424 



GERMANY. (HISTORY.) 



embrace the Catholic religion or to emigrate, was 

 already put in force in several places ; arid Ferdi- 

 nand thought he had attained his aim when Gustavus 

 Adolphus of Sweden, in pursuance of the plan of 

 cardinal Richelieu, came to the relief of the Protes- 

 tants. After his death, France opposed Austria; 

 the great elector, Frederic William of Brandenburg, 

 declared (1640) for the Protestants ; Bannier and 

 Torstenson, Wrangel, and Turenne, distinguished 

 themselves on the same side, until, after thirty dread- 

 ful years, the peace of Westphalia restored rest to 

 disturbed Europe (1648). This was during the reign 

 of Ferdinand III. (1637 57). Entire equality of sects, 

 liberty of conscience, the free exercise of all religions, 

 except in the Austrian domains, and the indepen- 

 dence of Switzerland and the Netherlands, were 

 acknowledged by this peace. Among the important 

 consequences of this peace, which settled the consti- 

 tution of Germany more definitely, was also the 

 restriction of the Hanseatic league to Hamburg, 

 Bremen, and Lubeck, the maintenance of standing 

 armies, and a more regular system of taxation. 

 Under Leopold I., who ascended the imperial throne 

 in 1657, the diet became permanent from 1663. This 

 emperor became involved in several wars with Tur- 

 key and France. He died before the end of the 

 Spanish war of succession. The eighth electorate 

 had been established by the peace of Westphalia, for 

 the Bavarian house ; the duke of Hanover was now 

 made the ninth elector. Prussia, in the mean time, 

 had raised herself to the rank of a kingdom, and ob- 

 tained a new importance in the affairs of Germany. 

 Under Joseph I. (1705 1711), the Spanish war was 

 continued ; under Charles VI., the peace of Utrecht, 

 and that of Rastadt (1714) put an end to the project 

 of uniting the Spanish with the German crown, and 

 the succession in the house of Austria was settled by 

 the pragmatic sanction. The peace of Vienna ter- 

 minated the war produced by the Polish election in 

 favour of Saxony, and the peace of Belgrade (1739) 

 concluded the war with Turkey, by which Austria 

 was obliged to make some cessions. With the death 

 of Charles VI. (1740), the male line of the Hapsburg 

 dynasty became extinct, and his daughter, Maria 

 Theresa, assumed the government of the hereditary 

 Austrian dominions. But the elector, Charles Albert 

 of Bavaria, came forward with claims on the Aus- 

 trian hereditary dominions, and (in 1742) as German 

 emperor, under the title of Charles VII. The eight 

 years' war of the Austrian succession was terminated 

 on the death of Charles VI I. , by the peace of Fussen 

 (1745), and by that of Aix-la-Chapelle (q. v.) (1748), 

 in favour of Maria Theresa, who, in the mean 

 while, had carried on two wars against Frederic II., 

 the Great. September 15, 1745, her husband, 

 Francis I., was elected German emperor. The 

 seven years' war, so ruinous for Germany, was 

 terminated by the peace of Hubertsburg (1763). 

 Joseph II., the distinguished son of Francis I., suc- 

 ceeded his father in the imperial dignity (1765) . His 

 first labour was a reform of the administration of 

 justice and of the chamber of justice ; this was fol- 

 lowed by the abolition of the order of the Jesuits in 

 his states (1773), after the example of other Euro- 

 pean powers, by the abolition of the superfluous 

 monasteries, the edict of toleration of 1781, and a 

 greater liberty of the press. The troubles in Bel- 

 gium, and the renewal of hostilities with Turkey, dis- 

 turbed the end of his reign, and he died 1790, with 

 many fears for the fate of his benevolent and liberal 

 plans. Leopold II. concluded peace with the Sub- 

 lime Porte through the mediation of Prussia. The 

 French revolution broke out, and Leopold and Fred- 

 eric William of Prussia formed an alliance at Pilnitz 

 (1791), for maintaining the constitution of Germany 



and the royal dignity in France. This alliance be- 

 came of the greatest historical importance : it was 

 the cause of a great part of the excesses in France, 

 the reaction of which on Germany is well known. 

 Leopold died suddenly, in 1792, and his son, Francis 

 II., continued the alliance with Prussia. After the 

 national assembly had declared war against Austria, 

 the German empire, in return, declared war against 

 France ; but Prussia and several German princes 

 made separate treaties with the new republic, and 

 the peace of Campo-Formio (q. v.) was signed be- 

 tween Austria and France (1797). Negotiations for 

 a peace with the German empire were in train at 

 Rastadt, but, before their conclusion, the war broke 

 out anew. The peace of Luneville (q. v.), in 1801, 

 made the Rhine the boundary between France and 

 Germany ; the latter thus lost more than 26,OGO 

 square miles of territory, and nearly 4,000,000 inhab- 

 itants. The Austrian monarch founded the here- 

 ditary empire of Austria (1804), and the first consul 

 of France (Bonaparte) was declared emperor of the 

 French, under the title of Napoleon I. Austria and 

 Russia soon after united against Napoleon, and the 

 peace of Presburg (Dec. 26, 1805) terminated the 

 war, in which three states of the German empire, 

 Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden, had taken part as 

 allies of France. In the following year, sixteen 

 German princes renounced their connexion with the 

 German empire, and entered into a union at Paris 

 (1806), under the name of the confederation of the 

 Rhine, which acknowledged the emperor of France 

 as its protector. This decisive step was followed by 

 a second. The German empire was dissolved ; the 

 emperor Francis resigned the German crown, and de- 

 clared his German hereditary dominions separated 

 from the German empire. With this begins the his- 

 tory of the confederation of the Rhine. See Confed- 

 eration of the Rhine. 



Germany from 1806 to 1815. The first year of 

 the existence of the confederation had not elapsed, 

 when its armies, united with those of France, were 

 marched to the Saale, the Elbe, and the Oder, against 

 the Prussians, and afterwards to the Vistula, against 

 the Russians. After the peace of Tilsit (q. v.), the 

 confederation was strengthened by the accession of 

 eleven princely houses of Northern Germany. The 

 kingdom of Westphalia was established, and Jerome, 

 the brother of Napoleon, put upon the throne. 

 Four kings, five grand dukes, and twenty-five dukes 

 and other princes were united in the new confede- 

 racy. The peace of Vienna (1809) increased its ex- 

 tent and power. The north-western parts, however, 

 and the Hanseatic cities, Bremen, Hamburg, and 

 Lubeck, were united with France in 1810. In 1812, 

 Napoleon undertook his fatal expedition to Russia, 

 and the contingents of the Rhenish confederation 

 joined his army. About 100,000 Germans found 

 their graves in the snows of Russia. The Russians 

 pursued their advantages to the frontiers of Germany. 

 Prussia, wearied with her long sufferings, joined them 

 with enthusiasm (Kalisch, Feb. 28, 1813); and, at 

 the same time, some of the states of the north of Ger- 

 many united with them. Lubeck and Hamburg 

 rose against the French, and all Germany was animat- 

 ed with the cheering hope of liberation. August 10, 

 Austria joined the alliance against Napoleon. The 

 war, owing to the enthusiasm of the people, soon 

 assumed a most favourable appearance for the allies, 

 and, Oct. 8, 1813, Bavaria joined the allied arms. 

 Ten days afterwards, the battle of Leipsic destroyed 

 the French dominion in Germany, and dissolved the 

 confederation of the Rhine. November 2, the king ot 

 Wurtemberg, and the other princes of the south, 

 joined the great alliance. After the battle of Hanau, 

 October 30, the French army had retreated over the 



