31.3 Europe: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 6/30)

The success of Frederick's administrative system started Prussia on a path of more absolute monarchy, while Holland and England were moving toward decentralization of government. For many years the Prussian monarch was intermittently at war with France and/or Sweden, sometimes with and sometimes against other German states and the empire, but finally affecting a rapproachment with Louis XIV, joining Saxony, Bavaria and some other states already getting subsidies from France. Frederick broke with that country only after the French king had revoked the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, resuming the persecution of the Huguenots. 15,000 to 20,000 of the latter went to settle in Prussian cities and became influential in cultural life then and for centuries to come.

The Great Elector's pretentious son, Frederick III, took over Prussia in 1688. His constructive efforts were few and concerned entirely with cultural advancements - establishing an Academy of Arts in 1696 and the University of Halle in 1694, which soon became a center for the emancipation of German culture from foreign influence. But the enormous sums he spent on beautifying Berlin, importing architects, painters, etc. almost bankrupted his state. (Ref. 184 ) In 1700 Berlin had 25,000 Protestant, frugal, efficient people and Prussia was spread all over the northern European plain from the Rhine at Holland to the Neman, some 500 miles east, but cut off from the sea, with poor soil and no natural re- sources. (Ref. 131 ) (Continue on page 949)

Bavaria

Duke Maxmilian I ruled through the Thirty Years War as an absolutist, with full support of the Catholic Church, actually gaining some territory at the final peace treaty. During the succeeding reign of the next Elector, Maximilian II Immanuel, Bavaria became one of the focal points of European intrigue, chiefly because of involvement in the War of the Spanish Succession of 1700. Bavaria's treasury was subsidized by-the French.

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Saxony

Saxony quickly regained its importance after the terrible Thirty Years War and Leipzig became a center for book trade, newspapers and journals. Dresden's Art Gallery was one of the best in the north. But Saxony's Elector, Frederick Augustus I, accepted the elective crown of Poland in 1697 and the unnatural tie-up of Saxony and Poland eventually led to the downfall of both. We shall hear much more of this under the discussion of POLAND later in this chapter. (Continue on page 952)

Lesser german states

Palatinate, Hanover, Wurttemberg, Baden, Hesse and Mecklenburg remained as other important states in this period, in which overall there were some 300 separate principalities. One of the most basic discoveries of the age was made by the Jesuit, Athanius Kircher of Fulda, Hesse, when he initiated the use of the microscope in diagnosing disease and found the "worms" in the blood of plague victims and realized their significance.

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Austria

To regress for a moment, the learned Emperor Rudolf II ruled the Habsburgs domains from the last quarter of the 16th century on into this 17th. As the new century began he lost Hungary, Moravia and Austria to his brother Matthias and when Rudolf died in 1612, Matthias became emperor, living just long enough to see the beginning of the Thirty Years War. He was succeeded by Ferdinand II.