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 PRUSSIA

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PRUSSIA

cent, but this results from the decHne of emigration and the decrease of the death-rate. In 1905 about 11-5 per cent were Slavs, of whom 8-887 per cent were Poles. In rehgion 63-29 per cent were Prot- estants, 35-14 per cent Cathohcs, 013 per cent Jews. In 1895 34-18 per cent of the population was em- ployed in agriculture, 38-7 per cent in manufactures. About one-half of all the manufacturing industries are carried on in the provinces of the Rhine, West- phalia, and Silesia. It is only since 1866 that Prussia has had its present area, and not until 1871 did it become the ruling state of Germany. Its present area and power are the result of a gradual develop- ment extending over more than seven centuries.

I. The beginnings of the state are connected with the bloody struggles and -with the wonderful cultural and missionary labours by means of which the terri- tories on the Baltic between the Elbe and Memel were wrested in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries from the Slavs and won for Germany and the Catholic Church. In this era the region on the Vistula and the Pregel Rivers, which originally was the only part of the territory bearing the name of Prussia, was con- quered by the Teutonic Knights in 1230 and con- verted to Christianity. In 1309 the Grand Master of the order transferred his residence to the Marien- burg, a castle noted for its artistic importance, which has been restored by the Emperor William II. The order and the region ruled by the order attained their highest development in the years succeeding this, especially under the government of Winrioh of Kniprode (1351-82). Pomerania, the district along the coast to the right and left of the mouth of the Oder, continued to be ruled by its dynasty of Slavonic dukes, nevertheless it was also under Ger- man influence and was converted to Christianity in the first half of the twelfth century by St. Otto of Bamberg. The inland territory between the Elbe and Oder, and the region drained by the Warthe and Netze, first called the Electorate of Brandenburg and the New Mark, were acquired from 1134 on- wards by the Ascanian line, which also had posses- sions in Saxony. Before long this line also gained the feudal suzerainty over Pomerania. In all three districts the Teutonic Knights, who carried on wars and colonized at the same time, had the principal share in reconstructing the political conditions. The Cistercian Order had also a large part in the peaceful development of civilization; the order founded flourishing monasteries beginning at Lehnin, and Chorin and extending as far as Oliva near Danzig, and Christianized the natives. In all these terri- tories, though, numerous German cities were founded and German peasants were settled on the soil.

After the extinction of the Ascanian line in 1320 the Electorate of Brandenburg became a possession of the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach, and in 1373 of the House of Luxemburg. Under the new rulers the government and the country greatly declined and the nobility ruled with an iron hand. In order to restore order the last member of the Luxemburg line transferred Brandenburg, at first temporarily, then on 30 April, 1415, as a fief to Frederick of HohenzoUcrn. This -was the birthday of the future great state of Prussia, for Prussia has not become a great power from natural, geographical, or national conditions, but is the product of the work of its kings of the House of Hohenzollern. Frederick I probably desired to make Brandenburg a great kingdom on the Baltic for himself; however, he limited himself to crushing the power of the nobles and then devoted his attention again to imperial affairs. During the next two centuries his descendants did not do much to increase the power of Brandenburg, and they never attained the power of the last members of the Ascan- ian line. The most important event was the "Dis- positio Achillea" of 1473, by which Brandenburg was

made the chief possession of the Hohenzollern family and primogeniture was estabhshed as the law of its inheritance.

Of the Hohenzollern rulers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries only Frederick II (1440-70) and Joachim I Nestor (1499-1535) were men of any prominence. They were more successful in internal affairs than in the endeavour to extend the size and importance of their realm. Frederick II separated the towns of Brandenburg from the Hanseatic League, and forced them to become a part of the territory of Brandenburg. He also brought the clergy under the power of the state by aid of two Bulls of 1447, which he obtained from Pope Nicholas V, and laid the foundation of the later State Church system es- tablished by his family. His efforts to enlarge his territories were checked by the rapid development of the power of Poland at this time, which was fol- lowed by the rising importance of Hungary. The result was that all the Gei-man possessions along the coast of the Baltic were endangered; and the greater part of the territory of the Teutonic Knights, com- prising the region of the Vistula, was conquered to- gether with Danzig by the Poles after two wars: in the war of 1410-11 the Teutonic Knights were de- feated by the Poles at the battle of Tannenbcrg; this was followed by the First Peace of Thorn; after the war of 1456-66 came the Second Peace of Thorn. The Poles also took part in the war which Frederick II waged with Pomerania over the possession of Stettin. When Frederick's nephew and successor sought compensation for Stettin in Silesia, he was op- posed by Hungary and had to retire there also.

As ruler Joachim I was even firmer than Frederick II. During his administration the nobility were forced to give up their freebooting expeditions. Fol- lowing this example the ruling family of Pomerania, of which the most important member of this era was Bogislaw X (reigned 1478-1524), put an end to the excesses of the Pomeranian nobility also. In the provinces along the Baltic the nobility had then a force of armed men at their disposal probably equal to similar forces of the princes. Thus, for example, a family called Wedel had so many branches that in the sixteenth century it could at one time reckon on two hundred men among its own members capable of bearing arms. When these rode out to war with their squires and mounted men they formed a body of soldiers, which, owing to the scarcity of money, was difficult for the ruling princes to meet. Both in Brandenburg and Pomerania the establishment of order was followed by an improvement in the laws and the courts, and by a reorganization of the ad- ministration. This latter brought about the gradual formation of a class of civil officials, who had in part legal training, and who were dependent not on the nobility but on the ruling princes. The beginnings were also made of an economical policy. Joachim I sought to turn to the advantage of the Hohenz'oUerns the fact that the Wettin line ruling in Saxony, which up to that time had been of more importance than the Hohenzollerns, had paralyzed its future development in 1485 by dividing its possessions between two branches of the line. These two dynastic families, Wettin and Hohenzollern, were active competitors for the great spiritual principalities of the empire. In 1513 Joachim's brother Albrecht became Arch- bishop of Magdeburg and Bishop of Halberstadt, and in 1514 Archbishop of Mainz. At the same time another member of the Hohenzollern family, one be- longing to the Franconian branch of the line, became Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, that is, he was the ruler of that portion of Prussia which still belonged to the order. In 1525 he brought about the secularization of the territory of the order, and made it a permanent possession of his family; in return for this, however, he was obliged to acknowledge the