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Philosophers and Prussians. The Enlightenment and the European State, c. 1650-1800. Outline. Searching for a New Order Enlightenment Rationality and European Statecraft The Example of Prussia and Friedrich the Great. The Thirty Years’ War. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Outline
I. Searching for a New Order
II. Enlightenment Rationality and European Statecraft
III. The Example of Prussia and Friedrich the Great
The Thirty Years’ War• A deadly mix: “power politics”
+ religious hostilities = disaster for Germany!
• Beginnings: the Bohemian dispute– Catholic Ferdinand II (r. 1619-
37) elected as king of Bohemia, 1617
– Protestant counteroffensive– The Battle of White Mountain
(1620)
• Friedrich V and Protestant alliance defeated, 1620-1625
• The Danish phase (1626-1629)– King Christian IV vs. Imperial
commander Count Albrecht von Wallenstein
• The Swedish Phase (1630-1635)– King Gustavus Adolphus (1594-
1632) invades Germany– First major Protestant victories:
Breitenfeld, 1631; Lützen, 1632
• French phase and stalemate (1635-1643)– France enters the war (1635),
on the Protestant side!– Fighting in the Spanish
Netherlands, in the Empire, in the Atlantic, at home
The “Military Revolution”• The “military revolution”
(c. 1550-1650)– Portable firearms– Combined arms– Close-order drill and
battlefield discipline– New fortifications (the
trace italienne)– Innovations in gov’t finance
• Result - one of the longest and most destructive wars until the First World War! (1914-18)
Swedish infantry brigade formation (pikemen and musketeers), depicted in 17th-century military guidebook
Above: “Star fort” in Groningen, Netherlands
Above left: Re-enactment of TYW “musketeers”
Left: Imperial formations advancing at the Battle of White Mountain (Bohemia, 1620)
The Cost of the War• Mass death from violence,
famine, and disease
• At least 8 million dead (most civilians)– Over one-fourth of the entire
population of the Holy Roman Empire!
– In 1600: 20.3 million– In 1700: 15 million!
• Leading powers bankrupted
• Permanent religious divisions
• Hardships described in The Adventures of A Simpleton, by Hans Jakob von Grimmelshausen (1669)
Above: Engraving from The Miseries of War, by Jacques Callot (1632)
Left: Grimmelshausen in 1641
The Search for a New Order• 1648 –The Peace of
Westphalia – Treaty of Osnabrück
(May)– Treaty of Münster (Oct.)
• Key Innovations– Religious Peace of
Augsburg accepted by all participants
– Toleration of minority religions required
• After 1648: New interest in “rational” statecraft
Ratifying the Treaty of Muenster, 1648
The Enlightenment and State Power• Jean Bodin (1533-1592)– monarchical
sovereignty the key to lasting order
• Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) “natural law” rather than religious law.
• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) – Leviathan argues that an “absolute” ruler necessary
• John Locke (1632-1704) – Government a “social contract”
• Voltaire (1694-1778) suggested that government should operate on experience,
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) believed that governments had the duty to promote the happiness of subjects! (The Social Contract)
The Absolutist Solution• Key Concept: “Reason of State”
– Gustavus Adolphus explains his entry into the Thirty Years’ War (1630):
– Cardinal Richelieu describes France under Louis XIV
• “Absolutism”• Monarchs recognize no legal limits
on their power• The royal state becomes the
organizing structure for society• Growth of bureacracy and
institutions – tax offices, law courts, armies and navies!
• Proof: The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and the “balance of power” system • Religion no longer determines
alliances! Left: Gustavus Adolphus of SwedenRight: Cardinal Richelieu
“Absolute” Monarchs• France - Louis XIV (r. 1643-
1715) • “L’État c’est moi” (The state,
it is me!)
• Russia - Peter I (“the Great,” r. 1682-1725) and Catherine I (“the Great,” r. 1725-1727)– Replaced medieval Tsarist
government with bureaucracy
– Westernized court culture (no beards!)
– Created Russian Empire
• Prussia – Friedrich II (“the Great,” r. 1740-1786)
Louis XIV in 1701
Tsar and Emperor Peter I
Friedrich the Great in 1780
The Case of Prussia• Between 1650 and 1800, the
Kingdom of Prussia grew from a small German territory into a major European power!
• Friedrich Wilhelm I (“the Soldier-King”; r. 1713-1740) and rational reforms– Military expansion– Centralized and expanded state
bureaucracy, (especially tax offices)
– Avoided wars– Subsidies for farming and
manufacture– His goal was to ensure Prussia
produced everything it needed to defend itself
– His rule highly personal – concerned himself with every area of government and economy
Freiedrich Wilhelm I
Member of the “Potsdam Giants,” Friedrich’s personal guard
Friedrich the Great: an “Enlightened Monarch”?
• Friedrich the Great (r. 1740-1786) - son of Friedrich Wilhelm I
• Promoted education for the good of the state
• Personal friend of Voltaire
• Agnostic , but encouraged his subjects to hold Christian virtues (esp. obedience!)
• Promoted economic and legal rationalism
• Introduced reforms in agriculture (including cultivation of potatoes!)
• Cut costs wherever possible
• Emphasized military strength
• Saw no restrictions on his power!
“The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudice” – Friedrich II
Friedrich the Great personally inspects the potato harvest in Brandenburg
Friedrich’s Wars• First Silesian War (1740-42);
against Austria
• Second Silesian War (1744-45); against Austria
• The Seven Years’ War (1757-63) against Austria, Russia, France
• The First Partition of Poland (1772)
• War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-79); against Austria
Prussian infantry advance in the First Silesian War
Rational or personal rule?• The problem: Prussia’s
success in the 1700s depended on the intense personal involvement of the king!
• Privileged military aristocracy over civilian administration– “Junkers” = military nobility
• Prussia’s strength did not last!– Under Friedrich Wilhelm III
( r. 1797-1806), Prussia defeated by Napoleon!
• Legacy of Prussian militarism?
Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Army enter Berlin, 1806