American Reacts to the Rise of Prussia | History Matters
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- Опубликовано: 19 авг 2024
- Hello! I'm an American on a quest to learn more about history, geography and the universe in general. In this video I learn about Prussia for the first time. I'd always thought it was the precursor to Russia, but it's actually a completely separate thing! I learn about all the William Fredericks, and how they established a standing army that would eventually take on Napoleon. If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe!
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Amazing this video;
ruclips.net/video/2W9JSm0dbcY/видео.html
The holey roman empire came from Charlemange who build the first "european reign" in 800. He was also became kind of "defender" of the pope and Vatikan. Charlemange thought himself as a predecessor or the roman empire.
As Charlemange died, his reign was devided into 3 parts.
The "germam" part when Otto I beame its ruler continued the tradition with the alliance with the pope (the pope was the spiritual leader, the Emperor was the political leader).
That was the 1st german reign and the holy german empire.
Because of internal fight, over centuries the emperor became weaker an weaker unless it was a mere ceremonial position. So the holy german reign turne mor and more from the name of an country to kind of description of a region.
@ikk 16 Will do, thanks!
React to the Punic wars.. They are the most epic battles in history. Its known as the end of the "age of heroes" era. Its when Rome truly rises, and when a titan falls.
I'm so happy History Matters won! I've been a fan of that channel for years.
"I don't understand the Holy Roman Empire" neither did they, so it's ok
Triple oxymoron, neither holy, Roman or an empire...
lol true
Student: The HRE doesn’t make sense
Teacher: It’s not supposed to
@Weebo DX that fact was that later on the individual polities of the empire may as well have been independent, with the word of the emperor being basically nil. It would be more accurate to call the later empire a confederacy at best.
Besides, the definition of empire is murky at the best of times.
@James Bell John Green is trash, possibly the worst person to watch for history.
European history is a tangled complicated mess and also fantastic.
True.
Still is a complicated mess
At lest we have histori even smal canfrey un europe like lets sey estonia hes more history then ani american or african nation
@@bosniencommie1202 African nations have a long history through there tribes I’m from Europe and I know that
A complicated mess is the best type of mess!
Brandenburg is a Federalstate in Germany and a City in Brandenburg.
And a gate in Berlin. And a cake.
Wie dein Name
Like New York, New York.
The city so nice they let it take over Germany.
Brandenburg was also a kingdom
there was also another Brandenburg in Prussia, confusingly enough.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushakovo,_Novomoskovsky_Rural_Okrug,_Guryevsky_District,_Kaliningrad_Oblast
The HRE didn’t lose the war, some HRE states did.
You can't lose a war with yourself!
@@enderkatze6129 what?
@@enderkatze6129 no I’m saying the states in the HRE lost, not the HRE
@@enderkatze6129 and also civil wars
@@deutscher7387 no they said you can’t lose a war with yourself
Bach was indeed "German", but from Saxony rather than Prussia. He dedicated the Brandenburg Concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg, music-loving son of the "Great Elector" (Frederick William) mentioned in the video. Bach met the Margrave on a visit to Berlin and, impressed by the latter's knowledge of music, sent him the six concertos as a gift.
Edit: I think I'll have to go and listen to the Brandenburg Concertos now, so thanks for sorting out my musical entertainment for tonight :)
Thanks for the info!
Indeed he was born in Eisenach in Thuringia. Later he went to Leipzig, Saxony.
Edit? Can you edit these postings once they are made? I don't see it as an option.
@@andrewclayton4181 There should be three little dots to the right of your posting.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_the_Great
'Frederick was a patron of music, and the court musicians he supported included C. P. E. Bach, Johann Joachim Quantz, Carl Heinrich Graun and Franz Benda.[229] A meeting with Johann Sebastian Bach in 1747 in Potsdam led to Bach's writing The Musical Offering.[230] He was also a talented musician and composer in his own right. Playing the transverse flute,[231] as well as composing 121 sonatas for flute and continuo, four concertos for flute and strings, three military marches, and seven arias.[232] The Hohenfriedberger Marsch was allegedly written by Frederick to commemorate his victory in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg during the Second Silesian War.[233]'
His flute concertos are on RUclips.
*"Preussens Gloria" intensifies*
The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was like what if all the states in the u.s were basically independent and could declare war on each other but had to work together but in modern day Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Austria and parts of Italy.
The 30 years war was basically a civil war of the HRE between the protestant and catholic states. The catholics were supported by Austria and Spain and so on while Sweden and oddly catholic France supported the protestants. At the end of 30 years both sides were absolutely devestated and agreed to a peace that did not do much but move power from the Emperor to the states.
France was basically like:
Geopolitics > Religious Unity
and proceeded to kick Austria's butt.
Austria was part of the HRE and Spain was ruled by the Habsburg monarchy.
It started when some peaple was trown out a window.
At the start it was Protestant Vs Catholics but soon when France said "Screw the Habsburgs!" Which then turned it to the "Screw the Habsburgs war"
Just wanted to say really quick, that i LOVE your opend-mindedness, it's a real joy to watch you on this way through history (and to watch your Channel grow). (btw. don't be discouraged if some parts between the Holy Roman Empire, the Thirty Years War and the Rise of Prussia seem kinda chaotic and difficult to understand, it's a REAL f***ing mess at this time.). But there are some great videos on the Thirty Years War on here (for example the Kings and Generals Playlist), and this conflict is one of the centerpieces to understand the forming of central-europe as it is today. Great Video, as always.
Thanks so much!
"Holy Roman Empire Explained" by Wonderwhy could be a good video to watch to give a good overview of the nonsense that is the HRE. Also, History Matters has a video about the Thirty years war that you could check out if you wanted to look further into that
This is why I hate our American education system. The thirst for knowledge that wasn't taught in school or "common core" kept me going.
As a teacher, I have to say that this is pretty much the most important goal of the education system: To instill a thrist for knowledge and critical thinking about already existing concepts. You won't apply most things that you learn in school but hopefully you know the basics and develop some skills that will help you in the real world after graduating. I know that this doesn't work all the time but I am trying. i am not an American teacher though.
@@Osterochse Actually, the purpose of education is to EDUCATE. If I have to pay extra for my child to attend private school I sure hope she receives some knowledge as well as an interest to learn!
In Germany 🇩🇪 we have a Song over Friedrich den Großen it’s called: Fridericus rex.
And in Germany 🇩🇪 we sometimes call Friedrich den 2 „Alter Fritz“ in English old Fritz
There is a saying about Prussia:
"While other states have their own armies, Prussia is an army with it's own state."
Voltaire
Its Most states have an army
But the prussian army has a state
@@birbboi4683 we don't even know who really said that or how precisely he said it... Most likely it was Georg Heinrich von Berenhorst, who already wrote something similar in 1801 and I quote:
"Die preußische Monarchie bleibt immer - nicht ein Land, das eine Armee, sondern eine Armee, die ein Land hat, in welchem sie gleichsam nur einquartirt steht."
A rough translation by myself:
"The Prussian monarchy will always be- not a country, that posesses an army, but an army that posesses a country in which it is stationed."
History Matters is a great channel! They explain EVERYTHING!! His videos are almost addicting. And his sarcasm is awesome
History is largely how, when, and where people interact with others. This means there's always something else to learn to fully understand a topic. It's practically endless how many strings you can pull. Ultimately you should aim to learn as much as your appetite can handle, and not worry about getting it all.
i would like to suggest Kings and Generals and there playlist on the 30 years war
Yes!!!
Maybe not right away. I say she should watch a more general overview-type video first or it will get confusing fast.
Mozart I think
The Brandenburg Concertos were sent to the Margrave of Brandenburg as a sort of 'job application' (hence their name) - Bach was not from Brandenburg and was working in Cothen at the time - Amazingly Bach received no reply from the Margrave and the concertos were filed away in the archives until 1849 (so I'm sure Bach could empathize with you when you get no response to job applications!)
If you're going to learn one big thing about European history, the 30 Years' War is a big one. The whole of Europe chose sides in an enormous war between Protestants and Catholics, and it meant the establishment of most of the Great Powers of Europe and the birth of the modern ideas of nation states.
If I'm not mistaken it was also by far the most devastating war in Europe aside from the world wars.
British participation was very peripheral, mainly supplying Scottish and Irish mercenaries.
@@gf1917 Hard to say accurately actually, pretty close to the Napoleonic wars. The difference is, the Napoleonic wars casualties were mainly soldiers (the armies were far, far larger than in any previous European conflict), while for the 30 years war, the tragedy is that most casualties were civilians. A lot of massacres, religion often do that to people's mind.
The British were having their own civil war, partly based on religious difference's, at the same time. Through the 1640s.
The standard quote: "The thing about the Holy Roman Empire is that it was not Holy, not Roman, nor an Empire."
It's interesting to hear the War of the Austrian Succession described as an obscure European war in America, because that was the war (known as the War of Jenkins' Ear in North America) where George Washington's older brother Lawrence fought under the command of Earl Vernon against the Spanish - which is why Washington's house is called Mount Vernon. It's all connected!
The HRE was a confusing mess.
We're all confused.
What was happening in Holland at this point? That’ll open up a whole new can of worms! :)
All of Europe history does... I mean look at her!
She started a series with Napoleon, which sounds like a nice condense topic, but found out she needed more knowledge over the french revolution. Then she wanted to watch the next video about Jena, but didn't know Prussia, so she watch a video of Prussia, which now makes her wonder about the HRE and Holland...
(and that is with a video which doesn't mention Teutonic knights or thousand other things one could mention).
So I wonder how many video will she watch just to have context for Napoleon! (which is a good choice btw).
@@Nonsense010688 She should have watched the what was Prussia video by fire of learning which goes through all of that with Teutonic order etc but no one voted for it. It’s also slower and easier to understand.
Best way I can describe it is
“An army with a state.”
Holy Roman Empire was basically European union of that time. German speaking countries, Czech republic, Netherlands and Northen Italy were part of it. I also recommend first park of Thirty years war from yt channel Kings and generals.
Netherlands = Dutchland 😏😄😉🏴
The border gore *"shudders"*
The Netherlands didn’t was part of the HRE since 1581 (officially 1648).
@@jobfranschman8436 true but I think it can be forgiven to talk about the HRE more general then in detail when where and which territory was added or lost (or unofficial added or lost).
@@Nonsense010688 Yeah but Northern Italy and the Netherlands weren’t part of the HRE after 1648 and in practice for much longer before that.
As someone who’s favourite period in history is this period it hurts me to know that she doesn’t know what the HRE is.
Same haha.
Don’t be offended SoGal if you see this I mean only well. haha
To be honest , the HRE was cool only until about 1250 and the death of the last Hohenstaufen Emperor, maybe with a short revival under Karl V in the 16th century , but after 1648 it was a sad shadow of its former glory and power
Good video covering quite a difficult and complicated period of history. I must back up the recommendations of multiple others here when I say that you ought to watch the Extra History Series on Otto Von Bismarck. Shows the transition of the Kingdom of Prussia to the German Empire quite well (and with great wit and knowledge).
Basically the Holy Roman Empire was a union of different German kingdoms and dutchies. It was almost entirely decentralized and while they had an emperor to give them commands, they didn't have to follow said commands if they didn't want to. They elected an Emperor whenever one died and, until the Von Habsburgs came to power, the title wasn't a dynastic one. The war mentioned at the start was pretty much a civil war within the empire over religion.
Fun fact a Prussia officer help train the Continental Army during the American Revolution his name was Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. its funny too as he didn't speak English, but did speak French so an American officer who spoke French would translate his commands, but when ever the troops did something wrong Friedrich Wilhelm would start to swear loudly in German which made the solders start to laugh.
But that also demonstrates why this period of history was so confusing, because the Continental Army came up against George III's Hessian auxiliaries, who were German, and Hesse was also a part of the HRE. Also, George III was an elector in the HRE because he came from the House of Hanover and technically still ruled that part of the HRE, so the Prussians were training the Americans to fight against a fellow elector state and against Hessian soldiers who came from another HRE state and with whom they shared a common language.
@@StefanWB for sure the internal workings of the HRE are in my opinion some of the most confusing parts of early monden history.
@@jnightingale4049 everybody, historians and the Holy Roman Empire agrees
Prussia, my lady, is the nation with the best land army in the world and unifier of Germany. They are known for their 150% discipline.
50% siege ability by 1500😍
The Netherlands was actually a Sea Power together with France and England. The Dutch Empire had Colonies in East Asia and in South America.
They made a lot of Money trading Spices from their Colonies.
They also made a lot of Money trading tulips. Tulips were very expensive at some Point
I think a lot of people would argue that at this time the Dutch were THE great sea power, far surpassing the English and French and maybe matched only by the Spanish and Portuguese. The Dutch Republic, which became an independent state as a direct result of the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War, where they gained independence from Habsburg Spain, was the wealthiest nation in Europe during the 17th century, both in terms of government wealth and the wealth of private citizens with the highest national GDP. You can see that wealth being displayed via the patronage of arts - this is considered the golden age of Dutch painting, and saw the likes of Vermeer and Rembrandt plying their craft. As you mentioned, this wealth was in large part due to the VOC - Dutch East India Company - overtaking Spain and Portugal and establishing a near-monopoly on the incomprehensively lucrative Asian spice trade, especially pepper from India and cinnamon from Indonesia. But also the Dutch were the leading thinkers in establishing the advanced banking and financial systems that massively hastened Europe's transition from feudalism, and they were a leading centre for scientific thought that laid the foundations for the 18th century Enlightenment.
As a result of this economic and maritime hegemony, the Dutch were challenged by their rivals and fought a number of wars especially against the English/British, and ultimately their defeat in these wars coincided with the rise of British maritime power. Once they had overtaken the Dutch, Britain became the world's preeminent naval power beginning in the 18th century and lasting until the World Wars.
Been watching since you started; you've inspired me to start uploading again. Keep it up!
That’s awesome!
When most people take a look at european history for the first time, it will kind of feel like this:
Imagine there is a show on TV and they were already a few seasons in. And you tune into the middle of an episode during mid-season. You have idea who is who and what's going on. And as you watch you become confused because there is so much back story you don't know yet.
That's the feeling many get
that's the thing with Eurasia, unless you start at the first Bronze Age civilizations your story is not complete
Very good wat to describe european history haha
Haha I normally have to watch these videos on X2 speed because of the slow speech in the videos you react to. The contrast in the pace when I got this one threw me.
Same
“ I wonder what was going on in Dutch land”. Hmm, that doesn’t sound right.
It is good to see Americans learning more about their pre revolution history ☺️
Okay let me try to explain the HRE
It was a confederation of many smaller and some larger ducies and bishoprics, who all swore loyalty to the Emperor of the HRE.
It is similar to todays EU, with the noticable difference that each small state in this confederation could technically go to war with any other noble in the HRE. It was a very decentralised confederation, in which the Emperor had only few powers, and had to rely on the loyalty of the nobles to follow his orders. The exact degree of centralisation often changed between emperors, some managed to control their nobles well while others failed at it.
The Emperor is ALWAYS voted on by 7 People. 4 noblemen and 3 Clergymen.
This idea behind the confederation was that no one would dare to attack it, its members or attack its land, because if they did, suddenly the entire HRE would stand up and fight. Which was a scary thing back in the days.
The confederation itself however, also only protected very specific areas. So it could ahppen that a single noble somehow inherited or gained through war, lands that were not directly in the HRE itself, and therefore not subject to protection.
It is a confusing mess that only got worse throughout its existance. We germans, for a long time, never saw ourselfs as "German" but as many very distinct tribes/nations. Bavarians, Swabians, Saxons etc etc. So this confederation was basically our first step towards a semi-german nation, even if none of them saw it as such.
If you really want to understand the HRE and or german History, there is a Netflix documentary series called "The Germans", which explains everything a lot better than any yt video or comment could.
TLDR: HRE = a more simplified EU that acted as a defensive alliance against outsiders, Its Emperor was voted on by other nobles, Please go watch "The Germans" on netflix to understand what the fuck is going on. Godspeed and have a nice day!
If you are going to look at the Holy Roman Empire in early modern European history you will need to read about the Hapsburg dynasty, which will bring you into contact with Imperial Spain - the world superpower of the 16th century - and thus the rivalry between the Hapsburgs and French Bourbons, the dynastic rivalry that drives two centuries of European history including the Thirty Years War, Seven Years War and the rise of Prussia
Holy Roman Empire explained:
So after Charlemagne made the frankish empire big and was crowned roman emperor all that mess took began.
His sons and grandsons couldn't agree on how to rule big ass Frankia so they just split it up into the east, middle and west. We are gonna concebtrate on the east.
After dacates of war and no one really knowing what to do with all this land and who would rule it there was some struggle. After the great grandsons and other family members of Charlemagne died and there was no real heir to the throne there has to be chosen a new heir. But who to choose from? He had to be german, but they are so many germany duchies: Saxony, Schwabia, Bavaria and more.
Good that there is that dude name Otto and his father just died and now he is duke of Saxony, "why don't we bring this dude to the city of Aachen (where Charlemagne lived and was also crowned)?" Said the pope and some bishops. The royals of the other german state weren't that hapoy tho.
Anyways. Otto got crown king of the germans/romans by the pope in Aachen and sat on the throne of Charlemagne to symbolize that he wants to be the new emperor. (Let's see how well that will go)
After battling against other royals to keep the empire together the big enemy came, the mygars (hungarians).
They were touring through german lands and robbing cities and the villeges abd Otto wanted to stop that, but the army of 1.700 men he had would keep the 8.000 mygars out of the empire so in an act of uniting all german duchies he brang all of their armies together and fought against the mygars at the battle on the Lechfeld near to todays city of Augsburg. Spoiler alert, he won and the pope was like "damn, that dude is cool, I'll make him an emperor" and he made him an emperor.
Now Otto I. also known as Otto the great was working on uniting the germans more and build some universities. He would rule for some decates.
Now the Holy Roman Empire is officialy born and at the beginning it wasn't that confusing, there were like 10 different state that were united in an empire, but over the years it got messy so the nobles and the pope had to make up a plan.
"To determent who will be the new emperor we just vote for sone noble guy. The bishopric of Mainz, Trier and Köln will just decide a person and to be fair we will there will be 4 more electors from non bishoprics but normal monarchies.
After some time it gut more and more messy uo to the point were the election of an emperor was corrupt as fck and there were about 2.500 different states inside the Holy Roman Empire.
But after some time the noble house of Habsburg took over and ruled the HRE til the end in 1806 after Napoleon abolished it.
"I think Brandenburg is a City"
Well... to be fair. Nowadays the state of Brandenburg has less population than the city of Berlin.
Brandenburg IS a city within Brandenburg. :D
Well that was fairly....straightforward. 😂😂 Well done for ploughing through this - I knew quite a bit about this but was going ‘wait, what?’ at points!
confirmation from a fellow American Prussia was mentioned in passing in my world history textbooks, as a thing that existed or that certain important people came from there (usually when they were doing something in America, France or Britain) but it was never explained what exactly Prussia was, so I never understood that until I decided to learn it myself much as you are doing now
In Sweden when we learn history we don’t learn these specific wars ofc but we go through all of Europe in an overview what was happening in a bunch of places.
Hmm, this will be a bit confusing but here it is:
When the western part of the roman empire (territories of today's france, belgium, england, spain, portugal, western balkan, italy, and northern africa ) fell in 476, there were barbarian kingdoms that emerged on those lands (frankish, visigothic, ostrogothic and many more). The fast forward few centuries, one of those kingdoms, the frankish, took much of the land of the ex western roman that fell in 476; the franks controlled modern day france, belgium, netherlands, western and northern Germany and northern half of italy. They were the first ones to adopt christianity from the pope, and the he, not wanting to be controlled by the eastern roman empire (side note: when the western roman territories fell, the eastern survived, but u probably know them as the byzantine empire) invited the frankish king, Charles the great and in 800 ad crowned him as the new emperor of the western roman empire, basically wanting to revive it, even tho it fell almost 400 years prior. But the new title was holy roman emperor, as the protectorate of all the christians. So from that point, up to the napoleonic wars, this empire was known in that time as the roman empire, and it was finally dismantled by napoleon after the battle of austerlitz if I remember correctly (because the habsburgs, ruling family of the austrians, were also the ruling dynasty of the holy roman empire)
P.s. it's kind of confusing because some countries, like prussia and austria had territories in and out of the holy roman empire, but u could be a king of ur kingdom and an emperor in the empire if that kingdom has lands inside of it.
P.p.s the holy roman empire thru out of its existence was a federation of small duchies, counties, city states etc. and it's centralization varied over time. In the 13-14 century it was arguably the strongest faction in europe but by the time of napoleon it was merely a glass statue of what it was in the past, with little power to project.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff
When I was at middle school (late 80s, early 90s) Prussia was mentioned (mostly due to their involvement in the Napoleonic Wars), but I don't think it was ever explained who they actually were or how they came to be.
I assumed they must be related to Persia, due to the similarity of name.
i was gonna recommend History Matters channel the other day.pls react to more of his stuff,hes awesome .
So, to explain the 30 years war for americans, it went a bit like that (explained in american):
So there were the southern state and the northern state and the northern once were big into Martin Luther and stuff, so anti pope. The south loved the pope and were catholic. Now there was a dude in Richmond (it's like Prag tbh) that "fell" out of a window and like all of europe rushed to get weapons and the north and the south mire or less fought like in the americab civil war, just that it wasn't about slavery.
Hope that helped a bit.
Prussian dude explaining right here.
World War One was the major event which explains the Europe of today. The powerful Austrian Hongry Empire had been seperate in lot of country which was in conflict again 30 years ago. The Ottoman Empire was separate too, and all the forces in Europe had changed. Only the 30 years War and the Napoleonic War was so important to change everything.
How anyone could learn at that speed is beyond me
"History nothing but a fable agreed upon" - French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
"Europe is just like constantly at war". A very succinct summary.
Like the USA in the 20. and 21. Century
Oh, and on the matter of the mess that was the Holy Roman Empire, there is a Video by Fire of Learning called "What where the 1st and 2nd Reichs" (10min Video) wherein the first six minutes cover (in the broadest but very understandable terms) the HRE up to the point where this video here ends with the Prussians. Fire of Learning goes a bit further up to Bismark, but for a basic crashcourse in HRE it's a good start and gives a lot of paths to go on from there.
You could call the later Holy Roman Empire a confederation of mostly german states, that used to be one of many successors of the Roman Empire.
In the later HRE, every state had basically full autonomy. The Emperor had nearly 0 power, but in the end the Empire survived a 1000 years.
Also the Armchair historian has a great and easy to understand video on the Seven Years War you may like cause it eventually sets up the American Revolutionary war later on ;)
@SoGal fun fact Germany as a country is 150 years old since Prussia made Germany.
HRE was dissolved by our friend Napoleon I or more specifically, he sent a peace treaty to the austrians that in addition to other provisions had a cease and desist provision for the HRE. The austrians had 0 chances to resist the urge to sign the treaty for some reason. Then Nappy created a confederation of the Rhine to replace some parts of the HRE.
The HRE was not the precursor to Germany. Germany, if you wish to think of it from that perspective, was constructed from remnants of the HRE but with quite a few saucy bits missing. The saucy bits continued on their own way.
Don't worry about what you said at 12:09. Europe almost constantly being at war pretty much nails it. Kings and Lords regarding their countries as personal property and doing (almost) everything to increase said property is one of the main reasons for it, the increasing nationalism of the XIXth century another one. Think of it what you want but one of the biggest achievements of the European Union is that it finally brought peace and a decent amount of stability to the continent (not claiming that it's perfect, but still...).
I'm not sure if there is an easy answer to the question what the HRE (Holy Roman Empire) was. Oversimplified you could say it was a relic from the Middle Ages.
Back in those times, many countries in Europe had a feudal system, which means that the ruler could not directly control all parts of his realm (due to lack of modern means of communication for example) but had to delegate his power. Local lords were as his vassals allowed to rule (and tax) their lands but had to swear allegiance to the king (which sometimes did not work as smoothly as intended).
While in countries like England and France the Kings were, over the course of centuries, able to concentrate more power and to create more centralized kingdoms (though the English king still had to share his power with nobles and later even a parliament), things in the center of Europe took a different turn. The local lords (and other political entities like city-states) were able to not only keep their power but even were able to gain more autonomy from the central authority over the course of centuries.
This was even furthered by the fact that the title of Holy Roman Emperor was not inherited (like the title of a king)- the Emperor was elected by the princes of the Empire (a small, exclusive group of seven princes, called the Electoral Princes, to be more exact). So, in order to gain and keep support of the different members of the Empire, the Emperor was not able to take steps to increase the central authority.
By the end of the XVIIIth century (the dawn of the Coalition and Napoleonic Wars), the HRE was more of a federation of member states of all sizes (from larger territories like Austria and Prussia to tiny city-states like Hamburg or Nuremberg) that even were allowed to make their own foreign policy.
The Empire was overburdened with bureaucracy and its administrational bodies worked awfully slowly. It didn't have an own standing army. In case an "Imperial War" was declared, the different members were to send different-sized contingents that were combined with contingents of other members into units that had hardly if at all trained and fought together before.
The name "Holy Roman Empire" was given to that whole mess because its rulers saw themselves as the legitimate successors of the ancient Roman Empire (in the beginning officially, later on only formally). In the early centuries it even included parts of Northern Italy but those, like Switzerland and the Netherlands, broke away in the XVth to XVIIth centuries.
Parts of todays northern italy were part of the Habsburg Empire and thus part f the HRE and later Austria and later Austria-Hungary. So they only "broke away" after WW1.
I wasn't talking about South Tyrol that had to be ceded to Italy after WWI, neither was I talking about Venetia and Lombardy which had to be deded in mid-19th century (both of this happened after the dissolution of the HRE). I was talking about territories like the Dutchy of Savoy.
@@serfranke5744 I did suspect that, but not everybody who might read your initial comment is familiar with the history of this region, so i added my little part. I think your clarification is a perfect addition to your initial comment.
@@nirfz You're right about this. It's sometimes too tempting to take for granted that everybody has at least a basic idea about stuff like that. And, as we already determined, (regional) history can be an absolute mess.
If Prussia was precursor to Russia, then Austria was precursor to Australia.
Let's not start with Sweden, Switzerland and Swaziland...
love your videos and history reactions. Great Job! and keep them coming
In a way the realization of how Europe was a never ending mess of wars and battles kind of informs on the modern sentiment in Europe. Where they formed a larger Union to try and make an outbreak of another war far harder. As well as the general dislike for war in many a European, because in the end what did it really bring them? The next round of destruction?
Though of course as in all things, there are many views and complications. And so that is just one of the large lines of thought going on in Europe today.
Hitler in the bunker had a picture of fredrick the great. When Rooswelt died Hitler hoped it was like Caterine of Russia’s death. After her death Frederick saved his kingdom
If you want to be more confused check out Holy Roman Empire, its the most confusing mess of an "empire" you have ever seen.
As the saying goes, HRE wasnt Holy, neither Roman and definitely not an Empire.
The Netherlands( Holland ), just had split up from Germany, due to sucession from Burgundy after Charles V, it had already reached its independence ( 80 years war )
The Holy Roman Empire was *notoriously* complicated, but to simplify greatly, it was a feudal federal empire covering (mostly) Germany in which different royal houses jockeyed for position and could be elected to the imperial throne. The Thirty Years' War was a (mostly) religious civil war between the Protestant north and Catholic south, though lots of other countries got involved and there was more to it than that. It was ruinously devastating and ended with the Peace of Westphalia, where the Catholic Hapsburgs of Austria (part of the HRE, though they also had lands outside it) got the throne - but the HRE was far less united than before, and states like Bavaria, Saxony and Brandenburg-Prussia would fight on different sides of wars for the next 150 years before Napoleon abolished the HRE altogether. The 'Westphalian Principle' is still referenced in international diplomacy to this day, meaning the idea that countries are allowed to run their own affairs without interference (originally meaning they shouldn't be invaded to change their state religion by force).
Yeah. This stuff is really important. The reason we Americans don’t learn about it is because we only learn BC world history, American history, and AD world history that involved Americans.
There’s a really good 6 part series by Extra History that tells you about the man who unified Germany, Otto Van Bismarck. I highly suggest you watch it. It starts after the napoleonic wars.
Also to explain what the Holy Roman Empire is: during the dark ages after the collapse of the (first) Roman Empire a bunch of kingdoms were established in the place that is now Germany. The king of one of these kingdoms got himself labelled ‘The Holy Roman emperor’ by the Pope. This was a collection of around 300 kingdoms that had a very decentralised government. Most kingdoms in the Holy Roman Empire acted almost completely independently from on another, and they often fought wars against each other. This is where the adage that it’s name is untruthful comes from. It was not holy because the Roman Empire (now the Byzantine empire) still existed at the time, it was not Roman (Italy wasn’t even really part of it,) and it wasn’t an empire (since the princes of these kingdoms did not answer to the emperor pretty much ever. Napoleon (for a lack of better words) defeated the HRE and replaced it with the German Federation.
It was actually the German Confederation. There’s so many names to keep track of.
Denmark, Sweden and Norway are also ancient. Denmark being the one that unified the earliest, all the way back in the 900's A.D.
So those survived till this day. Although the borders have changed quite a bit. Finland gained independence from Sweden, Norway lost some territories to Sweden, and Denmark lost the entire eastern third of the country to Sweden, as well as a bit of land in the south which is now in Germany.
The Holy Roman Empire was at its start a very centralised state but due to it being large the Emperor gave land to people he liked and this started a chain of landlords who ruled over each other but as the centuries passed this system became more complex and confusing eventually the people who officially loaned the land from the emperor started acting like independent nations and so it was at that point “not holy not Roman and not an empire” (quote from Voltaire if I’m not mistaken)
@SoGal A way to understand the confusing mess of states is to think in corporate terms. But to tidy things up. The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was an 8th-Century attempt to re-unite the continent. It largely failed, many parts left under various circumstances, but by the time of this video, a loose confederation of German and Italian Princes and Kings were left under a nominal Emperor. Each Prince/King within the Empire had a vote on who became the next Emperor, but since the late medieval period, the Austrian Habsburg dynasty had become so dominant that whoever was the next ruler of Austria was voted for anyway.
To go back to corporate terms. Think of each of the little statelets in this video as a corporation. The King is the CEO. And, just like in corporations, the various kings sit on multiple boards. Thus the ruler (CEO) of Prussia was also the CEO of Brandenburg, which was a member of the HRE. He is thus CEO of 2 separate companies with separate contracts and obligations. One had pre-existing contracts to Poland-Lithuania and the other to the HRE.
It is to be noted that everyone was at this. At about 11:00 you can see the orangy-yellow block that is Austrian habsburg control. This consists of Austria itself, plus Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia etc. The parts within the red Imperial boundary are states that the Austrians have gained (and so have multiple votes - for themselves.) The Habsburgs also have a large wedge of land outside the Empire as well as they had previously inherited the Kingdom of Hungary. Hence the Austrian Habsburgs were the CEOs of many companies within the Confederation (thus voting for themselves multiple times). They also held the Chairmanship of the whole Confedration (the HRE's Emperor title). And they held control of a corporation (Hungary) that was outside of the Confederation. Samer man, multiple jobs in separate corporations.
Brandenburg is land of Germany but at same time is a city some distance from the border with Mecklenburg- Vorpormern,also in the same land exists other town named Neubradenburg and in Mecklenburg- Vorpormern is also exists Altbradenburg. And the HRGE existed 1006 years from 800 till 1806 when Napoleon insisted that the Austrian emperor to renounce the title of holy Roman emperor in favor of just being called emperor of Austria.
Please react to more History Matters. He's great.
If you’re interested in carrying on the Prussian story, and its evolution from Prussia to Germany, I thoroughly recommend Extra Credit’s series on Otto von Bismarck.
Brilliant series, on a thoroughly brilliant politician.
Thanks! Had lots of recommendations for that one, so I'll plan on doing it.
Netherlands and so on were also part of the Holy Roman Empire (today Germany was kind of the base but the HRE stretched from Nothern Italy + Rome and some stuff to Germany, Luxemburg, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria and so on + parts of today Poland, Czech and so on. And also Spain etc. was due to dynastic relations to the older Germanic Dynastic connected, which means: also Spain was one of those kind of autonomous parts of the Holy Roman Empire). Also important to know - and often forgotten - the trade highways: one was the Hanseatic League for Northern Europe (found by German cities with the de facto capital of Luebeck but then stretched from North Russia/Finland/Baltics over Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavia to UK), the other was - also driven mostly by more independent cities states at the south part of the Holy Roman Empire: Venice and so on for the mediterranean Trade Realm .. and both Martime Trade powers were connected throughout the Holy Roman Empire route (the trade highway with the biggest traffic in Europe). To know such things is key (but heavily underrated in history channels), because many things were in reality influenced by these major trade routes. ALL Renaissances (already also the older Carolingian under Karl der Grosse (wrongly named Charlemagne) in the Frankish Empire, later the Northern Renaissance, the Italian Renaissance to these major trade (and information) highways. Also most of the today industry (like car industry) just like most knight armor/medieval artisan industry was - surprise surprise - in this region. The 'blue banana' (most dense and highly populated region with 100 mio. people in Europe) is - surprise surprise - the same region from Northern Italy over South and Western Germany over Luxemburg, Belgium, Netherlands to UK (London to Liverpool) - as everyone can see by a Night Satellite map of Europe. This has HISTORICAL reasons and the Holy Roman Empire with what i added as trade stuff is mainly responsible for that.
The Holy Roman Empire was technically an empire under an emperor. Thing is, this emperor was elected from the leaders of all the smaller states that made up the empire, (though usually only Austria was chosen) and the emperor just got less and less control over the empire as time went on. It is generally agreed that the HRE was a hot mess that was neither holy, nor roman as it was mostly German lands, nor an empire as there was no centralised authority.
About the 30 years war it is one of the largest european conflicts causing massive casualties and involving most of the continent. It was mainly fought between protestants and catholics and started with some guy in Prague getting yeeted out a window in the second defenestration of Prague. The war resulted in increased freedom of religion in Europe which is a massive change.
I thought it require more briefing than what you saw in this film:
Prussia was actually a Teutonic Order in the MIddle Ages. Teutons were invited by the polish duke of Mazowia to protect his domain from invading prussian tribes and Teutons defeated and assimilated prussians but after about 200 years Teutons embraced reformation and the country was transformed into a Duchy. The first duke of Prussia and the last Grandmaster of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht Hohenzollern was from the same dynasty as the rulers from Electoral Prinicpallity of Brandenburg thats why in the future the heir to the throne of Brandenburg was also an heir to the throne of Prussia. Even though the prussian lands were vassalized by Poland it made difficult political situation where half of the lands the Hohenzollern dynasty holded was de jure not independent. The dependency from Poland was canceled during the Deluge or "the Swedish Deluge".
If you want to understand the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) i would suggest oversimplified's war of the bucket video. There he does a good job describing the HRE for someone who has never heard about it.
The Holy Roman Empire was a loose collection of states and microstates numbering around 1800 during the 18th century with varying levels of independence, sovereignty and importance. Realistically the HRE was less a country than just a collection of nobles that pay tribute to a guy who's supposed to protect them and give them benefits. That's why Prussia and Austria often fought each other, despite both being part of the HRE (in some capacity).
With the Holy Roman Empire imagine a federalist state with 300 microstates and every state is doing whatever they want. Sometimes the Emperor can reign them in a little, but most of the time it is like a kindergarten and Austria is trying to be the kindergardener. They fight a lot amongst each other. There are 7 elector counts (more important states in the empire), which elect the emperor, who nearly every time will be Austrian.
Here are my answers to your questions, again:
Question on Holy Roman Empire (2:50): Well, there is a very good explaination in the "What was Prussia?"-Video by Fire of Learning. Perhaps you can view only the part regarding the Empire? There is an old discussion if it was founded by Charlemagne or Heinrich I. or Otto the Great. Well, my answer is, that the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne dissolved into several parts: France, Italy, Burgundy and an eastern part, which is today known as Germany. During the 10th century the rulers of these did several treaties on how to work together. Otto had married the widow of the Italian king and had became King of Italy. And the King of Burgundy had guarantied, that the Emperor shall inherit his kingdom if it has no heirs. So Burgundy came to the Emperor within the early 11th century. The treaties said, that the parts should not be partitioned again. Since the Emperor was the Roman Emperor as they saw it, it was called the Roman Empire and consisted of Italy, Burgundy and Germany. Why did they say "Holy"? Well, a simplified version: They thought, the Roman Empire was the last one to be on earth, ending it meaning ending the whole world. This was concluded because of an interpretation of the bible. Bohemia was not a part of it, since it had it's own king. To simplify, you can say, that it's king belonged to the Empire. The princes of the different states had a lot of power within the Empire, but it is to complicated to explain here. Great parts of Burgundy were given to France by later empires and by the 15th century the most regions outside Germany didn't belong to the empire any more. That's why they started to name it "Holy Roman Empire of German Nation". In 1648 there were a lot of changes within the Peace of Westfalia. The states within the empire were allowed to sign treaties with foreign countries and to have armies. Switzerland, the Netherlands and the last Italian states left the Empire. So, simplified, after 1648 you can talk of an German Empire. It came to an end in 1806.
Question on 30-Years-War (2:55): It's all simplified: First the Bohemians and the Protestants feared to by supressed by the roman-catholic Emperor, who was also King of Bohemia. So the Czechs threw his ambassodors out of the window (1618, Defenestration of Prague) and elected a new king: Friedrich von der Pfalz. Thus war began. When the Emperor won, Danmark invaded the empire. When the Emperor won with the help of Count Wallenstein, Gustav Adolf, King of Sweden invaded. After he died in the Battle of Lützen (1632), France entered the war. A few years later it was no longer possible to do a proper war within Germany, because it was so devastated, ravaged and depopulized. So they started negotiations in 1641 within the Westfalian cities of Münster and Osnabrück, the Peace of Westfalia being signed in 1648. They could not do it in one city because of their hate. Some parts of Germany didn't recover until the 7-Year-War began over hundred years later and some cities didn't manage to pay there debts before the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.
Question on Bach (4:00): Yes, he composed the concertos for Christian Ludwig von Brandenburg-Schwedt, the youngest son of Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg-Preußen, the so called Great Elector. Bach was a German born in Eisenach, Thüringen (Thuringia) and his most famous appointement in Leipzig, Sachsen (Saxony) was as Thomaskantor. This means, he was cantor and musical director of the boy-choir of St. Thomas, which today still exists and is known as "Thomaner".
Question on Brandenburg (4:08): At first Brandenburg was a Slavic city, the capital of the Hevelli. The last king of the Hevelli had no son and gave his reign to Albert the Bear. Albert was ruler of the Altmark ("Old March") west of the river Elbe. He united both as Mark (March / Margraviate) Brandenburg. After the last of Alberts descendants died, Emperor Sigismund gave Brandenburg to Friedrich von Hohenzollern as fief. So yes, a city, one of the states within the Holy Roman Empire, today one of the german federal states, a cake and even a city within Kentucky, USA are all named Brandenburg.
Question on the end of the Holy Roman Empire (6:40): You didn't miss it. They did not explain. The 30-Years-War ended in 1648 with the peace of Westfalia, which became part of the constitutional laws and treaties of the Holy Roman Empire. The Swedish got the half of the duchies of Pomerania, Brandenburg the other half. Brandenburg also got some territories ruled by bishops: Magdeburg, Minden, Halberstadt and Cammin, because the Hohenzoller were the rightful heirs to whole Pomerania and Frederick William claimed compensation. All the little states of the Holy Roma Empire got the rights to sign treaties with foreign states and to have armies. A few states in the west were given to France and a new Electorate was founded. The Netherlands, Switzerland and the last Italian states were no longer members of the empire, which didn't end in 1648. It ended in 1806. They didn't say it in the video on Napoleon and Austerlitz, but Napoleon used pressure and Emperor Franz II. abdicated and dissolved the Holy Romen Empire. Then Franz founded the Austrian Empire to be Emperor Franz I. of Austria. Before this, Austria was an Archduchy within the Holy Roman Empire.
There are some mistakes in this video. I'lll write on that in another Comment.
Prussia , Austria and Russia
in 1772 : „who wants a slice of Poland ? Here, help yourself!“
in 1793 : „Second rounds anyone? Don’t mind if I do!“
In 1795: „oh , there‘s barely any left , let’s eat the rest while it’s still fresh“
The Holy Roman Empire was the most powerful realm in Medieval Europe. It included all of Modern-day Germany, Modern-day Czech Republic, Modern-day Netherlands, Modern-day Belgium, Modern-day Switzerland, Modern-day Austria, Modern-day Slovenia and large parts of Italy and Southeastern and Eastern France.
But while other realms in Europe left their Feudal past behind and centralized around their Kings or their noble dominated Parliaments, the Holy Roman Empire did the opposite. The Vassals of the Emperor became so powerful that they became de-facto independent. This process became irreversible after the end of the 30-years war, which the Emperor lost
The Holy Roman Empire was like a very, very federal nation, in which the president (here: emperor) didn't have much power and the state governors (here: counts and dukes) did as they pleased. Imagine a USA where state governors (here: electors) get to elect the next president.
Hello, it's great job thanks god bless you and bless American people
My family tradition is to use the name of William..William junior William senior and wiliam as a second first name
The Brandenburg is in Berlin the Brandenburg Gate.
Something to keep in mind when watching videos like this, explaining European wars ranging from the Middle Ages to the Napoleonic era, is that these countries were ruled by royal families rather than democratic governments. It's a hard thing to wrap your head around when you come from countries like the USA where a constitution and representation have always existed. France, Prussia, Russia, and Austria at that time were not so much nations at this time but landed estates run by a particular royal family. Just as the founder of a a business will expand their enterprise and take over the competition, so would the people who rule these nations. the toiling peasants bound by land by feudal systems had no say in the matter.
The Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was initially founded in 962 by Otto I. He was the king of Germany and conquered the Kingdom of Italy and the Pope crowned him Holy Roman Emperor.
By the 17th century however the HRE wasn’t really a unified state, but rather a loose confederation of hundreds of individual kingdoms, principalities, duchies and bishoprics.
So what you need to know is in the 17th century each member state was basically independent, but each one had its own rights and obligations.
History Matters actually did a video on how the empire worked in the 17th century actually:
Here’s the link to it:
m.ruclips.net/video/C8Fd7RSNK0s/видео.html
The Dutch we're basically a poor mans Great Britain. A colonial power, great navy, but not enough manpower to fight in great European wars, at least not as effectively as others who had more land and men! As they were next to France and not an island nation the dutch power was doomed to collapse as France didn't like any other powers growing strength in Europe to contest them! The Dutch were once Britain's rival, and that in itself shows how far they got and also shows why Prussia idolised them to some degree!! The Dutch are another fan favourite of the period, not as much as Prussia, but loved non the less! God bless both my 'Prussian' and Dutch counterparts!!
Hello, it's very nice video thanks god bless you and bless American people
In the UK our schools basically taught us how to rule the Empirical territories and rule the world, well a fair bit of it. But by the 1960's most of that was over, so it was getting ready for being in Europe something most of the working people of the UK were against! The Politicians had to sell being in the EU to us, then called the EEC. But it finally came in handy and we made a few quid (quid=pounds, money) until laws made in Brussels were telling us what to do, over our parliament, that's why many Brits got mad and decided that the EU can go hang itself. We wanted the trade not interference with our own laws.
The original reason for the EEC= EU was to stop us going to war with the French and Germans in Belgium who were always picking on Poland for some reason, we said Nein! or Non! And showed them two fingers - known as direction for sex and travel or to denote to the French we still had fingers to fire bows at them with - as well as go forth and multiply!- (See Henry V Battle of Angincourt). We still have links with our continental cousins for shared security detail and boarder controls as well as trade, we didn't stop trading we simply said "non merci" to their idea of political controls by unelected commissioners of the EU.
Holy Roman Empire wasn't a precursor to Germany, was a precursor to the European Union, a supra-national organization, but With an electoral monarchy instead of democracy.
Brandenburg-Prussia was a country, with the territory of Brandenburg inside the HRE, but the territory of East Prussia outside the HRE. It wasn't requiere to have all your territories inside the HRE.
Dutchland XD. It was the Dutch Republic a.k.a. The Netherlands which was called the Dutch Republic at this point. You should look some stuff up about this little nation that has often been overlooked as a colonial power.
Both sides of my family have roots in Eastern Prussia, greetings
Just watched your video on the rise of prussia, the basic thing about europe is everything in the last 1,500years has been multi layer power plays happening all at once. Makes understanding it messy and complicated, plus the added twist all the royal families were all related in way or another.
The best way to imagine the HRE is that it was a feudal society with the equivalent of a lame duck president for the Emperor, but no one noble was ever powerful enough to fully usurp the title, so the most powerful families passed it around, on the death of the holder.
Another way to think of it for an American could be that it is an undemocratic equivalent to what the Confederacy thought the US should be. I.e. the states have more power than the central government.
The HRE is essentially all of Central Europe united loosely united under a single monarch who is elected for life. The Empire is remnant of Charlemagne’s Empire. Brandenburg was one 7 electorates. Unlike the other princes of the HRE the electorates had an additional duty of selecting the next emperor upon the death of the current one giving them greater prestige over other princes. In theory the electorates could select any one but in practiced they were always coerced into electing the whoever was the Archduke of Austria (another HRE Prince) who also happened to be the King and Electorate of Bohemia
The Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by Napoleon, after he had unified the 3 crowns of Charlamane, when he was Emperor of France, and had conquered Northan Italy and the central german states. Once Napoleon dissolved the HRE, he then created the Confereation of the Rheine, which would then be dissolved after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. However, it would serve as a framework for the later unification of Germany in 1870. A good place to get a basic start to european history would be the fall of the Roman Empire, and the Rise of Charlamane. He established the Holy Roman Empire, as a replacement for the collapsed Western Roman Empire. Upon his death, as was Frankish tradition, he empire was split between his 3 sons, one rules the western portion (the foundation of France), one the southern portion (foundation of Italy) and the 3rd the eastern portion (foundation of Germany). This period in many ways is the foundation of almost all European history since (with the exception of Islamic influence in eastern Europe and Spain).
"I always though it was the precursor to Russia..."
Well about that. There is actually an enclave of the Russian Federation called Kaliningrad that sits between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic sea that is in the historic region of Prussia. This city was formerly known as Konigsberg and was the capital of the Duchy/Kingdom of Prussia for hundreds of years.
Following WW2, the Soviet Union annexed the territory and subsequently expelled the remaining German population from the city. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, with a large ethnic Russian population and being an extremely important port for the former-Soviet Navy, neither Poland or Lithuania pushed for the city to pass into their ownership so it remained part of the Russian Federation.
Many other states such as the netherlands, denmark and switzerland where also well established by this point. The video just wanted to emphasize the great powers, the 5 mentioned actually dominated the era after Frederick the Great. At the time of these events (17th c) the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, Poland-Lithuania and Sweden were also powers.
As a Dutch guy, I'll be totally unbiased and say that what was going on with the Dutch around this time is really interesting. Talking about tiny countries punching above their weight.
Another reason why the map looks so open is that Germany and Italy still haven't formed. Sure Germany is kind of united under the Holy Roman Empire. But the HRE was such a loose federation that was basically a legal formality by this point, something that carried a lot of prestige but in reality its hundreds of constituent parts were independent states. Italy wasn't even formally united. When this whole disunited middle-ground of Europe finally did unite it shook Europe's and the world's power balance.
Regarding the countries that exist now and you did not see them on the map: most of them existed but were either not shown or a part of some larger country but they already had their distinct culture, heritage and ethnicity mostly from medieval times. (it is important to remember that nation and nationality is a modern construct of last circa 200 years). So France, Britain, Spain, Portugal and Scandinavian countries existed on their own, Netherlands (Dutch) after 30 years war became independent, Poland was but lost their independence as you could see during this video. Habsburk empire (later Austria-Hungary) was a nation of many nationalities that are countries today like Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and parts of Serbia and Romania and of course Austria and Hungary. Similarly, Balkan states were under Ottomans (modern Turkey) and fought their independance I believe in late 19th and early 20th century but again, those cultures and ethnics were already living there and often had their own titles like Lands of Bohemian Crown (Czechia) in Austria Hungary. Regarding the more eastern Europe and Baltics, I cant say much as I know very little but it will be mostly quite similar. Russia of course was already a thing as you could see.