Kingdom of Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia[a] (German: Königreich Preußen, pronounced [ˈkøːnɪkʁaɪç ˈpʁɔʏsn̩] ⓘ) constituted the German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.[5] It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1866 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918.[5] Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Its capital was Berlin.[6]
Kingdom of PrussiaKönigreich Preußen (German)
- Berlin
- Königsberg (1806–07)
Official:
German
Neo-Latin (until 1806)
Polish (only in GD of Posen, 1815–1848)
Statewide majority:
Protestantism[1] (Lutheran and Calvinist; Prussian United after 1817 (state religion))
Majority in some territories:
Catholicism[note 2]
Other minorities:
- Absolute monarchy (until 1848)
- Semi-constitutional monarchy (from 1848)
18 January 1701
6 August 1806
8 June 1815
5 December 1848
18 August 1866
18 January 1871
9 November 1918
28 November 1918
348,779 km2 (134,664 sq mi)
4,500,000
10,349,031
24,689,000
40,169,219
- 1701–1750 Reichsthaler
- 1750–1857 Thaler
- 1857–1873 Vereinsthaler
- 1873–1914 Goldmark
- 1914–1918 Papiermark
The kings of Prussia were from the House of Hohenzollern. Brandenburg-Prussia, predecessor of the kingdom, became a military power under Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, known as "The Great Elector".[7][8][9][10] As a kingdom, Prussia continued its rise to power, especially during the reign of Frederick II "the Great".[11] Frederick the Great was instrumental in starting the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), holding his own against Austria, Russia, France and Sweden and establishing Prussia's dominant role among the German states, as well as establishing the country as a European great power through the victories of the powerful Prussian Army.[12][13] Prussia made attempts to unify all the German states (excluding the German cantons in Switzerland) under its rule, and whether Austria would be included in such a unified German domain became an ongoing question. After the Napoleonic Wars led to the creation of the German Confederation, the issue of unifying the German states caused the German revolutions of 1848–1849, with representatives from all states attempting to unify under their own constitution.[5] Attempts to create a federation remained unsuccessful and the German Confederation collapsed in 1866 when the Austro-Prussian War ensued between its two most powerful member states.
Prussia was subsequently the driving force behind establishing in 1866 the North German Confederation, transformed in 1871 into the unified German Empire and considered the earliest continual legal predecessor of today's Federal Republic of Germany.[5] The North German Confederation was seen as more of an alliance of military strength in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War but many of its laws were later used in the German Empire. The German Empire successfully unified all of the German states aside from Austria and Switzerland under Prussian hegemony[5] due to the defeat of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. The war united all the German states against a common enemy, and with the victory came an overwhelming wave of nationalism which changed the opinions of some of those who had been against unification.
With the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Kingdom of Prussia was transformed into the Free State of Prussia.
The original core regions of the Kingdom of Prussia were the Margraviate of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia which together formed Brandenburg-Prussia. A Further Pomeranian province had been held by Prussia since 1653. Combined with Swedish Pomerania, gained from Sweden in 1720 and 1815, this region formed the Province of Pomerania. Prussian gains in the Silesian Wars led to the formation of the Province of Silesia in 1740.
After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the newly annexed Royal Prussia and Warmia became the Province of West Prussia, while the Duchy of Prussia (along with part of Warmia) became the Province of East Prussia. Other annexations along the Noteć (Netze) River became the Netze District. Following the second and third partitions (1793–1795), the new Prussian annexations became the provinces of New Silesia, South Prussia, and New East Prussia, with the Netze District redivided between West and South Prussia. All the acquired Polish lands remained outside of the Holy Roman Empire, and the latter three provinces were disentangled from Prussia following the Treaties of Tilsit to be included in the Napoleonic Grand Duchy of Warsaw in 1806, and were ultimately lost to Congress Poland after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, except for the western part of South Prussia, which would form part of the Grand Duchy of Posen, the latter however also remained outside of German Confederation, the successor of the dissolved Holy Roman Empire, as did the province of East Prussia and the province of West Prussia.
Following the major western gains made by Prussia after the Vienna Congress, a total of ten provinces were established, each one subdivided further into smaller administrative regions known as Regierungsbezirke. The provinces were:
In 1822 the provinces of Jülich-Cleves-Berg and the Lower Rhine were merged to form the Rhine Province. In 1829, the provinces of East and West Prussia merged to form the Province of Prussia, but the separate provinces were reformed in 1878. The principalities of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Hohenzollern-Hechingen were annexed in 1850 to form the Province of Hohenzollern.
After Prussia's victory in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War, territories annexed by Prussia were reorganised into three new provinces:
Bibliography