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hi i'm griffin johnson the armchair
historian today's video Prussia's rise
to power
Prussia need not have existed the world
could have done without it but it wanted
to exist no one had invited that small
country into the circle of European
great powers it demanded acceptance and
pushed its way in Sebastian Hafner rise
and fall of Prussia today we'll be
examining one question just how was
Prussia able to climb the ladder to the
top of the european power hierarchy
despite being one of myriad
principalities that composed the holy
roman empire as always to answer our
central question we'll need to provide
some context contrary to what you might
think though this story is not one that
begins amid these slopes of northern
Germany or along the windswept beaches
of the Baltic Sea
rather it begins in 12th century Accra
beneath the sweltering Mediterranean Sun
ten years before the turn of the century
a religious order known as the Teutonic
Knights had been formed being charged
with controlling aquas portholes they
did not stay there for long however
relocating to Transylvania in 1211 to
assist the Hungarians against the ever
encroaching humans during the latter
half of the 13th century the Teutons
roundup fighting alongside the polish
against the pagans inhabiting the baltic
coast we can see right off the bat that
this society of warriors would go
anywhere there was fortune to be won but
there was something peculiar about the
Baltic coast it was a time of
Christianisation and colonization along
North Germany something that became
appealing to the covetous band of
mercenary Crusaders but colonizing the
Baltic in the region of Prussia was no
easy task
the process was significantly more
brutal and involved the near total
extermination of the native people known
as the old Prussians consequently little
information about the history and
language of the original Prussians
survives to this day it would take
hundreds of years until there
no more pagans to take the sword and
cross to and the order eventually became
embroiled in a sequence of wars with
Poland and Lithuania hostilities ceased
after the second piece of thorn in 1466
and the order lost its independence to
Poland West Prussia was taken over
entirely and East Prussia remained under
the orders jurisdiction but was
officially recognized as a fief of
Poland in 1525 Grand Master Albrecht von
Poisson brought about an end to the
order he led converting to Protestantism
and installing himself as Duke of
Prussia in order to elevate himself to
the status of a feudal ruler this would
be an easy transition as Albrecht
already had kinsmen in power and he was
part of the house home and so learn the
ruling family of Brandenburg a small
German state based around Berlin a union
between the two states seemed inevitable
but it would take almost a century for
the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg to
inherit Prussia in 1618 the new ruler of
Prussia a direct Frederick died airless
and John Sigismund the ruler of
Brandenburg would use that opportunity
to finally inherit the Duchy forming the
country of brandenburg-prussia what
followed after this union was the
combined States involvement in the 30
Years War by the time the devastating
conflict ended in 1648 the Hohenzollerns
were in control of five geographically
disconnected strips of territory that's
right border war doesn't just happen in
paradox games it was even worse in
reality each principality had its own
laws and customs and the nobility of
each wanted to retain as much power as
possible
it would take the great elector
Frederick Vilhelm to contend with these
challenges in the mid 17th century and
although no territorial gains were made
though homs' rule did see East Prussia
being liberated from Poland and being
placed under his direct control in the
wake of the Swedish polish war but it
would be the destiny of his son to wear
the crown of a king not his own that son
was known as Frederick the first the
King in Prussia as of 1701
Frederick was a great patron of the arts
and science he was considered
excessively extravagant by some accounts
including that of his grandson Frederick
the Great certainly the more famous
Prussian King before we discussed his
rule we do need to cover the reign of
Frederick Vilhelm the first known as the
soldier king men i esteem above the
greatest riches Frederick vilhelm
declared before long one in every nine
men was made a soldier increasing the
size of the Prussian army 283 thousand
men to maximize the amount of potential
recruits the soldier King welcome two
new immigrants into Prussia even
constructing schools and hospitals to
accommodate this wave of emigration but
this was not unusual for Prussia even
before Frederick ville Homs reign
one-third of Berliners consisted of
Frenchmen in the year 1700 many of them
French Protestants furthermore waves of
Protestant refugees from South Germany
fled to Prussia each year to escape
religious prosecution in Haffner's words
this state created for itself a people
at people of immigrants who upon arrival
found a ready-made state and a
ready-made administration and had their
land assigned to them fertile land a
land of unlimited opportunity for those
who worked hard and efficiently even
though his temper was a thing to be
feared
Frederick Vilhelm was an effective and
detail-oriented ruler who left his son a
burgeoning economic and military power
one poised to expand its reach much like
his father one of the first actions
Frederick the Great took was increasing
the Prussian army this time to a hundred
thousand men a number that doubled
during wartime but how is he able to
accomplish this the answer is Prussian
thrift which involved four-fifths of
Prussia state revenue being spent on the
army as French writer Voltaire poet
where some states have an army the
Prussian army has a state despite what
you might think this absurd investment
in the Prussian army did pay off as
Frederick succeeded in seizing Silesia
from the Austrians and West Prussia
finally from the Polish during the Seven
Years War he defended Prussia from a
coalition that included Austria France
and Russia three of the biggest military
powers at the time military conquests
aside Frederick the Great is considered
a quintessential example of an
enlightened despot having been a devotee
of the humanities as a youth he was keen
to
and patronized his favorite artists and
philosophers Frederic was in some
respects a combination of his father and
grandfather combining the best elements
of both of his predecessors to claim his
place in history in the 19th century
Prussia continued to expand although it
was subdued by Napoleon along with the
majority of Europe Prussia regained much
of its territory and even gained new
holdings by the end of it though
including the coal replete roar at the
Congress of Vienna in 1815 about 50
years later Prussia became the core of
the North German Confederation as well
as its successor the German Empire but
that's a topic for another time now back
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for watching I'd like to thank the
armchair historian team and my general
staff on patreon if you're interested in
Prussian history be sure to check out
our playlist on German history thanks
again and I'll see you next time next
week
you