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Recommended reading:

Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 by Christopher Clarke. Pretty much the best overview text for German history during the periods covered. Simply amazing piece of work.

Frederick the Great: King of Prussia by Tim Blanning. Unsurprisingly this is about the man himself but it's fantastic for learning about the events that shaped him and why he was as successful as he was.

This completely devastated the Holy Roman Empire but a certain state, the electorate of Brandenburg Prussia ruled by a certain Frederick Williams since 1640 did gain some territory.

So a brief overview of Brandenburg Prussia.

It was ruled by the royal house of Hohenzollern.

It was mostly protestant, it spoke German and as the name suggests it was divided into 2 territories.

Brandenburg, whose capital was Berlin, was an electorate within the Holy Roman Empire.

This meant that Frederick William, also known as the Great Elector, could cast a vote on who could become the next Holy Roman Emperor.

This was important because it meant that he could elicit bribes from candidates and it also gave his territories there greater rights and prestige.

The other half of his territory was called Ducal Prussia whose capital was Königsberg which was outside of the Holy Roman Empire but was a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Thus giving it the problem of having 2 different overlords who 1 day may want different things.

Brandenburg had recently gained the territory of Eastern Pomerania, meaning that Brandenburg was connected to the Baltic Sea which gave it ample new opportunities for trade.

Frederick William felt that this access to the sea would be great for Brandenburg and he sought to emulate the Dutch Republic and become a great and wealthy trading nation.

They tried but ultimately a maritime empire was not Brandenburg Prussia's destiny.

The Great Elector also sought to strengthen Brandenburg Prussia's international position by introducing a standing army.

This was a difficult process since he wanted it to be centrally funded and not paid for and thus beholden to any of his nobles.

He achieved this after a few concessions to his nobles and by about 1655 he had a standing army of around 25,000 men.

So Frederick William did not wish to remain a vassal for much longer.

2 major events happened in the 1650s which helped with this.

The Sardom of Russia invaded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1654 and 2.

So did the Swedish because their king Charles X wanted some more land before the Russians took it all.

The Great Elector on behalf of his overlord attempted to resist the Swedish invaders but was defeated.

He retreated, regrouped his forces, and in an act of genius, submitted to Swedish overlordship in 1656.

The Brandenburg Prussians then successfully fought alongside the Swedish until 1657.

This was when John II, King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania offered Prussia freedom from vassalage if it switched sides.

The Great Elector's forces helped the Polish-Lithuanians repulse the Swedish invasion and by 1660 the war was over and Prussia was a sovereign duchy.

Brandenburg was still under the overlordship of the Holy Roman Empire though, but it was progress at least.

The standing army that Frederick William had built continued to grow and by the 1670s it stood at almost 40,000 men.

Brandenburg Prussia was still in financial trouble though, but Frederick William's efforts at encouraging seaborne trade made some headway.

In 1682 he granted a charter to the Brandenburg African Company who set up trading posts and African holdings with which to sell slaves to North America.

It was in 1688 that the great electors successful reign came to an end due to a small case of death.

He was succeeded by his son, Frederick, who much like his father had lofty ambitions.

These were overridden by the need to defend that which his father had achieved, since both Sweden and Poland-Lithuania wouldn't hesitate to undo any of it.

He thus made an alliance with the Habsburgs in order to safeguard his realm against them, whilst also providing well-trained troops for the 9 years war against France's Louis XIV.

When Louis had his grandson crowned king of Spain in 1700 the Habsburgs knew that there would be war which they would want Brandenburg Prussian troops for.

But in return for his support Frederick wanted only 1 thing, he wanted a crown.

Frederick was going to crown himself irrespective of what anyone else wanted.

However, since the Habsburgs now needed his professional soldiers he could get some outside recognition.

In 1701 he had himself crowned as the Prussian King although be aware that he wasn't the king of Prussia, he was the king in Prussia.

This was so that his lands in the Holy Roman Empire wouldn't have a king other than the King of the Romans which was 1 of the titles of the Holy Roman Emperor.

It was also because this territory in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was also known as Prussia and they wanted to be sure that there wasn't any confusion.

So as the King in Prussia Frederick, now Frederick I gained a massive amount of prestige and his coronation marks the beginning of Prussia's rise.

Not in geopolitical terms that is, that was before this, but in historical terms since the emphasis in Brandenburg-Prussia was now on Prussia.

Frederick's reign saw him create the Royal Academies of Arts and Sciences of Prussia and was fairly uneventful until his death in 1713.

He was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I, This was because the previous 1 wasn't a king and so didn't get a number.

The new king started out by joining the Great Northern War against Sweden from which they gained this territory.

So Frederick William was an absolute monarch, at least ideally.

He attempted to control the local nobility and centralise the state but the nobles weren't too keen to go along with it.

1 of the most notable reforms that Frederick William brought in was the school's edict of 1717 which expanded primary education throughout the realm, well most of it.

In certain parts the local nobility were unhappy and resisted implementing it or more specifically paying for it.

The king also sought to speed up population growth since Prussia's population still hadn't recovered from the 30 years war.

He did this by once again emulating the Dutch and inviting many thousands of Protestants from across the Holy Roman Empire to settle in Prussia.

Protestants at this time were, generally speaking, more literate and held specialist trades, meaning that they could provide an economic boost to Prussia.

The reforms of Frederick William I weren't simply limited to things such as trade and education, there were also a great deal of reforms to the military, which stops being surprising when you learn that he's also known as the Soldier King.

It was during his reign that the army grew considerably, necessitating an increase in the size of the Prussian bureaucracy.

Army recruitment was streamlined and tactics were improved.

Frederick William I also ranked serving soldiers above civilians and serving noblemen above their peers which created a culture that valued the army and encouraged everyone to join.

This is why by 1740 the Prussian army was 80,000 strong and pretty formidable.

The size of the army is why Prussia has a reputation of being very martial and has famously been described as being an army with a state or being hatched from a cannonball.

Frederick William I's Reign came to an end in 1740 when he died and he was succeeded by his son, the most famous Prussian of all, Frederick II, better known as Frederick the Great.

So Frederick had inherited a large, well equipped and well trained army and since his father was a prudent man he had lots of money too.

Also he succeeded the throne at a time when all of the major powers in Europe were either bankrupt at war or having internal issues which gave him freedom to manoeuvre.

To manoeuvre straight into Habsburg Silesia that is.

He did this just after Emperor Charles VI died and was succeeded by his daughter Maria Teresa.

She would inevitably be dealing with all sorts of succession issues and so, as far as Frederick was concerned, may as well grab a free Silesia.

This started the First Silesian War which saw a quick occupation of most of the province.

The Austrians counterattacked the next year but the Prussians, with their well-disciplined professional army, managed to defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Molvitz.

This battle actually saw Frederick flee the field, but his field marshal, Count Kurt von Schwerin, went on to defeat the Austrians, which taught him not to run away.

At this point, all of Europe wanted in, and so, war of the Austrian succession.

However, in 1742, Prussia and Austria signed the Treaty of Berlin, which relinquished Austrian control of Silesia to the Prussians.

This peace treaty would last for a whopping 2 years before again Frederick declared war on Austria just to make sure they couldn't take Silesia back.

In 1745 the Austrians confirmed Prussia's ownership of Silesia and extremely wealthy profits and hereafter Prussia can be considered a great power.

So after Austria, Russia and France made an alliance in 1756 Prussia quickly made 1 with Britain.

Frederick was convinced that Austria was going to try and retake Silesia and so he made his move and invaded Austria.

He did this to take its army and money for himself to lessen the burden of fighting Austria.

This kickstarted the Third Silesian War which dragged everyone else's allies, including the already fighting Britain and France, into it and suddenly, 7 Years War.

At first things went well for Prussia but as the war dragged on things turned against Frederick and the Russians advanced, taking Eastern Prussia.

Fortunately for Frederick, the pro-Prussian Peter III succeeded to the Russian throne and thus called off the war and returned everything, which was nice of him.

After France was defeated by Britain, Austria and Prussia made peace and agreed that no territories would change and that hundreds of thousands of people had died for nothing.

With all of this in mind, it would be easy to see Frederick the Great's reign as being nothing but a series of wars but he was a prudent monarch and a reformer too.

He strengthened the economy by freeing up trade within his territories.

He stored grain after good harvest so that when the bad harvest came his people wouldn't starve.

His realm also saw early industrialisation but a significant part of this was because he simply nicked Silesia.

Prussia also played host to the Enlightenment and produced 1 of the most famous intellectuals of all time, Immanuel Kant, who argued that Frederick was the embodiment of enlightened absolutism and that he was so enlightened that unwavering obedience to him wasn't a burden but a privilege.

Frederick's ambitions weren't limited to Silesia, he had designs on Polish Prussia since he wanted to connect his territories.

The Prussians, Russians and Austrians conspired to place a candidate on the elected Polish-Lithuanian throne which they did in 1772.

1 problem, the new ruler Stanislaw II didn't go along with this and started to strengthen the Commonwealth.

As such the 3 powers opted for a different route, they openly and violently dismembered the Commonwealth.

In 1772 the 3 powers reduced the size of Poland markedly in what is called the First Partition of Poland because fun fact, there were more.

The first partition saw Prussia gain this land, Polish Prussia, finally connecting the lands of Prussia with Brandenburg, and finally allowing Frederick to change his title from the king in Prussia to the king of Prussia since now he owned all of it.

Frederick's reign would last until his death in 1786 and his legacy would be to bequeath a great power to his nephew and successor, Frederick William II.

Because apparently in Prussia there was some sort of a name shortage.

Anyway, Frederick II left Prussia a much stronger kingdom than the 1 he had inherited.

It was off these foundations that he and his forebears had built that Prussia would rise to eventually unify Germany.

Prussia had risen from being both under the overlordship of Poland-Lithuania and the Holy Roman Empire to having ripped territory from both and establishing itself as a great power.

Most of this can be attributed to the military and economic reforms of Frederick and his predecessors.

If you had to pick a territory that could 1 day threaten Britain, France, Russia and Austria, then Prussia likely would not have been your top choice.

Yet through the reigns of 4 long-lived and visionary sovereigns, Prussia would go on to do just that.

And much of this success can be attributed to Prussia's professional standing army, which gave it the capacity to punch well above its weight.

Frederick's army was the envy of much of Europe, but be aware it wasn't invincible, as would be demonstrated in the coming wars with France.

I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching and a special thanks to Thomas Gestrich, Adam Harvey, Winston Cawood and James Bissonnet.

If you'd like to learn more about Prussia at this time, then there are some book recommendations in the description below.


Speaker 0: 1648 and the 30 years war is over. This completely devastated the Holy Roman Empire but a certain state, the electorate of Brandenburg Prussia ruled by a certain Frederick Williams since 1640 did gain some territory. So a brief overview of Brandenburg Prussia. It was ruled by the royal house of Hohenzollern. It was mostly protestant, it spoke German and as the name suggests it was divided into 2 territories.

Brandenburg, whose capital was Berlin, was an electorate within the Holy Roman Empire. This meant that Frederick William, also known as the Great Elector, could cast a vote on who could become the next Holy Roman Emperor. This was important because it meant that he could elicit bribes from candidates and it also gave his territories there greater rights and prestige. The other half of his territory was called Ducal Prussia whose capital was Königsberg which was outside of the Holy Roman Empire but was a vassal state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Thus giving it the problem of having 2 different overlords who 1 day may want different things.

Brandenburg had recently gained the territory of Eastern Pomerania, meaning that Brandenburg was connected to the Baltic Sea which gave it ample new opportunities for trade. Frederick William felt that this access to the sea would be great for Brandenburg and he sought to emulate the Dutch Republic and become a great and wealthy trading nation. They tried but ultimately a maritime empire was not Brandenburg Prussia's destiny. The Great Elector also sought to strengthen Brandenburg Prussia's international position by introducing a standing army. This was a difficult process since he wanted it to be centrally funded and not paid for and thus beholden to any of his nobles.

He achieved this after a few concessions to his nobles and by about 1655 he had a standing army of around 25,000 men. So Frederick William did not wish to remain a vassal for much longer. 2 major events happened in the 1650s which helped with this. 1. The Sardom of Russia invaded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1654 and 2.

So did the Swedish because their king Charles X wanted some more land before the Russians took it all. The Great Elector on behalf of his overlord attempted to resist the Swedish invaders but was defeated. He retreated, regrouped his forces, and in an act of genius, submitted to Swedish overlordship in 1656. The Brandenburg Prussians then successfully fought alongside the Swedish until 1657. This was when John II, King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania offered Prussia freedom from vassalage if it switched sides.

Which it did, again. The Great Elector's forces helped the Polish-Lithuanians repulse the Swedish invasion and by 1660 the war was over and Prussia was a sovereign duchy. Brandenburg was still under the overlordship of the Holy Roman Empire though, but it was progress at least. The standing army that Frederick William had built continued to grow and by the 1670s it stood at almost 40,000 men. Brandenburg Prussia was still in financial trouble though, but Frederick William's efforts at encouraging seaborne trade made some headway.

In 1682 he granted a charter to the Brandenburg African Company who set up trading posts and African holdings with which to sell slaves to North America. It was in 1688 that the great electors successful reign came to an end due to a small case of death. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick, who much like his father had lofty ambitions. These were overridden by the need to defend that which his father had achieved, since both Sweden and Poland-Lithuania wouldn't hesitate to undo any of it. He thus made an alliance with the Habsburgs in order to safeguard his realm against them, whilst also providing well-trained troops for the 9 years war against France's Louis XIV.

When Louis had his grandson crowned king of Spain in 1700 the Habsburgs knew that there would be war which they would want Brandenburg Prussian troops for. But in return for his support Frederick wanted only 1 thing, he wanted a crown. Frederick was going to crown himself irrespective of what anyone else wanted. However, since the Habsburgs now needed his professional soldiers he could get some outside recognition. In 1701 he had himself crowned as the Prussian King although be aware that he wasn't the king of Prussia, he was the king in Prussia.

This was so that his lands in the Holy Roman Empire wouldn't have a king other than the King of the Romans which was 1 of the titles of the Holy Roman Emperor. It was also because this territory in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was also known as Prussia and they wanted to be sure that there wasn't any confusion. So as the King in Prussia Frederick, now Frederick I gained a massive amount of prestige and his coronation marks the beginning of Prussia's rise. Not in geopolitical terms that is, that was before this, but in historical terms since the emphasis in Brandenburg-Prussia was now on Prussia. Frederick's reign saw him create the Royal Academies of Arts and Sciences of Prussia and was fairly uneventful until his death in 1713.

He was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I, This was because the previous 1 wasn't a king and so didn't get a number. The new king started out by joining the Great Northern War against Sweden from which they gained this territory. So Frederick William was an absolute monarch, at least ideally. He attempted to control the local nobility and centralise the state but the nobles weren't too keen to go along with it. 1 of the most notable reforms that Frederick William brought in was the school's edict of 1717 which expanded primary education throughout the realm, well most of it.

In certain parts the local nobility were unhappy and resisted implementing it or more specifically paying for it. The king also sought to speed up population growth since Prussia's population still hadn't recovered from the 30 years war. He did this by once again emulating the Dutch and inviting many thousands of Protestants from across the Holy Roman Empire to settle in Prussia. Protestants at this time were, generally speaking, more literate and held specialist trades, meaning that they could provide an economic boost to Prussia. The reforms of Frederick William I weren't simply limited to things such as trade and education, there were also a great deal of reforms to the military, which stops being surprising when you learn that he's also known as the Soldier King.

It was during his reign that the army grew considerably, necessitating an increase in the size of the Prussian bureaucracy. Army recruitment was streamlined and tactics were improved. Frederick William I also ranked serving soldiers above civilians and serving noblemen above their peers which created a culture that valued the army and encouraged everyone to join. This is why by 1740 the Prussian army was 80,000 strong and pretty formidable. The size of the army is why Prussia has a reputation of being very martial and has famously been described as being an army with a state or being hatched from a cannonball.

Frederick William I's Reign came to an end in 1740 when he died and he was succeeded by his son, the most famous Prussian of all, Frederick II, better known as Frederick the Great. So Frederick had inherited a large, well equipped and well trained army and since his father was a prudent man he had lots of money too. Also he succeeded the throne at a time when all of the major powers in Europe were either bankrupt at war or having internal issues which gave him freedom to manoeuvre. To manoeuvre straight into Habsburg Silesia that is. He did this just after Emperor Charles VI died and was succeeded by his daughter Maria Teresa.

She would inevitably be dealing with all sorts of succession issues and so, as far as Frederick was concerned, may as well grab a free Silesia. This started the First Silesian War which saw a quick occupation of most of the province. The Austrians counterattacked the next year but the Prussians, with their well-disciplined professional army, managed to defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Molvitz. This battle actually saw Frederick flee the field, but his field marshal, Count Kurt von Schwerin, went on to defeat the Austrians, which taught him not to run away. At this point, all of Europe wanted in, and so, war of the Austrian succession.

However, in 1742, Prussia and Austria signed the Treaty of Berlin, which relinquished Austrian control of Silesia to the Prussians. This peace treaty would last for a whopping 2 years before again Frederick declared war on Austria just to make sure they couldn't take Silesia back. In 1745 the Austrians confirmed Prussia's ownership of Silesia and extremely wealthy profits and hereafter Prussia can be considered a great power. So after Austria, Russia and France made an alliance in 1756 Prussia quickly made 1 with Britain. Frederick was convinced that Austria was going to try and retake Silesia and so he made his move and invaded Austria.

Wait no he didn't, he invaded Saxony. He did this to take its army and money for himself to lessen the burden of fighting Austria. This kickstarted the Third Silesian War which dragged everyone else's allies, including the already fighting Britain and France, into it and suddenly, 7 Years War. At first things went well for Prussia but as the war dragged on things turned against Frederick and the Russians advanced, taking Eastern Prussia. Fortunately for Frederick, the pro-Prussian Peter III succeeded to the Russian throne and thus called off the war and returned everything, which was nice of him.

After France was defeated by Britain, Austria and Prussia made peace and agreed that no territories would change and that hundreds of thousands of people had died for nothing. With all of this in mind, it would be easy to see Frederick the Great's reign as being nothing but a series of wars but he was a prudent monarch and a reformer too. He strengthened the economy by freeing up trade within his territories. He stored grain after good harvest so that when the bad harvest came his people wouldn't starve. His realm also saw early industrialisation but a significant part of this was because he simply nicked Silesia.

Prussia also played host to the Enlightenment and produced 1 of the most famous intellectuals of all time, Immanuel Kant, who argued that Frederick was the embodiment of enlightened absolutism and that he was so enlightened that unwavering obedience to him wasn't a burden but a privilege. Frederick's ambitions weren't limited to Silesia, he had designs on Polish Prussia since he wanted to connect his territories. The Prussians, Russians and Austrians conspired to place a candidate on the elected Polish-Lithuanian throne which they did in 1772. 1 problem, the new ruler Stanislaw II didn't go along with this and started to strengthen the Commonwealth. As such the 3 powers opted for a different route, they openly and violently dismembered the Commonwealth.

In 1772 the 3 powers reduced the size of Poland markedly in what is called the First Partition of Poland because fun fact, there were more. The first partition saw Prussia gain this land, Polish Prussia, finally connecting the lands of Prussia with Brandenburg, and finally allowing Frederick to change his title from the king in Prussia to the king of Prussia since now he owned all of it. Frederick's reign would last until his death in 1786 and his legacy would be to bequeath a great power to his nephew and successor, Frederick William II. Because apparently in Prussia there was some sort of a name shortage. Anyway, Frederick II left Prussia a much stronger kingdom than the 1 he had inherited.

It was off these foundations that he and his forebears had built that Prussia would rise to eventually unify Germany. Prussia had risen from being both under the overlordship of Poland-Lithuania and the Holy Roman Empire to having ripped territory from both and establishing itself as a great power. Most of this can be attributed to the military and economic reforms of Frederick and his predecessors. If you had to pick a territory that could 1 day threaten Britain, France, Russia and Austria, then Prussia likely would not have been your top choice. Yet through the reigns of 4 long-lived and visionary sovereigns, Prussia would go on to do just that.

And much of this success can be attributed to Prussia's professional standing army, which gave it the capacity to punch well above its weight. Frederick's army was the envy of much of Europe, but be aware it wasn't invincible, as would be demonstrated in the coming wars with France. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching and a special thanks to Thomas Gestrich, Adam Harvey, Winston Cawood and James Bissonnet. If you'd like to learn more about Prussia at this time, then there are some book recommendations in the description below.

See all History Matters transcripts on Youtube

Ten Minute History - Frederick the Great and the Rise of Prussia (Short Documentary)