After the madness of the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the industrial and commercial industries in germany were exhausted, and the Westphalian system fixed the situation in more than 360 states through international law. At the same time, Britain, France and other countries have successively formed a unified nation-state and established a fairly perfect centralized system. Against this background, the Kingdom of Prussia gradually rose and eventually completed the grand plan of German unification.
The rise of Prussia and the unification of Germany were inseparable from the Junker landlord class, which originally meant the sons of the nobles without the title of knight, and later referred to the Prussian nobility and the large landlord class. So how did Prussia stand out among the many German states, and what role did the Junker aristocracy play in it?
※ Diversification of the power structure?※
The German region, also known as the German space, usually refers to the area of the German ethnic group geographically located in the center of Europe. Naturally in the land of four wars, since the Middle Ages, it has always faced the threat of Latins in the west, Slavs in the east, catholic churches in the south, and Vikings in the north, and had to be fortified on all sides and costly. After the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, after a short period of centralized power, the central power gradually declined due to the struggle with the pope, and the local feudal princes continued to grow. Due to the lack of an absolutely dominant territory or state within German space, the period of division was much greater than that of the period of unification.
Unlike the rest of the world, medieval European secular and religious power were independent and antagonistic. The pattern of the submission of East Asian clerical power to imperial power and the western Asian clerical power over royal power is very different, and neither of these two forces in Europe can crush anyone. The diversification of the power structure has created a large number of gaps, which is conducive to the birth of a series of new things such as industrial and commercial cities and universities. Both the clerical and secular powers tried their best to win over the affairs of the new life and to give enough goodwill, which was more prominent in the princely German region, and thus the Reformation was the first to break out. After the Reformation, it further contributed to the pluralism of the power structure in Europe. The separation, independence, and confrontation between Protestantism and Catholicism further made it more difficult for Germany to achieve substantive unification (nominally under the Holy Roman Empire).
※Balance of power in geopolitics?※
With the development and growth of Protestantism in Germany, many princes who tried to oppose the Catholic Church converted and supported Protestantism (mainly Lutheranism), which led to the entanglement of secular royal power, old and new sects, and royal clerical confrontations in Germany. By the mid-16th century, the various states had adopted an important document, the Declaration of Augustara, which stipulated in principle that "the faith of the monarch can determine the faith of his subjects", in other words, the choice of Catholicism or Protestantism in each state was decided by the monarch, and those who did not wish to believe could choose to leave.
Because people had the right to choose the religion and the state of force, the contradictions between the Protestant and Catholic princes within the German region became more and more acute, culminating in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). The Thirty Years' War in Europe, which began as a Protestant and Catholic civil war in the Holy Roman Empire, changed in nature due to the involvement of European powers and the Protestant side of France, and gradually became a protracted scuffle. The struggle for hegemony among great powers, sectarianism, and legal struggles are all reflected in wars. In the end, due to the exhaustion of the parties, the Habsburg dynasty, which ruled the Holy Roman Empire, compromised, recognized the independent status of the Netherlands, and established the status quo of the German states through the Treaty of Westphalia, which was regarded as a game field and buffer zone between European powers, and established a European balance of power order.
※The economicization of totalitarian politics?※
The Thirty Years' War in Europe not only undermined the course of industrial and commercial development in Germany and severely damaged the prestige of the Holy Roman Empire, but also prompted the German people to urgently establish centralized power. At this time, Britain, France, Sweden and Tsarist Russia successively established bureaucratic autocracy, but Germany was still trapped in the quagmire of the princes' conquests, and the economy developed slowly. As mentioned above, the German subjects had the right to choose the state, and at this time gradually shifted from the monarchical sect to the principle of state efficiency. Among the German states at this time, whoever was the first to establish a strong and efficient centralized state was the most likely to inherit the mantle of Germany and the Holy Roman Empire.
※Militarization of the Junker nobility?※
The reason why Prussia was able to rise first among the German states was inseparable from the European background at that time. In the 17th century, the economic center of gravity of the Netherlands and Britain gradually shifted to industry, thus becoming food importers. This prompted the Prussian region of Brandenburg, which occupies the coastline of North Germany, to participate in the world commodity economy cycle through agricultural commodities, which was seized by the Prussian Junker aristocracy. Since then, the Junker aristocracy has gradually changed from a land nobleman who used to sit on the rent and collect land rent to an agricultural landlord and merchant who deals in agricultural products. Under the social atmosphere of "both merchant and peasant", the Prussian Junker aristocracy continued to expand their farms and strengthen their control over the farmers who cultivated their land.
The Junker aristocracy took advantage of the traditional relationship of the "patriarchal system" to essentially restore serfdom and squeeze the peasants more fully. Such a Junker aristocracy, with a certain degree of independence and deep pockets, was capable of establishing centralized power. In the Thirty Years' War, Sweden, which was the first to establish centralized power, sent troops south, blocked the golden coastline of Northern Germany, cut off German foreign routes, and inflicted heavy damage on the Junker aristocracy, which led to the Urgent need for the Prussian Junker nobility to establish centralized power in order to ensure their own interests. Unlike other countries such as Britain, France, and the Netherlands, the crown was strengthened by the use of civil industry and commerce to pay taxes, bureaucratic governance, and national conscription, but was consolidated by the junker landlords paying agricultural taxes and establishing a military system of Prussian special standing army.
At that time, European society generally implemented the inheritance system of the eldest son (eldest daughter), and the second son and third son of the family often did not have the right to inherit, so the Junker nobles would usually choose to go to the army as officers to alleviate the pressure of the nobility and strengthen the influence of the nobility. Correspondingly, the heirs of the serfs who did not have the right to inherit also needed to be enlisted, but they were managed soldiers, which meant that the management relationship in the Prussian army was actually a reflection of the ruling relationship in daily life, and the discipline and combat effectiveness could be imagined.
In summary, due to the innate geographical location and geographical conditions, the Holy Roman Empire's imperial power declined and the princes were divided, and since the Declaration of Augustara and the Treaty of Westphalia, it further increased the difficulty of the reunification of the German region. At this time, due to the industrial transfer of Britain, the Netherlands and other countries, the development of navigation technology and the convenience of the Gold Coast in North Germany, agricultural commodities in the Prussian region were included in the global trade cycle, gradually developed and grew, and took the lead in rising from the German states.