Asher K. Sisneros
Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
Western Civilization Since 1493
October 7, 2024
The House of Hohenzollern ruled Brandenburg-Prussia, which became the most powerful territory in the Holy Roman Empire through the 17th century. Brandenburg’s power started dwindling after the rule of George William (r. 1619-1640) and the catastrophes of the Thirty Years’ War. But when George’s successor, Fredrick William (r. 1640-1688) ascended the throne, Brandenburg-Prussia took a turn for the better, and Fredrick’s reign was littered with accomplishments.
When Fredrick William came to power, the duchies of Brandenburg and Prussia were extremely poor lands, and there was no centralized power. In effect, he was inheriting a figurehead position. However, it was an opportune time for Fredrick. On a geopolitical level, Prussia’s neighbors were crippled because of the Thirty Years’ War. Sweden overextended its power immensely, weakening the nation’s strength; and Austria’s efforts to centralize the Holy Roman Empire completely failed.
Frederick William capitalized on the weakness of his neighbors and amassed a huge standing army to centralize his rule. At the time, standing armies were extremely rare. European powers only raised armies during times of war. In peacetime, the armies were disbanded. Frederick changed this, amassing a huge standing army of three percent of Brandenburg-Prussia’s population. Just for comparison, King Louis XIV’s “massive” army only consisted of one percent of the French population, and the U.S. currently has a military of less than one percent of the population.
To pay for this gargantuan army, Frederick William made a deal with the Junkers. In exchange for funding, he let these nobles reinstate a policy of serfdom, putting the peasantry into de facto slavery. Moreover, when the Brandenburg diet convened and gave him the authority to raise taxes on his own authority, he took this power, dismissed the diet, and never convened the diet again.
Although Brandenburg-Prussians felt a huge tax burden, they were protected militarily, and Frederick gave religious minorities some much-needed liberty. Tens of thousands of Huguenots and Polish Jews emigrated to Prussia because of this liberty. Although Frederick likely implemented these measures more so to stimulate his economy through a competent workforce, rather than out of the goodness of his heart, the religious minorities appreciated this liberty, and the Prussian economy flourished because of it.
To conclude, Frederick William’s main accomplishment was centralizing rule through a standing army. This army was costly, and he paid for it through high taxes and by reimplementing serfdom in Brandenburg-Prussia. Even with these costs, though, the region did enjoy one thing: strength. For the people, that meant protection; for Frederick, that meant power.
Asher Sisneros 