Holy Roman Empire in 1789
The modern country of Germany was created in 1871. Prior to that, for centuries the area in and around present day Germany consisted of dozens of small political entities (e.g. kingdoms and duchies, and Free Imperial Cities) within the larger Holy Roman Empire which exerted varying degrees of control over the smaller entities. The largest and strongest political entities were Bavaria, Saxony, Palatinate, Württemberg, Mainz, Cologne, and Brandenburg (from 1618, Brandenburg-Prussia, after 1701, Prussia).The Holy Roman Empire was ruled over by the Holy Roman Emperor, who except for one three year period, was from the House of Habsburg between 1415 and the dissolution of the Empire by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806.
The Empire was completely Catholic until 1517 when Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation in Wittenberg. Protestant sects, primarily Lutheran and Calvinist, increased in Germany and tensions mounted over the next century until war broke out in 1618.
Although the Thirty Years' War was initially a war between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, it gradually developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers. These states employed relatively large mercenary armies, and the war became less about religion and more of a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence. It ended in 1648 with the signing of the Peace of Westphalia. One of the longest and most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in eight million fatalities mainly from violence, famine and plagues, but also from military engagements. People who perished over its course were overwhelmingly and disproportionately inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire, and the rest were mostly fallen soldiers of foreign armies. It was the deadliest European religious war that left an everlasting national stigma in the German collective memory. It ravaged the economy of the Empire's territories and would rebuilding would take many decades.
Link to The History of Prussia up to the French Revolution
Late 18th century Germany
The abolition of serfdom begins in 1780 (completed in 1830).
The population of German areas (including Austria) increases by 33% between 1750 and 1800 (16 million to 24 million people) because of better diet and hygiene and government re-colonization efforts to areas devastated by wars (including Prussia following the Seven Years' War).
Governments sponsor the "agricultural revolution" with pamphlets on crop rotation and fertilizers and new techniques in animal husbandry to feed the increasing population. Large landlords of the manorial estates push peasants for more work. Exporting grain to Great Britain is very profitable. Land prices increase 10 fold between 1700 and 1800.
Proto-industrialization takes place as wealthy manufacturers "put out" work to be done in individual households and independent village crafts increase. This causes a culture clash with the medieval guild system. Industries like glassworks, breweries and mining become large scale operations. The rise of a middle class takes hold. This is enabled by the increasingly governmental structure that employs large numbers of decently paid skilled bureaucratic labors.
Largely because of cheaper printing, more and more intellectual ideas reach the general population (the "public sphere") and political ideas become widespread currency. Cafes and reading clubs became popular.
German intellectuals are interested in the American Revolution, the words "freedom" and "liberty" are in fashion, but Germany is not revolutionary. The government is actively employing non-aristocratic men of talent and fears that a revolution could be destructive are influential in keeping things calm.
Germany and the French Revolution & Napoleonic Wars (1789 - 1815)
Post Napoleonic Germany
Germany in 1815...
After Napoleon's final exile in 1815, the Germanic states were reconstituted as the German Confederation at the Congress of Vienna where European powers were realigned to prevent further continental wars. Also to prevent further wars and to maintain their political power, the monarchs of Europe took repressive measures against further talk of republican government and other liberal reforms.
The Confederation temporally collapsed during the German Revolutions of 1848-1849, then finally collapsed when the northern Germanic states formed the North German Confederation in 1867. In 1870-1871, four more southern states, including Bavaria, joined the new Confederation (but not Austria), and this became the united Empire of Germany in 1871 with the King of Prussia Wilhelm I becoming the Kaiser and Otto von Bismark the first Chancellor of Germany.
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