Two days ago we had carefully studied the history of "Germany", especially in the barbarossa article, where we had a very clear understanding of the Holy Roman Empire.
If there is one word to describe "Germany", then the word must be "divided"!
In medieval Europe, religion had always been dominant, but despite this, there was still infighting within religion, orthodox denominations led by Christianity often clashed with paganism, and the "Reformation" initiated by Martin Luther in the 16th century brought about a climax of religious division within Germany.
It is surprising that although there are different degrees of religious struggle in other countries, there is generally a religious force that dominates, while Germany has always been divided equally. This is also very easy to understand why the religious struggle within Germany has always been very fierce, after all, everyone is similar, and no one will let anyone!
In addition to the spiritual aspect, in a practical sense, Germany is also not unified.
Without a centralized central government, Germany remained in a "federal" state
。 As far as the Holy Roman Empire was concerned, there were more than 400 city-states in Germany as a whole, and some even some city-states were only a few small villages, but as long as the nobility was divided, its legitimacy was recognized.
If the normal historical evolution of Germany were followed, this chaotic and divided situation would most likely continue, but history is always full of coincidences, and the occurrence of a major event brought the development of Germany to a crossroads!
On July 13, 1789, the revolutionary masses in France captured the Bastille, and the "French Revolution" that shocked all of Europe broke out! Before the Revolution, France practiced a "three-person hierarchy." The first and second classes are aristocrats and have considerable privileges, but only 3% of the population is occupied by such people, and the vast majority of the rest are the toiling masses, the so-called "third class".
Because of the extravagance and lavishness of the French king, the masses of the third class hated the king and the nobility very much, and the anger accumulated in their hearts was finally ignited in the "three-level conference fundraising" activity, and in the overwhelming revolutionary wave, the constitutional monarchy was sent to the political commanding heights of France, and France ushered in a new period!
Anyone who knows a little bit about geography knows how close France and Germany are! Curiously, however, the Germans were very cold to such a movement that shocked the world, and even many people were opposed to the revolution.
Nevertheless, the French Revolution was still destined to make waves in Europe, and since you are not willing to take the initiative to change, someone will come to help you, but the process will certainly not be too moderate.
Soon, the people who "helped" the German reforms appeared – Napoleon!
In order to consolidate the gains of the French Revolution, Napoleon became emperor in 1804 and began to draw up a war plan aimed at eliminating the feudal monarchy, because after the French Revolution, the french kings went into exile, and many feudal monarchies in Europe began to openly oppose Napoleon.
For reasons of length, the course of the war is not elaborated here, and the war that affected all of Europe ended in Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. Judging from the outcome of the war, the Napoleonic Wars seemed to be a failure, but the historical impact of this war was enormous, especially for Germany.
In the third year of the war, Napoleon forced the Holy Roman Emperor to abdicate, and the Holy Roman Empire collapsed. After three major battles, Napoleon eventually took control of Germany and Prussia, bringing Germany under French territory.
It can be seen from Napoleon's claim to the throne that his ultimate goal was to establish a great empire with the "French order" as the core, and to accomplish this goal,
The first thing to do was to transform Germany so that it was perfectly matched with France in every respect
。
In the areas ruled by Napoleon, all aspects of the original German system were reintegrated, and the basis of integration was the Napoleonic Code, and bourgeois liberal democracy began to be vigorously promoted. In the case of the Rhine, which was first occupied, the fresh bourgeois liberal policies allowed the people of this region to enjoy unprecedented treatment, and the various classes previously oppressed by the feudal monarchy began to gradually turn towards "Napoleonism".
You can compare our Chinese history, after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the state of all classes in China at that time was actually similar to the attitude of the German people we mentioned here.
Of course, this alone is not enough, in order to further promote the policy of "French capitalism", Napoleon ordered the intensification of reforms in the German regions, including the administration, the judiciary, agriculture and other fields, as if first "pilot operation" and then full implementation.
Except for the Rhine, the "capitalization" of other regions of Germany was also very smooth, although not all regions were dominated by capitalism, such as the east of the Rhine, because this region was mainly dominated by peasants, so when the wind of bourgeois change blew here, the peasants became the main beneficiaries of change, and after paying a certain ransom, the peasants could also obtain the same rights as the bourgeoisie.
But in the final analysis, napoleon did all this not for the progress of Germany, but for the consolidation of the gains of the French revolution. For this purpose, the introduction of the capitalist system in the German regions inevitably involved the use of violence or coercion, such as the frequent forced recruitment of Germans into the French army, which led to the existence of anti-Napoleonic forces within Germany, but this force took a while to brew.
All in all, through the war method, Napoleon was relatively smooth in rooting French capitalism on the "soil" of Germany.
From the moment the Napoleonic Wars led to the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Germany was at a crossroads of history. Under the catalysis of war, most of the original States of the Holy Roman Empire were quickly decayed because they could not adapt to sudden changes, but one state was an exception, Prussia.
The Prussian race was a peculiar race that defended the traditional German creeds from beginning to end, arguing that the German peoples should be grouped into a unified nation, and thus form a German national unity. During the "Old Prussian Era" of the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia was an outstanding representative of Germany and was supported by many states within the Empire.
In the war of Napoleon's destruction of the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia was once the most troublesome opponent for the French army, because it insisted on the independence of the German nation and refused Napoleon's invasion, which led to a "decisive victory" between the two sides.
In October 1806, the famous "Battle of Jena" broke out! Because of Prussia's bloated administrative system, the French army, led by Napoleon, defeated the Prussian army at a cost of only 5,000 people and took Prussia in one fell swoop. The "old Prussia" was overthrown, and the so-called "king and king" was the same as most of Germany, and the only thing waiting for Prussia was the arrival of "Napoleonism"!
Although such a result was difficult for Prussia to accept, fortunately, the nation did not die, and after painful thinking, prussia's strong side was revealed - spontaneous reform.
The first was the awakening of a large number of liberal aristocrats, who, though they hated the French and Napoleon so much, had to admit that France was already ahead of Germany in the transformation of the state, and therefore they also tried to implement many of these reforms in order to strengthen their national strength.
Unlike in France, prussia's understanding of "revolution" focused on a different one. The French revolutionized for freedom, bourgeois freedom was their goal, and Prussia, unlike the Prussians, put the root cause of the defeat of the war down to military strength—the Prussians needed to build a "totalitarian" military state.
In this great reform, the leaders of Prussia attached great importance to the integration of the moral and material forces of the German people and the rebirth of German nationalism.
However, even the Prussians themselves may not have imagined that this change would have fulfilled the "long-cherished wish" of Germany for many years - national unity.
Before the Napoleonic Wars, Germany did not have an object that could bind all Germans, so in the process of opposing Napoleon, the entire German nation appeared very loose, and after Prussia was forced to sign the treaty of Tilsite with Napoleon, the Prussians realized that "the root of becoming a nation lies in the national spirit." ”
After absorbing the capitalist ideas from the "French Revolution", the Prussians combined the characteristics of their own people with this idea, whether political, economic, cultural or otherwise, the German nation led by Prussia showed a new look!
Especially with regard to the peasants, in addition to abolishing the personal dependency of the peasants, the peasants also gained many legal rights, which made most of the peasants become the "new force of capitalism" and provided the driving force for the development of capitalism in Germany.
In fact, it is not so much that Napoleon changed Germany, but rather that Germany "used" Napoleon, and in this huge reform, he was able to quickly and soberly realize his own shortcomings, which is the greatest "luck" of the German nation!
Sometimes, I also wonder, if there had been such a clear understanding in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, would the humiliation of more than 100 years still happen? Who knows! History doesn't have ifs!