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Home , Austrian Empire, Duchy of Prussia, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, Prince Eugene of Savoy

Chapter 5 Notes Why were the Holy Roman , the , and the of weak in the ?

• In the mid-, the Holy , the Ottoman Empire, and the Republic of Poland dominated Central and Eastern . – Each of these states was huge and quite different from each other in terms of religion, longevity, and connection to – All shared weakness of central authority, inefficiency of administration, and inability to compete with the modernizing states of and . • The situation in the East was in constant change – Ultimately, three great states emerged out of the ruins of the seventeenth-century states • The , Prussian, and Russian . Why was the so weak?

• The Holy Roman Empire was devastated by the and the Treaty of . • The empire strove for universality, not nationality, but favored Germanic culture. • The empire economically had a difficult time recuperating from the damages of the Thirty Years' • Lacked of the newly created economic attributes of Western Europe – No central bank; no colonies; no vibrant merchant class; no stock exchange; and no uniformity of , tariffs, tolls, coinage, or even the calendar. – Science was at a low point and only in (e.g., Bach, etc.) did Germanic artistic creation excel. • Politically, the empire consisted of hundreds if not thousands of virtually sovereign states of a great variety of size and power. – Each wished to preserve what was generally known as "Germanic Liberties." – These states opposed Habsburg efforts at centralization • The position of was an elective one. – The Habsburgs did not have the rights of hereditary rule – Although all Holy Roman were Habsburgs, each had to negotiate terms with nine electors • The Imperial was similarly hampered. – Along with the "Germanic Liberties" came a lack of personal freedom and political rights in most states within the empire – Most states tended to absolutism but often generated enthusiastic support from the local populace • Some rulers within the empire sought to significantly increase their domains and their power – Often by carefully selecting marriage partners or peddling their positions as electors to the highest bidder – Successful were the Wittelsbachs of , the Hohenzollerns of , and the Guelphs of Hannover • Current ruling (now called the House of Windsor) of England in 1714when the Stuart line died out. • Two of these states- under the Habsburgs and Prussia under the Hohenzollerns-achieved prominent positions and effective by 1700. How did a strong Austrian Habsburg rise out of the Holy Roman Empire?

• Austrian Habsburgs were the Holy Roman Emperors since the mid-fourteenth Century – Successfully made a transition in 1600s from the dying Holy Roman Empire to a strong Austrian kingdom. • The Austrian kingdom consisted of three parts connected only by common Habsburg ruler – Austria • Hereditary of Habsburgs – • Reincorporated into the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years' War – • Ottomans conquered Hungary in 1526 after a long struggle between the and the • In the seventeenth century, Louis XIV incited the Turks to move against the Habsburgs • In 1683, the Turks besieged for the second time – The was lifted after two months, largely because of the efforts of the Polish , Sobieski. • Eugene of was an effective for the Habsburgs who modernized the and drove the Turks out of Hungary • The Ottomans were pushed back to and the • Habsburgs won , , and the former Spanish fighting in the War of Spanish Succession • Prince Eugene captured , , and , pushing back the Turks to borders that remained for the next 200 years. What were some defining characteristics of the ? • The Austrian Empire was international (or non- national) both in its population and in the service – , , , , and • Several provinces had their own diet, with a good amount of autonomy; – No central diet or common laws for the empire as a whole • Common class interests connected the nobles of various origins – Dominated their mostly enserfed peasants • The two unifying elements were Catholicism (the Habsburgs persecuted Protestants) and the Habsburg Emperor who inherited the three in one Person • Charles VI in 1713 issued a document called the Pragmatic Sanction – Ensure the permanent unity of Habsburg territory by preventing divided succession • Became even more important when he had no male heir • Daughter , who ultimately recognized as the rightful Habsburg heir How did Prussia use its small size to its advantage in the seventeenth century? • Small states could play a major military role in the seventeenth century because most were small, and weapons were simple – Most battles were fought with fewer than 40,000 men, regardless of the size of the army as a whole – Well trained and disciplined armies of smaller states could defeat armies of larger states. • Such was the basis of the modern Prussian • had a short-lived empire due to the brilliant leadership of three rulers who did well in the Thirty Years' War and went on to conquer parts of the Baltic – The Russians ultimately defeated the last of these three, Charles XII, in 1718 – Swedish holdings reduced to Finland • gave up imperial dreams. • Prussia was to become the dominant state in and to play a decisive role in world history – Original Prussia was a large flat plain (now in Poland) without natural frontiers • The ruler of nearby , an inland area originally on the eastern border of the Holy Roman Empire, was one of seven who elected the emperor – After 1415, it was always a Hohenzollern • Originally within the Polish kingdom, the of Prussia was inherited in 1618 by the duchy of Brandenburg – At the given to western on the Baltic coast, plus some territories west of the Elbe River • Prussia therefore lacked territorial unity of its three major areas – Driving task of the Prussian rulers to create a physically unified state. The Hohenzollerns

• Friedrich Wilhelm, later known as the Great Elector, came to the throne just as Brandenburg was suffering terrible destruction during the Thirty Years' War – 's population had fallen to 6,000 – Committed to building a great army to force greater states to make diplomatic concessions to Prussia – Creating the Prussian pattern of having, but rarely using, its great army • Son Frederick used this principle, and the offer of just 8,000 soldiers to the Emperor to win the right to use the "King" from the Holy – 1701 during the War of Spanish Succession allowed him to become a German king while the other rulers within the empire were How did infuse the Prussian state? • Prussia’s proportion between its investment in the military and its meager resources was unique – Here the army developed a life independent of that of the state – The army was the first all-Prussian institution. • The need to fund the army became a driving force in the economy – Personal income of the rulers was channeled for state purposes rather than to private pleasures – Monarchs themselves adopted a Spartan lifestyle – Developed a highly sophisticated bureaucracy both for tax collecting and for management of large-scale, state-owned productive enterprises • The labor force came from or were exiled French – All taxes, including excise and salt taxes, were used for the army – The percentage of government owned enterprises was highest in Europe – Military needs dominated the market. • The landed aristocrats, called the Junkers, were absorbed into military service – compensated for the loss of their traditional parliamentary bodies. • Junkers were granted unbridled authority over their serfs – Legislation prevented the sale of noble lands to non-nobles – Discouraged the growth of the • opposite of the situation in France • Values of obedience, honor, and service created an all-Prussian identity – Encouraged the submissiveness to the state • King Frederick William I (1713-1740) was totally devoted to the army – Abhorred the so beloved by his son, – Lived a highly frugal, spartan life – Always appeared in uniform – Had a particular and well-known love for tall soldiers – Was innovative in his creation of recruitment and training programs. • The army doubled in size – The of Berlin reached a population of 100,000 during his . • Frederick the Great inherited the throne in 1740 – Same year Charles VI of Austria died – Frederick immediately went to war against Austria in order to wrest from the Habsburgs • The acquisition of Silesia doubled the population of Brandenburg • Brought valuable resources and industries, so that Frederick could increase the army to 200,000 men • Prussia was a "remarkable creation" of these strong rulers. How was Russia different from Europe?

• In some ways, Russia had not followed the path of European history. It had converted to Orthodoxy and fell under the influence of , not . – The Mongols had ruled it for some 250 years. The expulsion of the Mongols brought Muscovy into preeminence. – Russia's lack of warm-water ports limited its trade and cultural contact with the rest of Europe. • The Europeanization of Russia after 1600 was an important part of the expansion of European systems of political and economic organization and of the creation of the modern world. • Russia and Prussia had some similarities in that they lacked natural borders to their great plains and a strong native commercial class. – In both, an autocratic state emerged to support the army, imposing ideas and institutions borrowed from the West. – Yet Prussia was closer physically and culturally to Western Europe, while Russia at this point was more concerned with importing Western European technology and knowledge. – Over time, Russian aristocrats intermarried with their European counterparts, and Russian literature and music became part of European culture. What were the conditions in Russia before ? • Russia was a Slavic nation with a wide variety of peoples. – The Great Russians were centered around Muscovy and had expanded east and north from there, conquering and assimilating various peoples like the Tartars and and settling along the Volga and along 5,000 in . – Markets were filled with goods and travelers from all parts of , as well as some Europeans and particularly the English. • Cultural traditions in Russia were distinct from Europe: – Men wore beards and caftans; women were secluded and often veiled. – Vulgarity, drunkenness, and crime were rife; science and mathematics were at a low state. – The Church had not established educational or charitable institutions, nor had the been adopted. • Politically, Russia had some institutions similar to the West – A duma or council of advisors to the Tsars, who strove to centralize power and neutralize the political prerogatives of nobles. – An assembly of nobles elected the Romanov dynasty Tsar in 1613. • and manorialism were the basis of the agricultural economy. – The conditions of the serfs in Russia grew only worse to the points where they became regarded as chattel, not even bound to the soil. • In Russia, serfs could be sold without the land. – The increasing oppression of the serfs in the seventeenth century led to a great peasant uprising, led by Stephen Razin. • The rebellion was crushed, and Razin executed, only increasing the chokehold on the peasants further. • An independent Russian patriarchy was established in 1589. – A century later, a to correct misspellings in the Russian Bible alienated the many . What changes did Peter the Great make in Russia? • Peter became Tsar in 1682 and ruled for 43 years. – He had spent substantial time in Holland and England, particularly fascinated by their technology and institutions. – He brought back thousands of experts to train Russians in the use of Western technology • The Church was reluctant to modernize and opposed Peter the Great, who simply did not appoint a new after 1700 – He changed the governance of the Church to a Synod headed by a civilian called the Procurator, who was appointed by the Tsar. • The Church was thus secularized. • Peter's goals were primarily military: – To protect Russia from Swedes, Turks, Tartars, and other threats – To establish Russia's military prowess. • In the (1700-1721) Peter won important battles ( in 1709) against Charles II of Sweden, also by using scorched-earth tactics to ensnare enemy troops in the Russian winters, and obtained the long-desired warm-water outlets. • Peter was at war for almost all of his reign, through which his army became modern and disciplined. • The power of the streltsi, a powerful aristocratic corps, was dismantled. • This new army was used to crush domestic rebellions as well as to win . • Peter outdid Louis XIV by building not a but a new city, named after himself, on former Swedish lands at the Gulf of Finland. – He made the gorgeous city his capital and required noblemen to build townhouses there. – It was Russia's window to and on the West. • Economically, Peter adopted to develop mines, metallurgy, and textiles and to build up the navy. – He fostered government-owned enterprises to which serfs were assigned as laborers. – In the countryside, serfdom deepened. • With the right to sell or rent serfs without the land, industrial development in Russia was accompanied by the use of unpaid labor. – In both of these ways, the Russian economy was developed but not capitalistically. • Peter created a new administrative structure for the government to supervise these vast enterprises and collect the taxes to pay for them. The duma and similar bodies disappeared, replaced by structures directly under the control of the Tsar. A new service was created, which disregarded the claims of birth. The new nobles became fierce defenders of Peter's westernizing reforms; however, within a generation, the meritocracy was replaced by privilege.