GERMANY 



2476 



GERMANY 



WBALTIC SEA 



/'7"^ / x / . * , v i _ - C_^^- 



Brandenburg-Prussia at the Accession of Frederick the Great 

 Territory Acquired under Frederick the Great 



GROWTH OF PRUSSIA UNDER FREDERICK THE GREAT 

 The territory acquired by Frederick the Great corresponds roughly to that returned to Poland in 1919. 



proved more vigorous than the electors had 

 hoped, restoring at least a semblance of order 

 and strengthening the royal authority. He 

 showed that favor to his own family for which 

 the Hapsburgs have been noted, and by grant- 

 ing to his son as a dukedom certain territories 

 that he had acquired in war, of which the 

 chief was Austria, he laid the foundation of 

 the state of Austria with its long line of 

 Hapsburg rulers. 



For over a hundred years there followed 

 another of those troubled periods, when the 

 royal power was held first by one family, then 

 by another. Significant events which stand 

 out are the successful revolt of the Swiss 

 against Austria; the proclamation by Charles 

 IV (1348-1378) of the Golden Bull (which 

 see), which defined the powers of the electors: 

 and the war with the Hussites brought on by 

 the failure of Sigismund (1410-1437) to protect 

 John Huss as he had promised. In 1438 Albert 

 II of Austria, the descendant of that early 

 Albert to whom was granted the domain of 

 Austria, was made emperor, and for almost 

 four centuries the Hapsburgs bore the imperial 

 title, though each time the electors went 

 through the form of choosing. A strong man 

 came to the throne late in the fifteenth cen- 



tury Maximilian I (1493-1519) ; and under 

 him the Empire became again an entity. 



Even more powerful was his grandson, 

 Charles V (1519-1556), who during much of his 

 long reign was the dominant prince of Europe, 

 for not only Germany, but Spain, Naples and 

 the Netherlands were under his sway. But 

 even during his reign, when the imperial power 

 was at its very height, the breaking up of the 

 empire was beginning. Luther had nailed to 

 the church door his ninety-five theses, and 

 therewith the Reformation had begun. (For 

 the history of this period see LUTHER, MARTIN ; 

 REFORMATION; CHARLES V.). The conflict be- 

 tween Catholics and Protestants was brought 

 to an end temporarily in 1555 by the Peace 

 of Augsburg, which allowed to the Lutherans 

 a certain measure of religious freedom; but 

 this agreement opened up new dissensions. 



The Thirty Years' War. The reigns of 

 Charles's successors, Ferdinand (1556-1564), 

 Maximilian II (1564-1576) and Rudolph II 

 (1576-1612), saw the growth of that important 

 movement known as the Counter-Reformation 

 (which see), and an ever-widening gulf be- 

 tween the Catholics and Protestants. In 1617, 

 during the reign of Emperor Matthias (1612- 

 1619), the ardent Catholic Ferdinand was 



