NAPOLEONIC EUROPE (1799-1815)
Prussia
in the Napoleonic Era
During the 1700s, Prussia
had been steadily increasing in power and prestige. Frederick the Great had
built an efficient state and a strong army. During the Napoleonic period,
however, Frederick William III ruled Prussia, and was proving to be a fairly inept
king. In 1806, he made the major mistake of putting Prussia into war with the
French without any allies, resulting in crushing defeats at Jena and Auerstadt.
With these losses, Napoleon lopped off a considerable amount of Prussian land,
adding this territory to the Confederation of the Rhine and the Grand Duchy of
Warsaw.
But despite Frederick
William III's blunders, the German nationalist movement looked favorably on
Prussia. For all its problems, at least Prussia had stood up to Napoleon
instead of bowing and scraping before as did the sycophant princes of the
Confederation of the Rhine. In losing, Prussia became a center for the German
patriots. After the disastrous defeats of 1806, Prussia undertook a program of
army reform under Scharnhost and Gneisenau. Invariably, these reformers
followed the French model, calling for changes that would increase competition
for positions, and open positions up to everyone based on talent, rather than
on birth.
Other reformers, such as
Baron Stein and Hardenberg, worked to modernize the Prussian state. Baron Stein
had been a knight in the Holy Roman Empire. In the Napoleonic era, his goal
became to release the potential dynamics of the Prussian people. In 1807 he
became a Prussian administrator and became famous for "abolishing
serfdom". Although Stein didn't quite abolish serfdom, he did lessen the
restriction of opportunity for the lower classes, paving the way for a modern,
free-market economy. Napoleon became worried about Stein's program for
modernizing Prussia; in 1808, he commanded Frederick William III to force Stein
out of office.
Hardenberg basically filled
the exiled Stein's shoes when he became the Prussian chancellor in 1810. Under
Hardenberg, the state confiscated church property, gave Jews legal equality,
and ended the monopolistic power of guilds. He also started to move Frederick
William III toward accepting a constitutional monarchy, though he did not
succeed in this task. Still, the pressure of ultimate defeat at the hands of
Napoleon motivated the Prussian ruler to accept reforms more rapidly than he
might have otherwise.
As these reforms took
place, the Prussian people became increasingly excited and unified. Even
professors got in on the act. In June 1808, professors in Konigsberg started an
anti-French, Prussian nationalist movement called the "Moral and
Scientific Union", or Tugenbund (League of Virtue).
Prussian national pride soared, the nation increased its resolve to fight
Napoleon, and Prussia became a focal point for German nationalism.
Commentary
It is odd that Prussia
would become such a focus of German nationalism. Until this time, Prussia had
basically been ignored by the western parts of Germany, who saw Prussia as
existing on the German cultural fringe. Further, after the defeats of 1806,
Prussia stood in a sorry state, led by an unexciting king. However, able
administrators emerged who employed French reforming techniques while
capitalizing on anti-French nationalism. By 1815, the Prussian state, economy,
and army were once again powerful, and played a substantial role in bringing
down Napoleon at Waterloo.
Prussia's military reforms
under Scharnhost and Gneisenau mirrored French liberalizing reforms in many
ways. Yet whereas the French made these changes from the "bottom up",
in response to a revolution by underprivileged classes, Prussia made similar
changes, but from the "top down." The Prussian changes were made not
to affirm the dignity of all men, as might be claimed for French
liberalization, but to help Prussia improve its military. Prussia's
modernization of its military and economy were pragmatically rather than
philosophically based: Prussia wanted to keep up with the French. Gneisenau had
fought for England during the American War of Independence,
and he had been very impressed by the power of patriotism to make the American
revolutionaries into an effective fighting force. Gneisenau had seen similar
developments in France, and knew that the French army derived much of its
strength from a similar sense patriotic pride. Based on these two models,
Gneisenau concluded that he could harness a patriotic power by opening posts to
individuals based on talent resulted in an improved fighting force. The army,
then, is a perfect example of the fact that liberalization of Prussian
institutions took place not for ideological reasons, but out of a desire to
beat France.
Thus, the furnace of the
Napoleonic Wars actually encouraged Prussia to make liberal reforms. The
reformer's intent may have been to prepare Prussia for battle, but the ultimate
result was a considerable amount of progressive change.
REFERENCE
Bergeron, Louis, et al. France Under Napoleon. Princeton University Press: 1981.
Chapman, Tim. The
Congress of Vienna : Origins, Processes and Results. Routledge: 1998.
Durant, William James, et al. The Age of Napoleon: A History of
European Civilization from 1789 to 1815. Simon
& Schuster: 1975
James, Cyril Lionel Robert. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint
L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. 2nd ed. Vintage Books: 1989.
Rothenberg, Gunther E. Art of Warfare in the Age of
Napoleon. Indiana University
Press: 1981.
Tone, John Lawrence. The Fatal Knot: The Guerilla War in
Navarre and the Defeat of Napoleon in Spain. University of North Carolina Press:
1994.
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