Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/521

Rh FREDERICK THE GREAT.] which was more and more seen to be practically dead, but to the rivalry of two great German states, Austria and trowth of Prussia. The latter had long been laying the foundations 'l‘“5Si3- of her power. Brandenburg, the centre of the Prussian kingdom, was, as we have seen, granted in the 15th century by the emperor Sigismund to Frederick, count of Hol1en- zollern. In his hands, and in those of his prudent succes- sors, it became one of the most flourishing of the North- German principalities. At the time of the Reformation Albert, a 111ember of a subordinate branch of the house of lfohenzollern, happened to be grand master of the Teutonic Order. He became a Protestant, dissolved the order, and received in ﬁef of the king of Poland the duchy of Prussia. I11 1611 this duchy fell by inheritance to the elector of Brandenburg, and by the treaty of Vehlau, in 1657, in the time of Frederick William, the Great Elector, it was declared independent of Poland. By skill, foresight, aml courage Frederick William managed to add largely to his territories ; and in an age of degenerate sovereigns he was looked upon as an almost model ruler. His son, Frederick, aspired to royal dignity, and in 1701, having obtained the emperor’s assent, was crowned king of Prussia. The extravagance of Frederick drained the resources of his state, but this was amply atoned for by the rigid economy of Frederick W'illiam I., who not only paid off the debts accumulated by his father, but amassed an enormous treasure. He so organized all branches of the public service that they were brought to a point of high efficiency, and his army was one of the largest, best appointed, and best trained in Europe. He died in 1740, and within six months, when Frederick II. was on the Prussian throne, l[aria Theresa claimed, in virtue of the pragmatic sanction, the lands and hereditary titles of her father, Charles VI. Frederick Frederick II., a young, ambitious, and energetic sovereign, We longed not only to add to his dominions but to play a great Great‘ part in European polities. His father had guaranteed the pragmatic sanction, but as the conditions on which the guarantee had been granted had not been fulﬁlled by Charles VI., Frederick did not feel bound byit, and revived first Si]e- some old claims of his family on certain Silesian duchies. ‘W1 “'31‘- Maria Theresa would not abate her rights, but before she could assert them Frederick had entered Silesia and made himself master of it. Meanwhile, the elector of Bavaria had con1e forward and disputed Maria Theresa’s right to the succession, and the elector of Saxony had also put in a claim to the Austrian lands. Taking advantage of these disputes, France formed an alliance with the two electors and with the king of Prussia against Austria; and in the war which followed the allies were at ﬁrst so successful that the elector of Bavaria, through the inﬂuence of France, Charles was crowned emperor as Charles VII. (1742-45). Maria VIL Theresa, a lady of a noble and undaunted spirit, appealed, with her infant son, afterwards Joseph II., in her arms, to the Hungarian diet, and the enthusiastic Magyars responded chivalrously to her call. To be more at freedom she concluded peace with Frederick, and ceded Silesia to him, although greatly against her will. Saxony also was paciﬁed and retired from the struggle. After this Maria Theresa, supported by England, made way so rapidly and so trium- phantly that Frederick became alarmed for his new posses- Second sion; and in 1742 he once more proclaimed war against her, 311981311 nominally in aid of the emperor, Charles VII. Ultimately, War’ in 1748, she was able to conclude an honourable peace at Aix-la-Chapelle; but she had been forced, as before, to rid herself of Frederick by conﬁrming him in the sovereignty of the territory he had seized. After the death of Charles VII., Francis, grand duke of Tuscany, Maria Theresa’s husband, was elected emperor. Francis 1. Francis I. (1745-65), an amiable nonentity, with the instincts of a shopkeeper, made no prete11ce of discharging Maria Theresa. GERMANY 503 important imperial duties, and the task of ruling the herc- 1740-72 ditary possessions of the house of Hapsburg fell wholly to the empress-queen. She executed it with discretion and vigour, so that Austria in her hands was known to be one of the most formidable powers iii the world. Her rival, Frederick II., was, if possible, still more active. The bitter experiences of his youth, although they had soured his temper, had 11ot quenched the generous aspirations which had been fed by study of the best writers of his time. It did not occur to him, any more than to the other German sovereigns of the 18th century, to associate his people with him in the government of the country; he was in every respect a thoroughly absolute sovereign. Even his ministers performed but the duties of superior clerks. But he shared the highest ideas of the age respecting the responsibilities of a king, and throughout his long reign acted in the main faithfully as “the ﬁrst servant of the state.” The army he always kept in readiness for war; but he also encouraged peaceful arts, and diffused throughout his kingdom so much of his own alert and aggressive spirit that the Prussians became more intelligent and more wealthy than they had ever before been. He excited the admiration of the youth of Germany, and it was soon the fashion among the petty princes to imitate his methods of government. As a rule, they succeeded only in raising far larger armies than the taxpayers could afford to maintain. Maria Theresa never gave up the hope of winning back Prepara Silesia, and, in order to secure this object, she laid aside ti011S f0 the jealousies of her house, and offered to conclude an W3" alliance with France. Frederick had excited the envy of surrounding sovereigns, and had embittered them against him by stinging sarcasms. Not only France, therefore, but Russia, Saxony, and ultimately Sweden, willingly came to terms with Austria, and the aim of their union was nothing short of the partition of Prussia. Frederick, gaining know- ledge of the plot, turned to England, which had in the previous war helped Austria. At the close of 1755 his offer of an alliance was acceded to; and in the following year, hoping by vigorously taking the initiative to prevent his enemies from united action, he invaded Saxony, and began the Seven Years’ ‘Var (1756-63). The result of this War was to conﬁrm Prussia for ever in Results the possession of Silesia, but it was followed by still greater the 36)’ indirect consequences. Prussia now took rank as one of zxfars the leading European powers, and by her rise a new ele- an 1ne11t was introduced into the political life of Germany. Austria, although associated with the empire, could no longer feel sure of her predominance, and it was inevitable that the jealousies of the two states should lead to a ﬁnal conflict for supremacy. Even before the Seven Years’ Var there were signs that the German people were tired of in- cessant imitation of France, for in literature they welcomed the early efforts of Klopstock, Wieland, and Lessing ; but the movement received a powerful impulse from the great deeds of Frederick. The nation, as a whole, was proud of his heroic courage, his splendid military qualities, and his beneﬁcent rule, and began, for the ﬁrst time since the Thirty Years’ ‘Var, to feel that it might once more assume a commanding place in the world. This stir of life ulti- mately revealed itself in the outburst of philosophic and literary activity represented by the names of Kant, Goethe, and Schiller. By that time Germany had not only asserted intellectual independence, but had become thoroughly tired of the national disunion and of the petty despotisms it imposed upon them. In 1772 the necessities of Freclerick’s position compelled Partitioi him to join Russia and Austria in the deplorable partition 0fP01811 of Poland, whereby he gained West Prussia, exclusive of Dantzic and Thorn, and Austria acquired West Silesia. After this he had to watch closely the movements of the