Prussia was an empire that later became the state of Germany. In the 18th century Prussia was extended throughout Europe. The people that were natives of Prussia where often named Prussi or also Borussi. The area where the Prussians settled was first inhabited by the Baltic tribes that were in the west of Germany and Lithuanians in the east of Germany. In the seventh century this area was invaded by the Prussians who later became known as Germans. The state of Prussia was established in 1701. The state of Prussia reached its pinnacle in the 18th century under the mandate of Frederic the great and in the following century Otto von Bismarck started formatting the great Deutsch Empire. The capital became Berlin and the government was an autocratic monarchy until the revolutions of 1848 in the Germanic states. After that Prussia became a Constitutional monarchy with Adolf Heinrich von Arnim-Boitzenburg as the first prime minister. After the first Prussian constitution a bicameral parliament was created. The low camera or “landtag” was chosen by all the tax contributors that were divided in 3 social classes according to what they had payed. This allowed that just one third of the voters chose 85% of the parliamentarians assuring a bigger predominance of the more prosperous elements of the population. The high camera was later renamed “ Herrenhaus” (house of the lords) the joy of the king. He wielded total authority over the executive and the ministers had little responsibility. As a consequence, the class of large land owners, the junkers, remained untouched, Especially in the oriental provinces. Characteristics of imperial rule in foreign relations: In the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) against Maria Theresa, king Frederick II invaded Silesia, but at the same time as he was invading, he told Maria Theresa that he would help her but just if she ceded Silecia to him. But years later he broke peace treaties with Maria Theresa, but instead of returning Silecia, he kept it in an imposed monarchy. Many years later in the 1800s while Austria and Prussia were continuously fighting for territory another power arose Russia. Russia basically wanted to gain territory in Europe and for that they defeated (in 1878) the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War. As a consequnce Bismark decided to ally with Austria and create an international conference (the Congress of Berlin) to sort the problem out. How do capitalism and imperialism relate? First of all capitalism is based on “you get what you work for” and on other hand imperialism is based on the idea of using power to take profit from others that have less influence. They don’t relate at all. Imperialism is basically taking from the poor like the Victorian period in India where England was taking advantage of India and making it more poor. Whereas capitalism offers a system where countries trade with one another not mattering if they´re influential or not. Like the United states who exports products that are sold all throughout the world. When the French aggression came Prussia tried to remain neutral with the treaty of Tilsit. Prussia and Russia remained together to cooperate with napoleon and as Prussia started to lose its power the Prussian territory started to shrink and French troops remained in Prussia. Prussian Ports that were shared with Britain were forced to be closed. In conclusion, Prussia had many allies through time and in every alliance (obviously) they tried to gain benefits from it, such as territory and resources, but also in most of its alliances Prussia followed the quote: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”, to fight rising power that tried to bring Prussia down. finally, here is a short audio explaining what is imperialism and a map of Prussia´s territory in Europe
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