Philosophers and Prussians

The Enlightenment and the European State, c. 1650-1800

Outline

I. Searching for a New Order

II. Enlightenment Rationality and European Statecraft

III. The Example of Prussia and Friedrich the Great

The Thirty Years’ War• A deadly mix: “power politics”

+ religious hostilities = disaster for Germany!

• Beginnings: the Bohemian dispute– Catholic Ferdinand II (r. 1619-

37) elected as king of Bohemia, 1617

– Protestant counteroffensive– The Battle of White Mountain

(1620)

• Friedrich V and Protestant alliance defeated, 1620-1625

• The Danish phase (1626-1629)– King Christian IV vs. Imperial

commander Count Albrecht von Wallenstein

• The Swedish Phase (1630-1635)– King Gustavus Adolphus (1594-

1632) invades Germany– First major Protestant victories:

Breitenfeld, 1631; Lützen, 1632

• French phase and stalemate (1635-1643)– France enters the war (1635),

on the Protestant side!– Fighting in the Spanish

Netherlands, in the Empire, in the Atlantic, at home

The “Military Revolution”• The “military revolution”

(c. 1550-1650)– Portable firearms– Combined arms– Close-order drill and

battlefield discipline– New fortifications (the

trace italienne)– Innovations in gov’t finance

• Result - one of the longest and most destructive wars until the First World War! (1914-18)

Swedish infantry brigade formation (pikemen and musketeers), depicted in 17th-century military guidebook

Above: “Star fort” in Groningen, Netherlands

Above left: Re-enactment of TYW “musketeers”

Left: Imperial formations advancing at the Battle of White Mountain (Bohemia, 1620)

The Cost of the War• Mass death from violence,

famine, and disease

• At least 8 million dead (most civilians)– Over one-fourth of the entire

population of the Holy Roman Empire!

– In 1600: 20.3 million– In 1700: 15 million!

• Leading powers bankrupted

• Permanent religious divisions

• Hardships described in The Adventures of A Simpleton, by Hans Jakob von Grimmelshausen (1669)

Above: Engraving from The Miseries of War, by Jacques Callot (1632)

Left: Grimmelshausen in 1641

20-25 percent of Germany’s population dies as a result of the Thirty Years’ War!

Permanent divisions: Europe after the Thirty Years’ War (1648)

The Search for a New Order• 1648 –The Peace of

Westphalia – Treaty of Osnabrück

(May)– Treaty of Münster (Oct.)

• Key Innovations– Religious Peace of

Augsburg accepted by all participants

– Toleration of minority religions required

• After 1648: New interest in “rational” statecraft

Ratifying the Treaty of Muenster, 1648

The Enlightenment and State Power• Jean Bodin (1533-1592)– monarchical

sovereignty the key to lasting order

• Hugo Grotius (1583–1645) “natural law” rather than religious law.

• Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) – Leviathan argues that an “absolute” ruler necessary

• John Locke (1632-1704) – Government a “social contract”

• Voltaire (1694-1778) suggested that government should operate on experience,

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) believed that governments had the duty to promote the happiness of subjects! (The Social Contract)

The Absolutist Solution• Key Concept: “Reason of State”

– Gustavus Adolphus explains his entry into the Thirty Years’ War (1630):

– Cardinal Richelieu describes France under Louis XIV

• “Absolutism”• Monarchs recognize no legal limits

on their power• The royal state becomes the

organizing structure for society• Growth of bureacracy and

institutions – tax offices, law courts, armies and navies!

• Proof: The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) and the “balance of power” system • Religion no longer determines

alliances! Left: Gustavus Adolphus of SwedenRight: Cardinal Richelieu

“Absolute” Monarchs• France - Louis XIV (r. 1643-

1715) • “L’État c’est moi” (The state,

it is me!)

• Russia - Peter I (“the Great,” r. 1682-1725) and Catherine I (“the Great,” r. 1725-1727)– Replaced medieval Tsarist

government with bureaucracy

– Westernized court culture (no beards!)

– Created Russian Empire

• Prussia – Friedrich II (“the Great,” r. 1740-1786)

Louis XIV in 1701

Tsar and Emperor Peter I

Friedrich the Great in 1780

The Case of Prussia• Between 1650 and 1800, the

Kingdom of Prussia grew from a small German territory into a major European power!

• Friedrich Wilhelm I (“the Soldier-King”; r. 1713-1740) and rational reforms– Military expansion– Centralized and expanded state

bureaucracy, (especially tax offices)

– Avoided wars– Subsidies for farming and

manufacture– His goal was to ensure Prussia

produced everything it needed to defend itself

– His rule highly personal – concerned himself with every area of government and economy

Freiedrich Wilhelm I

Member of the “Potsdam Giants,” Friedrich’s personal guard

Friedrich the Great: an “Enlightened Monarch”?

• Friedrich the Great (r. 1740-1786) - son of Friedrich Wilhelm I

• Promoted education for the good of the state

• Personal friend of Voltaire

• Agnostic , but encouraged his subjects to hold Christian virtues (esp. obedience!)

• Promoted economic and legal rationalism

• Introduced reforms in agriculture (including cultivation of potatoes!)

• Cut costs wherever possible

• Emphasized military strength

• Saw no restrictions on his power!

“The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudice” – Friedrich II

Friedrich the Great personally inspects the potato harvest in Brandenburg

Friedrich’s Wars• First Silesian War (1740-42);

against Austria

• Second Silesian War (1744-45); against Austria

• The Seven Years’ War (1757-63) against Austria, Russia, France

• The First Partition of Poland (1772)

• War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-79); against Austria

Prussian infantry advance in the First Silesian War

Rational or personal rule?• The problem: Prussia’s

success in the 1700s depended on the intense personal involvement of the king!

• Privileged military aristocracy over civilian administration– “Junkers” = military nobility

• Prussia’s strength did not last!– Under Friedrich Wilhelm III

( r. 1797-1806), Prussia defeated by Napoleon!

• Legacy of Prussian militarism?

Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Army enter Berlin, 1806

How modern?

• The Enlightenment and society– How “rational” does

society and political life become?

• Was the absolutism of Friedrich the Great an “Enlightened” form of government?