Transcript Ch. 4 Section 4

Ch. 4 Section 4
Age of Absolutism; The Rise of
Austria & Prussia
The German States
The German States
• There was no unified state of
Germany until the end of the 19th
century. At the beginning of the
17th century there were many
smaller German states (many of
which were part of the Holy
Roman Empire), which spoke
Germanic languages.
The Holy Roman Empire
• The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor
Roman, nor an empire.
• By the 17th century it was a patchwork of several
hundred small, separate states.
• In theory these states were ruled by the Holy Roman
Emperor, who was chosen by seven leading German
princes, called electors.
• In practice, the emperor had little power over many
rival princes.
The Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years War
• The Catholic Hapsburg ruler of Bohemia, sought to
suppress Protestants and to assert royal power over
nobles.
• Czech/Bohemian Protestants revolted against their
Catholic ruler Ferdinand II of Bohemia in 1618.
• When Ferdinand II sent an army to crush the
Protestant revolt, Protestant princes in the Holy
Roman Empire came to the aid of the Protestants in
Bohemia (part of the Holy Roman Empire).
• Ferdinand II was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1619
and the protestant princes saw the conflict in Bohemia as
a chance to challenge their Catholic Emperor. This war
becomes a war between German Catholic princes/rulers
and German Protestant princes.
• Spain sent aid to the Hapsburgs (Catholic princes).
Denmark and Sweden fought against the Hapsburgs.
Catholic France under Richelieu took up arms against the
Catholic Hapsburgs to maintain a balance of power.
• The Thirty Years War started over religion but ended up
being fought over the balance of power. Rulers said they
wanted a balance of power but they really wanted the
“balance” tipped in their favor.
Treaty/Peace of Westphalia
1648
• 1. Ended Hapsburg hopes of establishing an absolute
monarchy over Germany/Holy Roman Empire. The
princes of Germany won almost complete independence
from the Holy Roman Empire.
• 2. France became the strongest country in Europe.
France gained territory from the Hapsburgs.
• 3. Calvinism gained equal privileges with
Lutheranism and Catholicism. A Calvinist prince could
(in the Holy Roman Empire) dictate that religion for his
state.
• 4. Dutch Republic won recognition as an independent
state.
More results of the Thirty
Years war.
• German lands remained divided into more than 360
states.
• These states still acknowledged the Holy Roman
emperor. Yet each state had its own government,
currency, church, armed forces, and foreign policy.
• The German states, potentially the most powerful
nation in Europe, thus remained fragmented for
another 223 years.
Hapsburgs
• They kept the title “Holy Roman Emperor,” but focused
on expanding their own lands.
• To Austria, they added Bohemia, Hungary, and, later,
parts of Poland and some Italian states.
• Uniting these lands proved difficult.
• By the 1700s, the Hapsburg Empire included Germans,
Magyars, Slavs, and others.
• The Hapsburgs did assert some control over these diverse
peoples.
• They never developed a centralized governmental system
like France.
Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa
• A Hapsburg inherited the throne of Austria in 1740.
• Maria’s father Charles VI, was the Holy Roman
Emperor.
• Charles VI worked to secure the Pragmatic
Sanction.
• Under the Pragmatic Sanction European Monarchs
agreed to accept a Female Monarch of Austria.
• Maria never became the the Holy Roman Emperor.
Hohenzollern
Prussia
Frederick William the Great
Elector
Frederick William the Great
Elector
• From the Hohenzollern family.
• He became Elector (had a vote for the
Holy Roman Emperor) of
Brandenburg.
• He builds a strong standing army.
• He forms an alliance with the Junkers,
Prussian Nobles.
The three Hohenzollerns who followed the
Great Elector followed his formula for success;
build a bigger army.
• Frederick I
• Frederick William I
• Frederick the Great
(Frederick II)
Frederick I
• He was the first to be called the King
of Prussia.
• Prussia, which was outside the Holy
Roman Empire was recognized as a
kingdom by the Treaty of Utrecht after
the War of Spanish Succession.
• Brandenburg, which was a part of the
Holy Roman Empire, now became a
part of Prussia.
Frederick William I
Frederick William I
• He centralized the Government.
• He made the Prussian army the most efficient fighting
force in Europe.
• He was called the Sergeant-king.
• Made sure his son Frederick was trained in the art of war.
• When Frederick, who preferred playing the flute, tried to
flee the country with a friend, Frederick William put his
son in solitary confinement and forced him to watch his
friend being beheaded.
Frederick II (the Great)
Frederick II (the Great)
• He was the most powerful ruler in Prussian
history.
• He rejected the Pragmatic Sanction, which
guaranteed Maria Theresa the right to rule
Austria.
• He seized the Austrian province of Silesia
and started the War of Austrian Succession
(because he did not want Maria to succeed to
the Austrian Throne).
War of Austrian Succession
• In the war of Austrian Succession Spain and France
backed Prussia.
• The French Bourbon rulers opposed the Austrian
Hapsburgs.
• England and the Dutch Netherlands backed Austria.
• The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war of
Austrian Succession, Maria kept her throne but
Austria lost Silesia to Prussia.
Diplomatic Revolution
• Maria Theresa still hoped to get Silesia back from
Prussia.
• In 1756 Maria pulls off the Diplomatic Revolution.
• She switches from an alliance with England to an
Alliance with France and Russia.
• The French Bourbons had been fighting the Austrian
and Spanish Hapsburgs for more than 200 years.
• England thus switches to supporting Prussia (because
England’s primary enemy was France).
Seven Years War 1756
• With enemies on three sides Frederick the Great struck
first.
• The war, which started between Austria and Prussia,
becomes a struggle between England and France.
• The War, which was also fought in the American
colonies, was called the French and Indian War in
America.
• After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the only country to
make major gains was England, which gained most of
the French Colonial land in North America.