Frederick II, the Great, overcame the resource limitations within Prussia by mastering three aspects of the western way of war: the ability to finance war, possessing a highly disciplined military, and an aggressive mindset toward achieving quick decisive victory, which established Prussia as a major European power. Frederick II accomplished this feat while being surrounded by powerful neighbors that possessed larger populations, armies, and financial excess. His initial assessment on the state of his Prussian inheritance from his personal writings follows:
…cast your eyes over the map, and you will see that the greatest part of my territories is dispersed…cannot mutually assist each other… A third at least of my dominions lies in waste; another third is in woods, waters, or marshes.
…third which is cultivated, produces nor wine, nor olives, nor mulberry-trees.
Prussian economic policy used an internal revenue system of various taxes and tolls with the sole purpose of supporting a standing army. Realizing the limited resource base that Prussia had to draw upon, Frederick II achieved a synergistic resourcing effect through his choice of strategic objectives, limiting his internal recruiting base, and using his peacetime military for social gain. The resource rich state of Silesia remained Frederick the Greats’ primary strategic objective, possession of it would drastically increase the economic capacity of Prussia.
The Prussian Army relied upon the service of mercenaries and by plan, minimized the use of townspeople from the Prussian sovereigns to fill any remaining requirements, and only required short service terms. This manning approach had two economic benefits; it maximized the number of people left in the w...
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...er civilizations, its use by Frederick II is what secured Prussian power and him the title of Frederick the Great.
Armies of the day aligned their forces in long linear formations that once in place, where very difficult to control. The oblique order was a version of a flank attack in which Frederick II would fix one end of the enemy formation and then flank an assaulting force around with deadly effect.
Works Cited
Heinrich Von Treitschke, The Confessions of Frederick the Great and the Life of Frederick the Great (Maryland: Wildside Press LLC, 2010) 37-38.
Margaret Shennan, The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia (New York: Routledge, 1995) 31.
Claus Telp, The Evolution of Operational Art 1740-1813: from Frederick the Great to Napoleon (New York: Routledge, 2005) 7.
Geoffrey Parker, The Cambridge History of Warfare (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005) 181.
Prussia had been a relatively conservative nation for a while with the monarch as the central point of power and Fredrick William did not want to change that at all, he spent years passing constitutions and electing representative bodies to keep his control. When in 1848 when rebellion began in Berlin to avoid upsetting many he refused to send in troops hoping the rebellion would fissile out. He even made concessions in their liberal favor and allowed a re-election. When the rebellion didn’t diminish a few days after his announcement of concessions he sent in troops to clear out the square, which ending in killing a few people. When angry protestors surrounded the palace Fredrick William IV showed respect to those who had died in the clearing of the square the day before and made even more concessions allowing an assembly to form. However soon the assembly soon revealed it was full of strong liberal radicals and he soon dismissed the assembly and filled it with more conservatives, showing just how deeply conservative Fredrick William was and how unwilling he was to change.
the throne to Prussia, and in less than a year ordered his troops to take
Tactics during the early stages of the war led to the massacre of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and a huge loss in moral by the Allies. Originally the Allies employed Napoleonic Era tactics that relied heavily on infantry lining up shoulder to shoulder and advancing across open fields. The French further claimed that if they attacked with superior moral they could overcome any foe. Due to the widespread utilization of machine guns and long-range rifles, these tactics resulted in enormous casualties. The French and British, as well, continued to funnel soldiers into failed offensives, even if the battle resulted in little or no gain, which further led to a decline in moral. With thousands of soldiers’ dead, the armies could not continue to fight with these tactics or the armies would cease to exist or soldiers would refuse to continue to fight.
War was not only heroic and noble, but it also had its benefits, too. Heinrich von Treitschke lamented the fact that Germany lagged behind England and France when it came to colonization. The German historian argued that only through war could Germany colonize places untouched by the French and British. Colonization through war, according to von Treitschke, would ensure the perseverance of Germany among the superpowers of Europe and abroad. He even suggested that the next war fought by Germany “must, if possible, be the acquisition of a colony of some sort” (von Treitschke
These schools were intended to be universal and state funded, making use of normal schools to train teachers especially suited to imparting education within the given state system. While these normal school trained volkschule and vorschule teachers within the Prussian schools were indeed superior to their American contemporaries, the problems with pedagogic training were not ignored, even by Mann. “The secretary was not completely oblivious to the dangers inherent in using institutions designed for an authoritarian society as models for a democracy, but he quickly dismissed them as inconsequential.” ( Tozer, S., & Senese, G. (2009) p.65) “If Prussia can pervert the benign influences of education to the support of arbitrary power, we surely can use them for support and perpetuation of republican institutions.” (Mann, H. (1844) p.23).
Foner, Philip S. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II Pre-Civil War Decade
Britain obtained Prussia as her ally, but you might ask, why? Surely you can’t fuel Frederick’s massive army any more? Pitt the Elder argued though that while true...
Kreis, S. (2001). The History Guide. Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History: The Code Napoleon. 15 July, 2010, http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/code_nap.html
Meyer, Michael-ed., Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings. (New York: The Modern Libray, 1984.) , 391.
With nationalistic ideals, countries involved in the war went full force with weapons and men. According to document 6, “In the coming century, the German nation will either be the hammer or the anvil.” The Germans need to have a strong military with warfare to prevent them from loosing to keep their nation alive. Document 12 is a graph that shows the amount of money spent during the war. Germany had the highest increase in expenses from 1890 – 1914, as they were going full force in the war. “I believe that a war is unavoidable, and the sooner the better.” (doc. 15) Germany was a very patriotic country; as the war was not avoidable for them. Militarism helped cause World War I because each country with nationalism in its core was heavily devoted to the
Kreis, Steven. “Europe and the Superior Being: Napoleon.” The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European Intellectual History. 13 May. 2004. 6 Dec. 2004.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. Professor David Hennessy, 1845.
Douglas, Frederick. Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (The Harper Single Volume American Literature 3rd edition) 1845:p.1017-1081
He was the son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, his mother, Herleva, the daughter of a tanner of Falaise. In 1035 William’s father Robert, Duke of Normandy, went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, in which he died. Before starting the pilgrimage, he presented to the nobles his seven year old child demanding their allegiance. "He is little", the father said, "but he will grow, and, if God please, he will mend." William, after a period of anarchy, became the ruler of Normandy in his father's place at the age of nine. William had a youth of clean life and of much natural piety, while the years of storm and stress through which he passed gave him an endurance of character which lasted to his life's end. During the time of anarchy in Normandy he became a skilled military leader and defeated his enemies, uniting his duchy. Once he began fighting, rumor has it that he never lost a battle.
Barnett, Peter. “The French Revolution in Art”. ArtId, January 7th 2009. Web. 5th May 2013.