RISE OF RUSSIA AND PRUSSIA
197. We have had little occasion hitherto, in dealing with the history
of western Europe, to speak of the Slavic peoples, to whom the Russians,
Poles, Bohemians, and many other nations of eastern Europe belong.
Together they form the most numerous race in Europe, but, as has been
well said, "they occupy a greater place on the map than in history." In
the eighteenth century, however, Russia began to take an increasingly
important part in European affairs, and it is now a great force in the
politics of the world. The realms of the Tsar which lie in Europe exceed
in extent those of all the other rulers of the continent put together,
and yet they are scarcely more than a quarter of his whole dominion,
which embraces northern and central Asia, and forms together an empire
occupying toward three times the area of the United States.
[Sidenote: Movements of the Slavs during the period of the German
invasions.]
The Slavs were settled along the Dnieper, Don, and Vistula long before
the Christian era. After the East Goths had penetrated into the Roman
empire, the Slavs followed their example and invaded, ravaged, and
conquered the Balkan Peninsula, which they held for some time. When the
German Lombards went south into Italy, about 569, the Slavs pressed
behind them into Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, where they still live
within the bounds of the Austrian empire. Other Slavic hordes had driven
the Germans across the Oder and upper Elbe. Later the German emperors,
beginning with Charlemagne, began to push them back, but the Bohemians
and Moravians still hold an advanced position on the borders of Bavaria
and Saxony.
[Sidenote: Beginnings of Russia.]
In the ninth century some of the Northmen invaded the districts to the
east of the Baltic, while their relatives were causing grievous trouble
in France and England. It is generally supposed that one of their
leaders, Rurik, was the first to consolidate the Slavic tribes about
Novgorod into a sort of state in 862. Rurik's successor extended the
bounds of the new empire so as to include the important town of Kiev on
the Dnieper. The word _Russia_ is probably derived from _Rous_, the name
given by the neighboring Finns to the Norman adventurers. Before the end
of the tenth century the Greek form of Christianity was introduced and
the Russian ruler was baptized. The frequent intercourse with
Constantinople might have led to rapid advance in civilization had it
not been for a great disaster which put Russia back for centuries.
[Sidenote: The Tartar invasion of the thirteenth century.]
Russia is geographically nothing more than an extension of the vast
plain of northern Asia, which the Russians were destined finally to
conquer. It was therefore exposed to the great invasion of the Tartars
or Mongols, who swept in from the east in the thirteenth century. The
powerful Tartar ruler, Genghiz Khan (1162-1227), conquered northern
China and central Asia, and the mounted hordes of his successors crossed
into Europe and overran Russia, which had fallen apart into numerous
principalities. The Russian princes became the dependents of the Great
Khan, and had frequently to seek his far distant court, some three
thousand miles away, where he freely disposed of both their crowns and
their heads. The Tartars exacted tribute of the Russians, but left them
undisturbed in their laws and religion.
[Sidenote: Influence of the Tartar occupation on manners and customs.]
[Sidenote: Ivan the Terrible assumes the title of Tsar.]
Of the Russian princes who went to prostrate themselves at the foot of
the Great Khan's throne, none made a more favorable impression upon him
than the prince of Moscow, in whose favor the Khan was wont to decide
all cases of dispute between the prince and his rivals. When the Mongol
power had begun to decline in strength and the princes of Moscow had
grown stronger, they ventured to kill the Mongol ambassadors sent to
demand tribute in 1480, and thus freed themselves from the Mongol yoke.
But the Tartar occupation had left its mark, for the princes of Moscow
imitated the Khans rather than the western rulers, of whom, in fact,
they knew nothing. In 1547 Ivan the Terrible assumed the Asiatic title
of Tsar,[356] which appeared to him more worthy than that of king or
emperor. The costumes and etiquette of the court were also Asiatic. The
Russian armor suggested that of the Chinese, and their headdress was a
turban. It was the task of Peter the Great to Europeanize Russia.
[Sidenote: Peter the Great, 1672-1725.]
198. At the time of Peter's accession, Russia, which had grown greatly
under Ivan the Terrible and other enterprising rulers, still had no
outlet to the sea. In manners and customs the kingdom was Asiatic, and
its government was that of a Tartar prince. Peter had no quarrel with
the despotic power which fell to him and which the Russian monarchs
still exercise, since there is no parliament or constitution in that
country down to the present day. But he knew that Russia was very much
behind the rest of Europe, and that his crudely equipped soldiers could
never make head against the well armed and disciplined troops of the
West. He had no seaport and no ships, without which Russia could never
hope to take part in the world's affairs. His two great tasks were,
therefore, to introduce western habits and to "make a window," as he
expressed it, through which Russia might look abroad.
[Sidenote: Peter's travels in Europe.]
In 1697-1698 Peter himself visited Germany, Holland, and England with a
view to investigating every art and science of the West, as well as the
most approved methods of manufacture, from the making of a man-of-war to
the etching of an engraving. Nothing escaped the keen eyes of this rude,
half-savage northern giant. For a week he put on the wide breeches of a
Dutch laborer and worked in the shipyard at Saardam near Amsterdam. In
England, Holland, and Germany he engaged artisans, scientific men,
architects, ship captains, and those versed in artillery and the
training of troops, all of whom he took back with him to aid in the
reform and development of Russia.
[Sidenote: Suppression of revolt against foreign ideas.]
He was called home by the revolt of the royal guard, who had allied
themselves with the very large party of nobles and churchmen who were
horrified at Peter's desertion of the habits and customs of his
forefathers. They hated what they called "German ideas," such as short
coats, tobacco smoking, and beardless faces. The clergy even suggested
that Peter was perhaps Antichrist. Peter took a fearful revenge upon the
rebels, and is said to have himself cut off the heads of many of them.
Like the barbarian that he was at heart, he left their heads and bodies
lying about all winter, unburied, in order to make the terrible results
of revolt against his power quite plain to all.
[Sidenote: Peter's reform measures.]
Peter's reforms extended through his whole reign. He made his people
give up their cherished oriental beards and long flowing garments. He
forced the women of the better class, who had been kept in a sort of
oriental harem, to come out and meet the men in social assemblies, such
as were common in the West. He invited foreigners to settle in Russia,
and insured them protection, privileges, and the free exercise of their
religion. He sent young Russians abroad to study. He reorganized the
government officials on the model of a western kingdom, and made over
his army in the same way.
[Sidenote: Founding of a new capital, St. Petersburg.]
Finding that the old capital of Moscow clung persistently to its ancient
habits, he prepared to found a new capital for his new Russia. He
selected for this purpose a bit of territory on the Baltic which he had
conquered from Sweden,--very marshy, it is true, but where he might hope
to construct Russia's first real port. Here he built St. Petersburg at
enormous expense and colonized it with Russians and foreigners. Russia
was at last becoming a European power.
[Illustration: Northeastern Europe at the Opening of the Eighteenth
Century]
[Sidenote: The military prowess of Charles XII of Sweden.]
In his ambition to get to the sea, Peter naturally collided with Sweden,
to which the provinces between Russia and the Baltic belonged. Never had
Sweden, or any other country, had a more warlike king than the one with
whom Peter had to contend, the youthful prodigy, Charles XII. When
Charles came to the throne in 1697 he was only fifteen years old, and it
seemed to the natural enemies of Sweden an auspicious time to profit by
the supposed weakness of the boy ruler. So a union was formed between
Denmark, Poland, and Russia, with the object of increasing their
territories at Sweden's expense. But Charles turned out to be a second
Alexander the Great in military prowess. He astonished Europe by
promptly besieging Copenhagen and forcing the king of Denmark to sign a
treaty of peace. He then turned like lightning against Peter, who was
industriously besieging Narva, and with eight thousand Swedes wiped out
an army of fifty thousand Russians (1700). Lastly he defeated the king
of Poland.
[Sidenote: Defeat and death of Charles XII.]
Though Charles was a remarkable military leader, he was a foolish ruler.
He undertook to wrest Poland from its king, to whom he attributed the
formation of the league against him. He had a new king crowned at
Warsaw, whom he at last succeeded in getting recognized. He then turned
his attention to Peter, who had meanwhile been conquering the Baltic
provinces. This time fortune turned against the Swedes. The long march
to Moscow proved as fatal to them as to Napoleon a century later.
Charles XII was totally defeated in the battle of Pultowa (1709). He
fled to Turkey and spent some years there in vainly urging the Sultan to
attack Peter. At last he returned to his own kingdom, which he had
utterly neglected for years. He was killed in 1718 while besieging a
town.
[Sidenote: Russia acquires the Baltic provinces and attempts to get a
footing on the Black Sea.]
Soon after Charles' death a treaty was concluded between Sweden and
Russia by which Russia gained Livonia, Esthonia, and the other Swedish
provinces at the eastern end of the Baltic. Peter had made less
successful attempts to get a footing on the Black Sea. He had first
taken Azof, which he soon lost during the war with Sweden, and then
several towns on the Caspian. It had become evident that if the Turks
should be driven out of Europe, Russia would be a mighty rival of the
western powers in the division of the spoils.[357]
For a generation after the death of Peter the Great, Russia fell into
the hands of incompetent rulers. It only appears again as a European
state when the great Catherine II came to the throne in 1762. From that
time on, the western powers had always to consider the vast Slavic
empire in all their great struggles. They had also to consider a new
kingdom in northern Germany, which was just growing into a great power
as Peter began his work. This was Prussia, whose beginnings we must now
consider.
[Sidenote: Brandenburg and the Hohenzollerns.]
199. The electorate of Brandenburg had figured on the map of Germany for
centuries, and there was no particular reason to suppose that it was to
become one day the dominant state in Germany. At the time of the Council
of Constance the old line of electors had died out, and the impecunious
Emperor Sigismund had sold it to a hitherto inconspicuous house, the
Hohenzollerns, which is known to us now through such names as those of
Frederick the Great, William I, the first German emperor, and his
grandson, the present emperor. Beginning with a strip of territory
extending some ninety or a hundred miles to the east and to the west of
the little town of Berlin, the successive representatives of the line
have gradually extended their boundaries until the present kingdom of
Prussia embraces nearly two thirds of Germany. Of the earlier little
annexations nothing need be said. While it has always been the pride of
the Hohenzollern family that practically every one of its reigning
members has added something to what his ancestors handed down to him, no
great extension took place until just before the Thirty Years' War.
About that time the elector of Brandenburg inherited Cleves, and thus
got his first hold on the Rhine district.
[Sidenote: Prussia acquired by the elector of Brandenburg.]
[Sidenote: The elector of Brandenburg assumes the title of King of
Prussia, 1701.]
What was quite as important, he won, far to the east, the duchy of
Prussia, which was separated from Brandenburg by Polish territory.
Prussia was originally the name of a region on the Baltic inhabited by
heathen Slavs. These had been conquered in the thirteenth century by one
of the orders of crusading knights, who, when the conquest of the Holy
Land was abandoned, looked about for other occupation. The region
filled up with German colonists, but it came under the sovereignty of
the neighboring kingdom of Poland, whose king annexed the western half
of the territory of the Teutonic Order, as the German knights were
called.[358] In Luther's day the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights,
who happened to be a relative of the electors of Brandenburg, concluded
to abolish the order and become duke of Prussia. In good time his family
died out, and the duchy fell to the electors of Brandenburg. When one of
them was permitted by the emperor, in the year 1701, to assume the title
of king, he chose to be called King of Prussia.[359]
[Sidenote: The Great Elector, 1640-1688.]
Brandenburg accepted the Protestant religion before Luther's death, but
played a pitiful part in the Thirty Years' War. Its real greatness dates
from the Great Elector (1640-1688). In the treaties of Westphalia he
acquired a goodly strip on the Baltic, and he succeeded in creating an
absolute monarchy on the model furnished by his contemporary, Louis XIV.
He joined England and Holland in their alliances against Louis, and the
army of Brandenburg began to be known and feared.
[Sidenote: Frederick William I, 1713-1740.]
While it was reserved for Frederick the Great to stir Europe to its
depths and establish the right of the new kingdom of Prussia to be
considered one of the great European powers, he owed to his father,
Frederick William I, the resources which made his victories possible.
Frederick William strengthened the government and collected an army
nearly as large as that maintained by France or Austria. He had,
moreover, by miserly thrift and entire indifference to the amenities and
luxuries of life, treasured up a large sum of money. Consequently
Frederick, upon his accession, had an admirable army ready for use and
an ample supply of gold.[360]
[Sidenote: The Hapsburgs in Austria.]
200. Prussia's aspiration to become a great European power made it
necessary for her to extend her territory. This inevitably brought her
into rivalry with Austria. It will be remembered that Charles V, shortly
after his accession, ceded to his brother, Ferdinand I, the German or
Austrian possessions of the house of Hapsburg, while he himself retained
the Spanish, Burgundian, and Italian dominions. Ferdinand, by a
fortunate marriage with the heiress of the kingdoms of Bohemia and
Hungary, greatly augmented his territory. Hungary was, however, almost
completely occupied by the Turks at that time, and till the end of the
seventeenth century the energies of the Austrian rulers were largely
absorbed in a long struggle against the Mohammedans.
[Sidenote: Conquests of the Turks in Europe.]
A Turkish tribe from western Asia had, at the opening of the fourteenth
century, established themselves in western Asia Minor under their leader
Othman (d. 1326). It was from him that they derived their name of
Ottoman Turks, to distinguish them from the Seljuk Turks, with whom the
crusaders had come into contact. The leaders of the Ottoman Turks showed
great energy. They not only extended their Asiatic territory far toward
the east, and later into Africa, but they gained a footing in Europe as
early as 1353. They gradually conquered the Slavic peoples in Macedonia
and occupied the territory about Constantinople, although it was a
hundred years before they succeeded in capturing the ancient capital of
the Eastern Empire.
[Sidenote: The defense of Europe against the Turks.]
This advance of the Turks naturally aroused grave apprehensions in the
states of western Europe lest they too might be deprived of their
independence. The brunt of the defense against the common foe devolved
upon Venice and the German Hapsburgs, who carried on an almost
continuous war with the Turks for nearly two centuries. As late as 1683
the Mohammedans collected a large force and besieged Vienna, which might
very well have fallen into their hands had it not been for the timely
assistance which the city received from the king of Poland. From this
time on, the power of the Turks in Europe rapidly decreased, and the
Hapsburgs were able to regain the whole territory of Hungary and
Transylvania, their possession of which was formally recognized by the
Sultan in 1699.
[Sidenote: The question of the Austrian succession.]
In 1740, a few months before the accession of Frederick II of Prussia,
the emperor Charles VI, who was the last representative of the direct
line of the Hapsburgs, died. Foreseeing the difficulties which would
arise at his death in regard to the inheritance of his possessions, he
had spent a great part of his life in trying to induce the European
powers to promise that his daughter, Maria Theresa, should be recognized
as his successor. England, Holland, and even Prussia were ready to bid
Godspeed to the new archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and
Bohemia, but France, Spain, and the neighboring Bavaria held back in the
hope of gaining some portion of the scattered Austrian dominions for
themselves. The duke of Bavaria insisted that he was the rightful heir
and managed to have himself elected emperor under the title of Charles
VII.
[Sidenote: Accession of Frederick II of Prussia, called 'the Great,'
1740-1786.]
[Sidenote: Frederick's attack upon Silesia.]
201. In his early years Frederick II grieved and disgusted his boorish
but energetic old father by his dislike for military life and his
interest in books and music. He was a particular admirer of the French
and preferred their language to his own. No sooner had he become king,
however, than he suddenly developed marvelous energy and skill in
warlike enterprises. He realized that Prussia must widen its boundaries,
and he saw no better way of accomplishing this than by robbing the
seemingly defenseless Maria Theresa of Silesia, a strip of territory
lying to the southeast of Brandenburg. He accordingly marched his army
into the coveted district, and occupied the important city of Breslau
without declaring war or offering any excuse except a vague claim to a
portion of the land.
[Sidenote: The War of the Austrian Succession.]
France, stimulated by Frederick's example, joined with Bavaria in the
attack upon Maria Theresa. It seemed for a time as if her struggle to
maintain the integrity of her realm would be vain; but the loyalty of
all the various peoples under her scepter was roused by her
extraordinary courage and energy. The French were driven back, but Maria
Theresa was forced to grant Silesia to Frederick in order to induce him
to retire from the war. Finally, England and Holland joined in an
alliance for maintaining the balance of power, for they had no desire to
see France annex the Austrian Netherlands. On the death of the emperor
Charles VII (1745), Maria Theresa's husband, Francis, duke of Lorraine,
was chosen emperor. A few years later (1748) all the powers, tired of
the war, laid down their arms and agreed to what is called in diplomacy
the _status quo ante bellum_, which simply means that things were to be
restored to the condition in which they had been before the opening of
hostilities.
[Sidenote: Frederick promotes the material development of Prussia.]
[Sidenote: Frederick and Voltaire.]
Frederick was, however, permitted to keep Silesia, which increased his
dominions by about one third of their former extent. He now turned his
attention to making his subjects happier and more prosperous, by
draining the swamps, promoting industry, and drawing up a new code of
laws. He found time, also, to gratify his interest in men of letters,
and invited Voltaire, the most distinguished writer of the eighteenth
century, to make his home at Berlin. It will not seem strange to any one
who knows anything of the character of these two men, that they
quarreled after two or three years, and that Voltaire left the Prussian
king with very bitter feelings.[361]
[Sidenote: The Seven Years' War.]
202. Maria Theresa was by no means reconciled to the loss of Silesia,
and she began to lay her plans for expelling the perfidious Frederick
and regaining her lost territory. This led to one of the most important
wars in modern history, in which not only almost every European power
joined, but which involved the whole world, from the Indian rajahs of
Hindustan to the colonists of Virginia and New England. This Seven
Years' War (1756-1763) will be considered in its broader aspects in the
next chapter. We note here only the part played in it by the king of
Prussia.
[Sidenote: The alliance against Prussia.]
Maria Theresa's ambassador at Paris was so skillful in his negotiations
with the French court that in 1756 he induced it, in spite of its two
hundred years of hostility to the house of Hapsburg, to enter into an
alliance with Austria against Prussia. Russia, Sweden, and Saxony also
agreed to join in a concerted attack on Prussia. Their armies, coming as
they did from every point of the compass, threatened the complete
annihilation of Austria's rival. It seemed as if the new kingdom of
Prussia might disappear altogether from the map of Europe.
[Sidenote: Frederick's victorious defense.]
However, it was in this war that Frederick earned his title of "the
Great" and showed himself the equal of the ablest generals the world has
seen, from Alexander to Napoleon. Learning the object of the allies, he
did not wait for them to declare war against him, but occupied Saxony at
once and then moved on into Bohemia, where he nearly succeeded in taking
the capital, Prague. Here he was forced to retire, but in 1757 he
defeated the French and his German enemies in the most famous, perhaps,
of his battles, at Rossbach. A month later he routed the Austrians at
Leuthen, not far from Breslau. Thereupon the Swedes and Russians retired
from the field and left Frederick for the moment master of the
situation.
[Sidenote: Frederick finally triumphs over Austria.]
England now engaged the French and left Frederick at liberty to deal
with his other enemies. While he exhibited marvelous military skill, he
was by no means able to gain all the battles in which he engaged. For a
time, indeed, it looked as if he might after all be vanquished. But the
accession of a new Tsar, who was an ardent admirer of Frederick, led
Russia to conclude peace with Prussia, whereupon Maria Theresa
reluctantly agreed to give up once more her struggle with her inveterate
enemy.
[Sidenote: The kingdom of Poland and its defective constitution.]
Frederick was able during his reign greatly to strengthen his kingdom by
adding to it the Polish regions which had hitherto divided his
possessions in Brandenburg from those which lay across the Vistula. The
kingdom of Poland, which in its declining years was to cause western
Europe much trouble, was shut in between Russia, Austria, and Prussia.
The Slavic population of this region had come under an able ruler about
the year 1000, and the Polish kings had succeeded for a time in
extending their power over a large portion of Russia, Moravia, and the
Baltic regions. They had never been able, however, to establish a
successful form of government. This was largely due to the fact that the
kings were elected by the nobles, the crown not passing from father to
son, as in the neighboring kingdoms. The elections were tumultuous
affairs, and foreigners were frequently chosen. Moreover, each noble had
the right to veto any law proposed in the diet, and consequently a
single person might prevent the passage of even the most important
measure. The anarchy which prevailed in Poland had become proverbial.
[Sidenote: The first partition of Poland, 1772.]
On the pretense that this disorderly country was a menace to their
welfare, the neighboring powers, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, agreed to
reduce the danger by each helping itself to a slice of the unfortunate
kingdom. This amicable arrangement resulted in what is known as the
first partition of Poland. It was succeeded by two others (1793 and
1795), by the last of which this ancient state was wiped from the map
altogether.[362]
[Sidenote: Achievements of Frederick the Great.]
When Frederick died (1786) he left the state which had been intrusted to
him by his father nearly doubled in size. He had rendered it illustrious
by his military glory, and had vastly increased its resources by
improving the condition of the people in the older portions of his
territory and by establishing German colonies in the desolate regions of
West Prussia, which he strove in this way to bind closely to the rest of
the kingdom.
General Reading.--TUTTLE, _History of Prussia_ (4 vols., Houghton,
Mifflin & Co., $8.25). CARLYLE, _Frederick the Great_ (3 vols.,
Chapman, $2.25). LONGMAN, F.W., _Frederick the Great_ (Charles
Scribner's Sons, $1.00). RAMBAUD, _History of Russia_ (2 vols.,
Coryell & Co., $2.00). For Peter the Great and his Age,
WALISZEWSKI, _Life of Peter the Great_ (D. Appleton & Co., $2.00).
For the Seven Years' War and France, PERKINS, _France under Louis
XV_ (2 vols., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., $4.00).