Prussia

[Ruggery]

.. I think it's safe to say that without the Thirty Years War Prussia would have never existed..


Another historical catastrophe which in the end brought about a miraculous change in the way things were going ( in this case a state within a state in the Holy Roman ( German ) Empire, thriving on enrolling people from different backgrounds and expanding, expanding ... )

Was there no German league or union of Catholic or Protestant counties left?

[Cold Fire]

Was there no German league or union of Catholic or Protestant counties left?

.. with the end of the Thirty Years War the Catholic/ Protestant alliances were dissolved..

After all, the end of the war should mark an end to the Catholic- Protestant quarrels..

.. what was Catholic remained Catholic and what was Protestant remained Protestant...


.. I think it is the fact that Germany , as I have said before , wasn't one unity, but split into different regions with different rulers which more often than not also had own interests / advantages in mind which was the reason that Prussia in a way was able to 'take more and more of Germany ' .. AND the Hohenzollerns who were the Prussian ruling class had possessions all throughout the German region ( like I said, they originally were from Southwestern Germany, but as we all know , nobility-families at all time were good in marrying people from other families which gave them some involvement in territories from others from time to time ).. For example the Hohenzollerns, apart from also having the baltic region of Prussia also had possessions on the Rhine...

In time the state of Prussia got more and more ..


.. no , after the Thirty Years War there was no more Catholic league , nor a Protestant one... And the dividedness of the German region in a way maybe even made it easy for Prussia.. And the Hohenzollerns had possessions scattered throughout Germany .. I suppose one could even say they only had to ' connect some dots' to expand . . .

As said before , the Austrian-stemming house of Habsburg were in a way "in their way "..

That's why many people see a thread of Habsburg - > <- Prussia dualism running through Germany's history..

[thatoneton]

What you forgot to add is that Prussia was originally a West Baltic region inhabited by the eponymous Prussians (now many times called "Old Prussians" since their name of Prussians was taken by the German occupiers) that was invaded and had its culture and ethnic identity erased by the invading Teutonic Knights, who came there as vassals of Polish dukes of Mazovia, during the time when Poland became fragmented and weak and was unable to defend itself from the constant raids by the pagan Prussians.

The Teutonic Knights, using the support of the German emperors and significant financial and military contribution from all over Europe grew in power ever more and with time their "crusade" of forcibly converting Prussians by massacring entire villages and torturing people to bring them into submission (which was never their goal as they were only meant to serve as protectors of the Christian Poles and help regain some Polish lands that were lost to the Prussians) made them so powerfull and so bold that they started to invade Polish lands on their own. When they finally took the most important Polish port city of Gdańsk the things started to come to blows.

Despite the huge support they were receiving and using whatever resources they had it was still not enough and their threat ended after what Polish lands managed to reunite into another united Poland allied with Lithuania and destroyed the Teutons first during the Battle of Grunwald - in was was one of the biggest battle of the Middle Ages - and later during the Thirteen Years War Poland allied with many former Teuton cities defeated them and made them vassals.

Poland later allowed the former Teutonic Order to become Protestant and their lands became a Duchy of Prussia, a Polish vassal ruled by the Albert, who was a great-grandson of the Polish King Władysław Jagiełło who led Poland in the battle of Grunwald, and as such Albert was a relative of the king Sigismund the Old, which likely played a role in the decision to allow him to rule the area.
However the Poles made a grievious mistake of allowing Prussia be taken over (still as vassals of Poland) by the Hohenzollern branch of Brandenburg, which made Prussia try ever harder to get rid of the Polish overlordship.
It finally did so when during the half of the XVII century Poland had its own "Thirty Years War" (or rather Twenty Years War) in the form of the Deluge (1648-1667), which left Poland totally destroyed and depopulated (it is estimated that around 1/3 of the population perished during this period and it was even more devastating then the immense tragedy of World War 2).

During this time in 1657 as most of Poland was occupied by the Sweden and Russia, a major alliance was made (Treaty of Radnot) which saw Sweden ally with Lithuanian prince Radziwiłł who betrayed Poland, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a rebellious leader of the Zaporogian Cossacks, George Rakoczi of Transylvania and Frederick of Brandenburg and Prussia to divide the Republic among themselves.

As Poland saw itself in a dire situation it managed to defuse the threat by defeating the alliance, while agreeing to make Prussia independent (Prussia still was technically to provide allied troops to Poland, which it soon abandoned).

While Poland managed to get rid of the foreign invaders it had to give up a significant portion of its lands to neighbours (mostly Russia) and although it managed to regain a part of its power and defeated the Ottomans in the battle of Vienna, in the XVIII century it started to become controlled by its neighbours who were using its democratic institution to gain influence and was finally partitioned during the late XVIII century by the absolutist powers that surrounded it (Prussia being the main instigator of the partitions).

As such Prussia, which became known as the most militaristic state of Europe, came to possess a major Polish population and during the XIX century it instigated a series of openly anti-Polish policies meant to germanize the Polish population of Pomerania, Silesia (which Prussia gained in the XVIII century from Austria), Greater Poland and Prussia itself (Masuria and Warmia) which greatly contributed to the mutual German-Polish hatred.

In the aftermath of WW1 Prussia (which came to be known as East Prussia in the XIX century to differentiate it from other areas that Prussia gained, both in Poland and Brandenburg, during the XVIII and XIX century) still held by Germany, became the main reason for German revanchism towards Poland during the Interbellum period, and, with its contempt of the Polish Polish which became a major theme in the Imperial Germany, also indirectly contributed to the Nazi genocide of Poles during WW2.

As such as a major reason for German militarism in the aftermath of WW2 the Allies finally decided to liquidate Prussia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolition_of_Prussia which was one of the major changes which contributed to the relatively peaceful period of time Europe has witnessed ever since.

[Cold Fire]

.. I think one can sum Prussia up as follows.

Make no mistake about the fact that in federal Germany often different powers competed , in a way ..


This of course also included nobility-houses over the course of time..

As I said, the Habsburgs for a long time were at the forefront.


The Prussian Hohenzollerns have used tactics I have described above ..