardenberg.

Hardenberg's hardline stance in the diplomatic struggle for Polish and Saxon territory
pushes the negotiations to the brink of war, but in the end a compromise is reached. It
brings Prussia new land in the west, up to and beyond the Rhine, and firmly
re-establishes the kingdom as the greatest power of northern Germany - ready now
to contest with Austria the leadership of all the German states.

      Deutscher Bund and Zollverein: AD 1815-1834

The congress of Vienna puts in place a revised version of the Confederation of the
Rhine. The German states, much reduced in number as a result of Napoleon's
interference, now consist of thirty-five monarchies of various kinds and four free
cities (Hamburg, Bremen, Lübeck and Frankfurt).

They are organized from 1815 into a Deutscher Bund or German Confederation. It is
a body with no legislative powers, being merely a diplomatic assembly of rulers or
their representatives. Some of the members have only a subsidiary interest in
Germany. The British king has a place, as king of Hanover. So does his Danish
counterpart, as duke of Holstein.

The assembly meets in Frankfurt and is known as the Bundestag, in succession to the
Reichstag of the now defunct Holy Roman empire. Just as the Habsburg emperor
presided over the Reichstag, so the Austrian representative is president of this new
institution. Its very existence derives from the efforts of Metternich, determined to
continue in this new form the hegemony of Austria among the German nations..

By its nature the Confederation can achieve little in the way of change, since it has no
authority over individual members except in foreign policy. But it has, as Metternich
would wish, a calming effect - or a stultifying one, depending on the point of view.

Good relations within the Confederation depend on an understanding between the
two most powerful members, Austria and Prussia, and here the long survival of a trio
of colleagues from the congress of Vienna proves a significant factor. The Austrian
emperor Francis I lives until 1835; Frederick William III of Prussia dies in 1840;
Metternich remains chancellor of Austria until 1848.

All three are equally reluctant to see political change or to introduce liberal
measures. Frederick William promises in 1815 a Prussian constitution, but takes no
step towards providing one in the next quarter century. However, on the economic
front he introduces reforms of profound significance.

The congress of Vienna has given Prussia extensive new lands around the Rhine and
the Moselle (partly to protect the new kingdom of the Netherlands from French
aggression), but these regions are isolated from the rest of Prussia, being separated
by Hanover and other smaller states.

In an effort to bind together his extended kingdom, Frederick William in 1818 turns
all his territories into a single customs-free zone.. The benefit to trade encourages
neighbouring regions to join this Zollverein (customs union), until by 1834 it covers
almost the whole of Germany. Austria, with economic links far beyond the German
area, is deliberately excluded. So Prussia, as if by the back door, acquires a role of
German leadership.

Revolutions and the Frankfurt assembly: AD 1848

The immediate effect of the revolutions which sweep through Europe in 1848 is
concession on the part of terrified rulers. Riots in Munich cause the king of Bavaria,
Louis I, to abdicate in favour of his son. Unrest in Vienna is rapidly followed by the
resignation of the veteran chancellor Metternich. Two days of street fighting in
Berlin prompt the king of Prussia, now Frederick William IV, to propose a national
assembly which will consider a German constitution.

As a result of this promise, elections are rapidly held in the various German states (in
many of them by universal male suffrage). On 18 May 1848 some 600 delegates
gather in Frankfurt.

Each delegate hopes to find a way of achieving a united and constitutional Germany.
But there are strongly differing views as to how this might be realized.

Bavaria, as leader of the middling and smaller states, campaigns for some tripartite
arrangement in which their group would hold the balance between Prussia and
Austria. Protestants supporting Prussia argue for a kleindeutsch ('small German')
solution which excludes Austria. Catholics prefer the grossdeutsch way, to include at
least the German-speaking parts of the Austrian empire.

The grossdeutsch cause is severely damaged early in March 1849 when Austria
introduces a new constitution treating her entire empire (including Hungary and north
Italy) as a single unitary state.

Clearly this is incompatible with a united Germany. On March 28 the delegates at
Frankfurt take the kleindeutsch route; they elect the Prussian king, Frederick
William IV, as emperor of the Germans. A deputation sets off to Berlin to offer him
the crown, but on April 3 he turns it down. The official reason is that only his fellow
princes can do him this honour. The harsher truth is that he no longer needs to ally
himself with these elected liberals. The tide of reaction has already turned.

In both Berlin and Vienna authoritarian governments are back in position by the
spring of 1849. The hard work of avoiding change can be resumed.

But the underlying contest between Prussia and Austria for leadership of the German
states remains the most important issue confronting the region. It will eventually be
resolved as the result of a crisis which also flares up for the first time in the late
1840s - the question of Schleswig-Holstein.

           Schleswig-Holstein: AD 1848-1864

The region of Schleswig-Holstein, at the interface between German and
Danish-speaking regions but with no clear geographical boundaries, is a natural place
for conflict in an era of growing nationalism. Historically Holstein has been within the
German empire and Schleswig outside it, but both duchies have been attached to the
Danish crown since 1460.

In the excitement of 1848 a revolutionary group seizes Kiel, declares the
independence of the two duchies from Denmark and appeals to the German
Confederation for help. The result is an invasion of Schleswig-Holstein, and then of
Denmark itself, by a Prussian army on behalf of the Confederation.

On this occasion international pressure forces the Prussians to withdraw and the two
duchies are restored to Denmark. But the crisis flares again in 1863 when the Danish
king Frederick VII dies. He has no direct male heir. In Denmark the crown can pass
through the female line; but Holstein, like the rest of the German empire, observes
the Salic law.

This casts doubt on the right of the new Danish king, Christian IX, to the duchy of
Holstein. The German Confederation (still officially presided over by Austria)
decides to act. A joint Austrian and Prussian army overruns both Holstein and
Schleswig. The result this time is that the two duchies are ceded jointly to Prussia and
Austria, by the treaty of Vienna in October 1864.

At the best of times agreement on how to administer the new territories would be
difficult to achieve between Prussia and Austria, as rivals for hegemony in Germany.
It is made more so now by the fact that Prussia has an agressive and skilful new prime
minister, Otto von Bismarck, appointed by William I in 1862. He is determined that
Prussia shall replace Austria as leader of the German states, and he sees his chance
in Schleswig-Holstein.

It is agreed in 1865 that Prussia will administer Schleswig while Austria will be
responsible for Holstein.. In June 1866 Bismarck contrives to find fault with Austria's
part of the bargain. Prussian troops march from Schleswig into Holstein.

Austria, presiding over the German Confederation (a role acquired half a century
earlier at the congress of Vienna), proposes that the Confederation as a whole should
restrain its belligerent member. Prussia, certain to be outvoted on the issue, responds
on 14 June 1866 by declaring the Confederation defunct.

On June 15, when Saxony, Hanover and Hesse-Kassel refuse to give assurances that
they will remain neutral, Prussia invades all three states. The war deciding the future
shape of Germany has begun. It will be a short one.

                Seven Weeks' War: AD 1866

The speed of Prussia's victory in the war of 1866 against Austria is largely the result
of reforms carried out in the Prussian army by Helmut von Moltke. Appointed chief
of the general staff in 1857, he appreciates that recent technological developments -
in particular railways and telegraphy - transform the nature of war (as the civil war in
America has recently shown). Troops can move fast to seize sudden opportunities.
Separate armies can remain in communication while fighting a single campaign on an
extended front.

This new strategy requires a much larger and more highly trained general staff,
responsible for overall planning and the provision of accurate maps and up-to-date
intelligence.

Moltke has several years in which to train his staff and develop new battle plans
before Prussia has to face an enemy of equal stature - the Austrian empire, in 1866.
He also has the advantage that the Prussian army is now fully equipped with the
Dreyse breech-loading rifle (introduced from 1848). The Austrian infantry, still
loading their muskets by ramming powder and shot down the muzzle, have a much
slower rate of fire.

With these advantages, Prussia achieves what can be described as the first blitzkrieg
(lightning war). Troops are transported to various points on a front of about 270 miles
along the northern border of Bohemia (part of the Austrian empire).

Entering Bohemia at several different places, the invading forces form into a single
army to confront the Austrians in a major battle at the village of Sadowa, near
Königgrätz, on July 3. The result is inconclusive, but the Prussians are able to push on
south to the outskirts of Vienna - where an armistice is agreed on July 22..

Meanwhile other Prussian armies have been winning victories against Hanover in the
west and against Bavaria (and other smaller states loyal to the German
Confederation) in the southwest. An armistice has been agreed on all fronts by the
end of July, bringing the hostilities to an end within seven weeks.

With the treaty signed in Prague, on August 23, Bismarck demonstrates conclusively
that the leadership of the German world, exercised for four centuries by Habsburg
Austria, has now passed to Hohenzollern Prussia.

The specific point at issue is resolved by Austria ceding all rights in
Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia. More important is the article in the treaty where
Austria consents to a 'new organization of Germany' from which Austria will be
excluded. This is all that Bismarck needs. His king, William I, is eager to annexe part
of Austria. But Bismarck prefers a humiliated but intact Austrian empire on his
southeastern flank. On this point Bismarck prevails. Prussian policy is clearly to be
his policy.

        North German Federation: AD 1867-71

With a free hand now in Germany, Bismarck immediately annexes two Protestant
states in west Germany which have opposed him in the recent war - Hanover and
Hesse-Kassel. They are a particularly welcome acquisition because they bridge the
previous gap between the main Prussian kingdom and Prussian territories on the
Rhine.

All other German states north of the river Main are now merged under Prussian
leadership in a new North German Federation. This differs little in organization from
the previous German Confederation led by Austria, except that it is a more coherent
Protestant bloc.

The three Catholic states south of the Main (Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria) are now
a separate group, recognized as having 'an internationally independent existence' - a
condition agreed by Bismarck with the Catholic emperors west and east, in France
and Austria. However these Catholic regions retain a strong economic link with north
Germany. A continuation of the old Prussian Zollverein is agreed in 1867, again
incorporating all the German-speaking regions except Austria.

With Austria reduced to impotence by defeat in the Seven Weeks' War, the only
other neighbour inclined to challenge Prussia's inexorable growth is France. The clash
perhaps comes sooner than France might wish. But Bismarck is ready.

              Franco-Prussian War: AD 1870-71

Ever since Prussia's rapid success in the Seven Weeks' War of 1866, and the
resulting consolidation of Prussian territory on the Rhine, there has been alarm and
resentment in France at the growth of this ambitious neighbour. It is dramatically
increased in 1870 when news leaks on July 3 that a prince of the Prussian
Hohenzollern family has been offered, and has accepted, the vacant throne of Spain.

Having fought so often in the past against being surrounded to south and east by the
Habsburg dynasty, there is public outcry in France at the prospect of the same trick
now being pulled off by the Hohenzollern. In an escalating crisis, the Prussian king
William I withdraws his relation's candidacy on July 12.

The matter might have rested there, but for a diplomatic blunder on the French side.
The French ambassador, in an audience with William I at Ems on July 13, demands an
assurance (amounting to a slur on the king's good faith) that the candidacy will never
be renewed. William refuses to give this assurance. He then sends a telegram to
Bismarck describing, in neutral terms, the audience and its outcome.

Bismarck, irritated at the collapse of his Spanish policy, shortens the telegram before
publication in such a way as to imply that the Prussian king has treated the French
ambassador with disdain. Public opinion in France, already inflamed, now explodes.
The French government declares war on Prussia on July 19.

France suffers as rapidly and as conclusively at Prussia's hands as Austria did four
years previously. Again the significant period of warfare lasts less than seven weeks.
In early encounters near Metz the French almost hold their own against the
Prussians, but by August 31 a large French army is surrounded near Sedan.

During September 1 the French cavalry, charging desperately to break out of the
encirclement, suffer heavy casualties from the Prussian artillery. On the following
day the French surrender. After losses in the battle of 38,000 men (killed, wounded or
missing), another 83,000 now lay down their arms and become prisoners of the
Germans. Among them is the French emperor himself, Napoleon III.

The events at Sedan bring to an end one empire, in France, and hasten the creation of
another, in Germany. But they do not immediately end the war.

When the news of Sedan reaches Paris, a government of national defence is rapidly
formed. Its first action, on September 4, is to depose Napoleon III and declare a
republic. But there is nothing now to stop the German army on its march towards
Paris. The siege begins on September 19. The only chance of relieving the city is to
raise new armies in the provinces. And here aeronautics play their first significant
role in warfare.

On October 7 a balloon rises from Paris (historic city of the balloon).. It floats above
the Germany army and lands far beyond their lines. It carries Léon Gambetta,
minister of the interior in the new republican government. Two days later he reaches
Tours and begins to orchestrate a campaign of guerrilla warfare which severely
disrupts the smooth Prussian military operation.

But it can only delay the eventual capitulation. Early in 1871, on January 23,
delegates from Paris pass through the German lines to Versailles to agree an
armistice. They find the Prussians in an excited mood. Just five days previously, in
Louis XIV's famous hall of mirrors in the palace of Versailles, the Prussian king has
been proclaimed emperor of a united Germany.

             The German empire: AD 1871

The creation of the German empire, long a cherished intention of Bismarck's, is much
eased by the Franco-Prussian war. When France declares war in 1870, the three
independent south German states (Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria) place their
armies under the command of the Prussian king, William I, in what is seen as an
essentially German cause.

After the victory at Sedan, talks are held to discuss possible German unification. By
November terms are agreed. Minor concessions to Bavaria are devised to give the
impression of semi-independence, but essentially this is to be a single state under
Prussian leadership.

William I is extremely reluctant to accept the title of emperor, but Bismarck
contrives to persuade him. His proclamation in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles (the
symbol of French power and triumphalism) is sweet revenge for the humiliation of
Prussia at Napoleon's hands in the early years of the century. In the treaty of
Frankfurt France cedes Alsace and most of Lorraine to the new Germany, pays a
masssive indemnity of 5000 million francs and suffers German occupation in part of
France until the money is delivered (a precise echo of France's terms in 1807).

As an added twist of the knife, Bismarck imposes a victory march of Prussian troops
through the streets of Paris.

The reconstitution of the ancient German Reich, in a modern, compact, national form,
brings back the Reichstag as a parliament. Meeting in Berlin, with delegates elected
from all over the new nation, it is only a legislative body with little control over the
executive.

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