Prussia So Popular In The Seventeenth And 18th Century Essay

Prussia had some hard and not so hard times in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. They had various leaders as well as military and economic advances. Problems that could have been sorted out. So even if Prussia had a few bumps along the way they still made it throughout the centuries. There were some key events as well as some cultural audiences during the seventeenth century. These would include the very First Diet of all the Brandenburg lands and Frederick Williams being promoted from Elector to King. Some of the cultural advances would be that the Halle University was founded as well as the Prussia helping fund the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

There have been many Prussian kings over the centuries, such as John Sigismund and George William, but none can compare to Frederick William, rightly named Fredrick William, the Great Elector. He is so named because he

united the different estates of Prussia and built it into a well built and established country.
In 1613 John Sigismund became a Calvinist, a faith at that time which had a great attraction for all the energetic and ambitious among the German Protestant princes. However, on account of the great power which the Estates had acquired in his dominions John Sigismund was not able to undertake a vigorous policy. The Estates were strongly opposed to his adoption of Calvinism, and his promise to leave the Lutheran Confession undisturbed hardly satisfied them, nor were they willing to grant any money for his external policies.
Frederick helped Prussia by building up centralized institutions, a powerful army, and asserting firm control over the nobility. He also gained control over the nobles by offering them a rewarding career in state service. Frederick had also allied first with Sweden and then with Poland, then in around 1610 Prussia emerged no longer in fief under the Polish crown.
Frederick William was also very sly in his dealings with other countries. He first allied with the Dutch against the French, then he used French money to support Louise XIV, and he also secretly allied with Leopold against France. Along this time Prussia also benefited by Louis XIV's ejection of the Edict of Nantes as it made thousands of skilled Huguenot workers seek refuge in Prussia. Frederick also did all that he could to encourage trade, including the construction of a canal between the Oder and Spree rivers to divert traffic from Poland and Silesia towards Berlin.
In 1740 Charles VI died unexpectedly on October 20.

No more 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'. Several years later, Frederick in his old age, still devoted 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', which can be translated into 'old Fred'.

The lacking name of kingdom was given to the country when Frederick I , the son of the Great Elector, or Frederick WIlliam, crowned himself on 18 January, 1701, at Konigsberg. As long as the development of the internal strength of the country was backward there was little chance of gaining any important additions of territory, even though the great wars of the period made such efforts very

tempting.
What impressed the countries around Prussia the most was its army, which had been established by the Great Elector and increased by each of his successors. Frederick William I expanded it further with a form of limited conscription introduced by 1733. Men were inducted for basic training and then discharged back into the agrarian economy, apart from annual exercises. Military expansion certainly gave Frederick the Great the means to challenge Austria. The Habsburg Monarchy was uniquely vulnerable in about 1740, because of two disastrous wars that left it poor as dirt and its army disorganized. Even more so the death of Emperor Charles VI in October ended an unbroken succession of Habsburg emperors since 1438, opening an international conflict over the Austrian inheritance.
To end off, even if Prussia was an insignificant country at one time, it no longer is. Trough itsmany trials and tribulations Prussia has become over sixty percent of Germany itself, and may one day grow even more. With the help of Frederick the Elector, and his descendan Prussia has suceded in making its place on our maps.