What Was Prussia?

hello and welcome to fire of learning I'm Justin Prussia an impressive German military power of the 18th and 19th centuries it stands out in history and for good reason but what was it exactly well according to the French writer Hotere who lived with the Prussians for a while whereas some states possess an army the Prussian army possesses a state woody and I'm not sure I'd disagree with it but more precisely what was Prussia was it a part of the Holy Roman Empire was at the predecessor state of modern Germany or was it just its own thing the answer is yes [Music] before we begin I would like to thank arbitrates marshal strong Clint Potter hazmat Derek Hardeep Singh and Robert bocas for being a most recent supporters on patreon they join these supporters who make these videos possible so Russia when we think of pressure the images that come to mind are I would assume mostly from the 18th century the flag with the Black Eagle which wasn't actually adopted until later Frederick the Great being a Spartan in the morning and an Athenian in the evening again bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum the bomb the bomb and things such as that this is the pressure that I'm going to be explaining but to truly understand it we have to talk about what came before and after this period as well Prussia's origins lie in the Middle Ages the original Prussians called the old Prussians were in fact not Germans but rather in indigenous Baltic people during the time in question the 13th century the people of this region along with being nuisances who raided in nearby states were the last pagans of Europe in the age of crusading this was noticed and it presented European rulers with an opportunity to expand into the region expeditions into the Baltic what is now countries like Latvia and Lithuania were undertaken and were the main part of what were called in northern Crusades during these Crusades the Polish attempted to seize the region but were at first largely unsuccessful subsequently they called upon a group of German Crusader Knights called the Teutonic order to assist them and take in the region these Knights were more successful it was brutal merciless warfare that lasted for decades but gradually the area was subjugated as the conquest continued over the 13th and 14th century this was the formation of the deutsche Orden stop or the state of the Teutonic order under the rule of these Knights the area became subject to a large amount of German migration and a period known as Austan seed loom the eastward expansion German expansion into the territory for the most part erased the native culture the natives were expected to assimilate and the area became German and culture and tongue and religion and in rule now as pagan resistance began to wane the Knights purpose was in theory fulfilled however and hostility developed with their neighbors their Catholic neighbors especially Poland pressure would be a complicated problem for Poland up through the Second World War and the region is still a little bit complicated for a time though Poland had the upper hand in 1410 Poland won a major victory over the Knights at the Battle of Grunwald also known as Tannenberg from which the order would never recover a few decades later part of Prussia was ceded to Poland and the other part became nominally a FIFA Poland although the order was largely free to run its own affairs it is in 1525 that a lot of important changes started occurring this was the age when the Holy Roman Empire was the stage for a revolution of great importance led by Martin Luther the Protestant Reformation in 1525 the headmaster of the Teutonic order Albert of Prussia a member of the brandenburg Ansbach branch of the House of Hohenzollern became the first European ruler to accept the Reformation Albert formed the Duchy of Prussia fashioned himself of course as the Duke forced the order to convert or exiled them and pledged loyalty to the king of Poland to ensure that he and his descendants were able to hold on to this position and this worked in 1618 Johann Sigismund also of the House of Hohenzollern became a Duke of Prussia importantly Johann Sigismund was also already the elector of Brandenburg a state within the Holy Roman Empire as well as other territories in the Rhineland I'll explain the Holy Roman Empire more in a minute consequently brandenburg or brandenburg as it's pronounced in english and prussia were united under one ruler prussia was still however technically a vassal to poland and again brandenburg was a part of the holy roman empire so the separate territories were under one ruler but split between two separate countries but then the Holy Roman Empire wasn't really a country in the same way that Poland was yeah this area of history can get confusing fairly easily but I'll do my best to elaborate here brandenburg-prussia was rocked fairly heavily in the 30 Years War of 1618 to 1648 as was most all of Germany as huge portions of the population were killed but it came out of the war still intact in 1657 during the second northern war between sweden and poland among other powers under the great elector Frederick William Prussia gained its sovereignty in the Treaty of Bromberg brandenburg-prussia had threatened to side against Poland with Sweden but Poland offered it its independence if it came back to its side to which the great elector agreed Prussia itself was now a free territory but Brandenburg and the associated territories were still a part of the Holy Roman Empire in 1701 the son of the great elector Frederick the 3rd decided that being is simply a Duke was no longer befitting and because Prussia was no longer a mere vassal of Poland decided that he would be king however the Holy Roman Emperor and king of Poland did not quite like this Poland did not like this because half of what was once part of the Teutonic state royal Prussia was fully a part of their kingdom recall of course Poland had taken the region in the 15th century the Holy Roman Emperor did not like this because Brandenburg was still a part of the Empire even though Prussia was not let's now elaborate more on the Holy Roman Empire the Holy Roman Empire is again because of Voltaire often described as having been not holy nor Roman nor an empire this was less true in the past but by this period this was certainly true the 30 Years War had been devastating to the Empire and prevented it from becoming a true Empire or even a true nation-state in the modern sense rather the Holy Roman Empire was a loose collection of fragmented territories that shared a nominal ruler Holy Roman Emperor who had in reality very little power over the hundreds and eventually nearly 2,000 autonomous and semi-autonomous states within the empire following 1648 some of these states were the size of towns and monasteries by the way I don't want to make a mistake of saying that the Holy Roman Empire was an ineffective mess it was certainly not an empire which could project power beyond its own borders or anything like that at least not anymore but it had lasted since the reign of at least out of the first but many historians would say Charlemagne so either 800 or 962 ad something like that and so I do like to point out that even in this time period there was a method to the madness otherwise there would have just been a total collapse especially after the 30 Years War anyway Brandenburg was among these many states it was among the handful of major states within the Empire and therefore nominally subject to the holy roman emperor who claimed the title king of the romans accordingly to avoid complications and to ease the fears of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold that there would be another person claiming to be a king in his domain and to ease the concerns of Poland that there was a person claiming to be a king of a land that might include the part of Prussia it owned Frederick a third decided to call himself King in Prussia a clever way of being able to call himself a king while bypassing the problems that would arise from doing so in this very fragmented place in time so again was pressure a part of the Holy Roman Empire yes and no Brandenburg was Prussia itself was not Prussia was an independent country the two territories were held together by a personal union of Frederick the third at this time who now as king became Frederick the first rule passed to Frederick William of the first remembered as the soldier king who ruled from 1713 to 1740 his efforts turned Prussia into a military power though during his reign it was hardly ever involved in war this would not be the case for his son Frederick the second or Frederick the Great who benefited enormous Lee from this military buildup and was able to impressively defend a Prussia from invasion and during seven years war in which it fought not only other major powers but other members within the Holy Roman Empire most notably Austria it was also Frederick the Great who change the title from King in Prussia to King of Prussia as he became an enemy of Poland and participated along with Austria and Russia in its partition during which he claimed the territory of royal Prussia there by linking brandenburg with what was a dookle Russia at this point it wasn't a huge issue as the king of other lands notably England and Denmark were also the rulers of territories within the empire as well so hopefully it's clear now how Prussia was both a part of the Holy Roman Empire and also its own thing but how does it relate to what would become Germany well after Frederick the Great's death in 1786 Prussia would remain a major power during the Napoleonic Wars a few decades later however it did suffer a number of defeats alongside the rest of the German nations and frankly Europe Napoleon invaded much of what is now Germany his invasion led the Archduke of Austria who is also Holy Roman Emperor to dissolve the Holy Roman Empire once and for all Napoleon reorganized the fragmented states of the former Holy Roman Empire into a collection of larger puppet States called the Confederation of the Rhine the Napoleon was defeated thanks in part to Prussia and Austria in 1815 the German people decided not to revive the old Holy Roman Empire instead they formed the German Confederation the German Confederation was kind of an imitation of the Holy Roman Empire although it was slightly more cohesive this Confederation however was not the last the 19th century was an age when the spirit of nationalism swept across Europe and this certainly was the case in Germany there were attempts to create a single German nation as early as the mid 19th century though they failed but still many now began to realize that it was likely inevitable the question was who would take charge of forming such a German nation the issue was that there were at this time two major German powers Prussia and Austria Austria was the traditional the German people's but Prussia had arisen as a powerful challenger in the austro-prussian war of 1866 the issue was settled and Prussia came out on top a few years later by 1871 the German Empire was proclaimed under its new emperor or Kaiser Wilhelm the first and his esteemed the Chancellor Otto von Bismarck Austria would remain a separate Empire and today remains a separate country so to summarize this is Prussia's relation to germany it was the state which brought the fragmented states that were left over from the former Holy Roman Empire into a single nation Germany with the former King of Prussia as Germany's Emperor and so that is Prussia in a nutshell hopefully have cleared up some of the confusion surrounding its place in history because it does take some explaining if you'd like a more informative look into German history I've done a two-part documentary on the history of Germany which covers it from ancient times right down to today either way I hope you enjoyed this video if you did then I invite you to come check out the rest of fire of learning and to subscribe to keep up with more videos like this in the future to help with the cost of production fire of learning does take donations on a patreon the link to which you can find in the description you can support the channel with as little as a 1 dollar contribution however is simply subscribing to our YouTube channel for free is also a large help a special thanks to our patreon supporter is listed here we are also on Instagram Facebook and Twitter so come check us out there to danke for watching

Channel: Fire of Learning

Views: 616,903

Keywords: Prussia, Prussian Kingdom, Frederick the Great, Brandenbrug-Prussia, Brandenburg

Id: dumUTrqdyUA

Length: 13min 19sec (799 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 06 2019