PRUSSIA 



4855 



PRUSSIA 



Outline and Questions 

 on Prussia 



I. Location and Sice 



( 1 ) Northern part of old empire 



(2) Geographic relation to other Ger- 



man states 



(3) Area 



(a) Actual 



(b) Comparative 



II. Physical Feature* 



(1) Two well-marked regions 



(a) Northern plain 



1. Part of great plain of Cen- 



tral Europe 



2. Coast line 



3. Important western section 



4. More barren eastern section 

 6. The central plain and its re- 

 sources 



(b) The southern highlands 



1. Great mineral resources 



( 2 ) Drainage 



(See GERMANY) 



III. The People 



(1) Population of Prussia includes 



nearly two-thirds of the in- 

 habitants of Germany 



( 2 ) Compared with that of other coun- 



tries 



(3) Races 



(a) Hiph Germans 



(b) Low Germans 



(c) Non-German peoples 



(4) Cities 



IV. Government 

 (1) Legislative branch 



(a) Landtag of two houses 



V. Hlfttory 



( 1 ) Its beginnings 



(a) Importance of Hohenzollerns 

 ( 1 ) The Great Elector 

 (3) The kingdom established 



i i Rise to power 



(a) Frederick the Great 

 <M Partitions of Poland 

 Napoleonic era 

 (6) Bismarck's achievements 



* 7 i Establishment of German Empire 



Questions 



Who was the greatest man in Prus- 

 sian history durinp the seventeenth 

 century? The eighteenth century? 

 The nineteenth? 



What does the name Prussia mean? 



What is militarism, and what part 

 has it played in the history of this 

 country? 



How large a proportion of the in- 

 habitants of Germany live in Prussia? 



Where do most of the horses of 

 the German cavalry come from? 



How does Prussia's largest city rank 

 ze among the cities of the world? 

 (See CITY.) 



How many miles of sea coast has 

 Prussia to each 1,000 square miles of 

 i? How does it compare in this 

 respect with France? 



What territory did Prussia lose by 

 the 1919 treaty of peace? 



king of Prussia was Frederick William I, who . 

 left an army of 80,000 of the best-trained troops 

 in Europe and a full treasury to his son, Fred- 

 erick II, called the Great. 



The first part of the reign of this great and 

 absolute sovereign was given up to successive 

 wars with Austria for the possession of Silesia. 

 The latter part of his reign was a period of 

 political reorganization and development of the 

 resources of the kingdom, and the progress of 

 Prussia awakened all of Germany to new life 

 and patriotism. 



In the first partition of Poland among the 

 European powers, the larger part of the prov- 

 ince of West Prussia was added to the king- 

 dom, thus uniting Brandenburg, Pomerania and 

 East Prussia. The next king, Frederick Wil- 

 liam II, who came to the throne in 1786, lost 

 to France the Prussian territories west of the 

 Rhine, but during his reign the kingdom prof- 

 ited by the second and third partitions of Po- 

 land. 



In the reign of Frederick William III, who 

 succeeded to the crown in 1797, Prussia was 

 crushed by the forces of Napoleon, but through 

 the aid of strong ministers and an awakened 

 people the state rose against its oppressors, and 

 in the final coalition wars against Napoleon 

 Prussian soldiers rendered valuable sen-ice. 

 Frederick William IV, who reigned from 1840 

 to 1861, was reactionary in his tendencies, but 

 in 1848, when the tide of democracy rose high 

 throughout Europe, he was forced to grant the 

 people a constitution. Upon the accession of 

 William I, in 1861, Bismarck became the domi- 

 nant figure in state affairs. How he brought 

 about the formation of the late German Empire, 

 with Prussia at the head, is told in these vol- 

 umes in the biography of the statesman, on page 

 752. William II was the last king of Prussia and 

 the last of the Ilohenzollern dynasty. See WIL- 

 LIAM II 



Consult James' Principles of Prussian Admin- 

 istration; Von Btllow's Imperial Germany; Red- 

 daway's Frederick the Great and the Rite of 

 Prussia. 



Itrlntni Subject*. The following articles in 

 these volumes may be consulted in connection 

 with a study of Prussia, For geographic 

 tures and for the later historical development, see 

 lists with article GERMANY. 



Alx-la-Chapelle 



Aitona 



Barmen 



Berlin 



Bonn 



Breslau 



QUMl 



Charlottenburg 

 Cologne 



Pan 7. IK 



Dortmund 

 Duisburg 



