He built up his State again from the foundations. When he was young he had studied the philosophers of France. When he was older he profited by these studies. He at once abolished torture, and established complete religious freedom in his country. He tpok great care of education, as most Prussian rulers have done. He was very anxious to repair slowly the terrible ravages of the war, so that his people should not suffer more than was necessary. Supervising in agriculture and commerce, he gradually made the country once more prosperous and happy. All the power was in his hands, and as he used it to the best advantage, nothing oould have been better for his land and his people. No popular government could have built up Prussia as her early kings built it up.
Though Frederick fought in no more important wars after 1763, he gained great and valuable territories. The old kingdom of Poland was a large country, stretching from the Baltic straight across what is now Russia, to the Black Sea. But because the kings had so little power in Poland, because the numerous nobles remained independent and vain and quarrelsome, the kingdom inevitably fell to pieces. The people could not unite around one central figure, the monarch. Therefore they were powerless against the neighbouring states. In 1772 Frederick suggested that Russia, Austria and Prussia should divide the helpless, useless state of Poland between them. Russia took a great stretch of land, which is now South Russia; Austria took Galicia, and Prussia took that section called West Prussia, which ran along the Vistula to the Gulf of Danzig, cutting off Brandenburg from Prussia proper, or East Prussia. When Frederick annexed the Polish territory, the kingdom of Prussia naturally became one united solid state, stretching from Memel in the north of the Gulf of Danzig down to the river Elbe in one unbroken sweep. The people were German or German speaking, naturally near to one another, uniting naturally. When Frederick died in 1786 his kingdom was the envy of all Germany.
Particularly the Hapsburgs envied the growing, solid power of the Hohenzollerns. The Hapsburgs were still emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. But their lands were their own hereditary dominions: and here they were (1) Archdukes of Austria proper, which was Germanic and Catholic; (2) Kings of Hungary, where the Magyars were constantly claiming independence; (3) Kings and overlords of Bohemia and Moravia, where the Czechs and Slavs were chiefly Protestants; (4) Overlords of North Italy, where the people were utter foreigners to the Austrian Hapsburgs; (5) Overlords of the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium), where the people were Catholic, but either French-speaking or Flemish. Joseph II. of Austria, who succeeded Maria Theresa in 1765, hated, admired, and deeply envied Frederick the Great. He wanted to imitate him, and unite his power. But how could the Hapsburgs unite their dominions, scattered as they were across Europe; still more, how could they hope to unite German Austrians, Magyar Hungarians, Slavonic Czechs, Belgians, Flemings and Italians into one people or one nation? It was quite impossible.
It was revolution which brought the next great changes in Germany and Austria. Northern Europe was at first busy attending to Poland. That diminished country had made some progress, and King Stanislas II. really brought in a good constitution in 1790. But the neighbours of Poland, particularly Russia, did not intend the country to revive. They invaded Poland in 1792. Russia seized large territories, Prussia added to her dominions, to make them more compact. Poland was in a state of insurrection. Russia ordered her to disband her armies. The people now rose in rebellion, under the hero Kosciusko. This is called the Polish Revolution, and North Europe watched it even more closely, at first, than the French Revolution. Russia, Prussia and Austria turned against Kosciusko.
He was bound in the end to be defeated. In 1795 the third and last partition of Poland took place. Russia, Prussia and Austria all took their shares, and all promised that the name of Poland should never appear again on the map of Europe.
But by this time the armies of the French Revolution were becoming dangerous. In 1802 Napoleon had himself declared First Consul for life. This was a clear step towards supreme power. On August 4, 1804, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Francis h., proclaimed himself Francis i. Hereditary Emperor of Austria. At the same time Napoleon had asked the people of France to vote whether he himself should assume the royal title. They voted that he should, by three million votes against two thousand nine hundred. On December 2, 1804, Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of the French, in the presence of Pope Pius VII. So new titles came into being.
The Treaty of Luneville in 1801 carried the French frontier to the left bank of the Rhine. Various princes were thus disposed of. It was agreed that they should have compensation elsewhere. The Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire met at Ratisbon to settle the matter. France dictated in the business, and France worked against Austria. One hundred and twelve states were suppressed. Prussia was the chief gainer — she acquired three bishoprics. The political structure of Germany was much simplified from the form in which the Treaty of Westphalia had left it in 1658.
In 1805 a new coalition was formed between Britain, Russia and Austria. Prussia selfishly insisted on remaining neutral. On December 2,1805, Russians and Austrians were utterly defeated at Austerlitz. Napoleon occupied Vienna. In the peace that followed Prussia gave up Cleves and Anspach, but gained the great possession of Hanover. Napoleon forced the newly created kings of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, with thirteen other princes, to form a federation accepting the French Emperor, binding themselves to support him with their armies, and to separate themselves from all other Germanic bodies. Later other kingdoms, Saxony and Westphalia, were added, and the Confederation included the region between the Rhine and the Elbe, and held its Diet at Frankfort. Then Napoleon summoned Francis II. to lay down the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Francis yielded. On August 6, 1800, the abdication was made, and on that day the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist. Francis II. remained Emperor Francis i. of Austria. German independence was for the moment quite under the heel of the little Emperor of the French. But Prussia was as yet intact, though Britain had declared war on her, demanding Hanover, which belonged to the English Crown.
Prussia had not fought with France since 1795. She had been handled very carefully by French diplomacy. Now, however, her turn came. Iler armies were dissatisfied, remembering the glories of Frederick the Great, and counting their neutrality a dishonour. And although Prussia had gained Hanover as the price of her peace, Napoleon was secretly offering this state to Britain again.
Frederick William therefore declared war on France, on October 1, 1806. Within a fortnight, Napoleon was upon him. On October 10, the Prussians lost the battle of Saalfeld, on October 14 they were disastrously defeated at Jena. The Prussian fortresses were occupied. On October 24 Napoleon was at Potsdam. Two days after he visited the tomb of Frederick the Great, took possession of the sword and the Order of the Black Eagle which had belonged to the heroic king, and sent them as trophies to Paris. He remained in Berlin for a month, and issued against Britain the famous Berlin Decrees on November 26.
This six weeks’ conquest of Prussia staggered Europe. Napoleon seemed a miracle. Prussia had collapsed like a house of cards. Only in the north-east the King kept up a fierce resistance, relying on the Russians. But in June 1807 the Prussian and Russian armies were murderously broken by Napoleon at Friedland. Prussia and Russia then accepted the Peace of Tilsit, which marked the summit of Napoleon’s career. At this moment he seemed superhuman, almost a god. The Czar Alexander made an alliance with him against Britain. Russia lost nothing, but Prussia was heavily crushed. Large Prussian territories were taken away, and given to the King of Saxony. Napoleon made his brother, Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia. Prussia was compelled to join in the blockade of Britain, to admit French garrisons in all her fortresses, to pay a huge indemnity, and to reduce her army to a very small standing. The kingdom was almost wiped out.
After the Peace of Tilsit, however, Napoleon’s fortune declined. He was not successful in his naval conflict with Britain, nor in his Peninsular War, and then he made his utterly disastrous invasion of Russia.
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Meanwhile there was a new brave spirit roused in Prussia. Germany was under the heel of Napoleon. Now, with great heroism Prussia began to set her government in order, reorganise her armies, and in a new spirit to prepare for better days. Under the minister Stein serfdom was abolished, the peasants were given a direct interest in the State, whilst conscription, which was already applied to the peasants, was applied just the same to the upper classes. This patient working for improvement and strength, even whilst the French troops were in their garrisons, shows the deep courage of the Prussians.
As the French army, after the catastrophe of the advance to Moscow, began the retreat into Germany, the Prussian armies began to join the Russians. In January 1813 the Prussian king left Berlin for Breslau, and iscued the appeal for liberty. The whole German nation rose. English money supplied them with food and clothing, otherwise they could not have stirred. But again Napoleon, gathering a huge army, defeated the Germans at Lutzen and occupied Dresden. Crossing the Elbe, he once more defeated Blucher and the Prussians, and then he made an armistice with them.
All the while Britain spent her money freely in helping Prussia and Russia, and in keeping them in the Coalition, into which she persuaded Austria to enter. When, in a few weeks, the armistice ended, Napoleon found himself in Dresden confronted by a world in arms. He won the last great battle of Dresden, driving back the Russians and Prussians after two days’ fighting. This was in August 1813.
The end was near. Instead of pursuing the enemy into Bohemia, Napoleon had set his mind on marching to Berlin. It was a mistake. The allies gathered their forces. They were 300,000 men against Napoleon’s 180,000 when the two armies met in October. The Battle of Leipsic, or the Battle of the Nations, as it was called, was really a week’s campaign, and it resulted in the complete overthrow of the French. Napoleon retired sullenly towards Paris. The allied armies pressed after him. Napoleon was forced to surrender. He abdicated in 1814, and retired to Elba.
The Battle of Leipsic completely destroyed Napoleon’s work in Germany. The great Confederation of the Rhine, made of German princes bound to support Napoleon, was dissolved. The princes recovered their territories, the fortresses of the Elbe were regained. Blucher, the Prussian general, marching with the allied armies after Napoleon into France, won victories that led to the surrender of the Emperor of the French.
After the Hundred Days, Wellington with Blucher’s assistance finally defeated the French at Waterloo, and Europe saw the last of Napoleon. Europe now wanted peace. When the allied statesmen met at the Congress of Vienna, they had the whole of Europe to settle. One of the most difficult problems was Germany. France went back to her frontiers of 1792. The old, decrepit Holy Roman Empire was not restored. Thirty-nine sovereign princes and free cities were recognised in Germany — the three hundred and fifty of the Peace of Westphalia thus reduced to about a tenth of the number. These thirty-nine states were joined into a perpetual ‘ German Confederation,’ of which the president was Austria, whilst Prussia was by far the most powerful, and next to Prussia, Bavaria, which was Catholic, and had long been a favoured ally of Napoleon.
Chapter XVIII. Italy
After the Renaissance, when the great towns fell from their splendour and independence and came again largely under foreign rule, Italy dropped behind the progress movement of the North. Armies came and went, dukes and emperors appeared and disappeared, kings passed by, German, French, Spanish tongues sounded in authority through the land. And under all this the Italians remained provincial and local, ignorant, apart from the changing world. Catholic in spirit, attached by warm blood-passion to their native place, they kept to that which was sure, the fellowship of their own townsmen, the abiding rock of the Catholic Church. In the towns they governed their own affairs under alien masters, they felt safe and sure in their own piazza, the open square where the church stood, where the priest passed and gave a sense of permanency, where nobles rode gaily through. Their own affairs, their own passions, these alone interested them. And the peasant in the country woke to the clanging of bells: at noon the bells rang sharp across the field to bid him rest awhile and eat: he waited for the bells to call him home at dusk. The church gave him the day and marked it out for him: the priest gave him peace after confession; and a little wine, a little excited talk with his neighbours, with singing and merrymaking at the church feasts, filled his life well enough. Why should he bother about what was beyond? He clung sensitively to his own place, his own village fellows, his own priest, the sound of the sacred, sudden bells from the campanile.
So the years passed, while the North, England, Germany, France were struggling with kings and parliaments and commerce. The Italians let those rule who must rule,: those think and struggle who must. For their part, they I had enough with their own private troubles and passions j and intrigues. Out of the bitter Beyond came armies of j Germans, French, Spaniards, and into the bitter Beyond they disappeared again. Or else they did not disappear, but remained like a necessary evil.
In the eighteenth ccntury Spanish power practically ‘ came to an end in Italy. Austrian possession was confined to the North. The various states of the peninsula were fairly prosperous, poorest in the South; and on the whole, the people were as free as elsewhere in Europe, save Britain. Those in one state did not bother about those in another state. The subjects of the Pope felt they had no more connection with the subjects of Piedmont in Turin than with the subjects of France in Paris. There was no Italy — only a bunch of states with their peoples and their petty princes or their great princes, the luxurious, refined, profligate courts, the indifferent rule. Feudal conditions still existed, almost mediaeval serfdom, and in parts the peasants were bitterly poor. But men were men, and on the whole, rich and poor alike, they were perhaps more human in Italy than in the progressive countries.
Into all this Napoleon Bonaparte burst roughly, in his campaigns of 1796 and 1801. He defeated Austria, he brought the peninsula to his feet, and let in a blast of fresh air from the North which startled the soft Italians. He made Italy a kingdom of his own, took all the power from princes and Pope, set Murat, his general, on the throne of Bourbon Naples, and established a French republican government. Feudalism was abolished, and men were made free to rise in the world, instead of being tied down to one condition. The land system was revolutionised, the peasants given their share. Monasteries were suppressed to help to pay the great national debt. Primary schools were established all over Lom- bardy and Naples, and priests were put into the background.
So, quite suddenly, Italy came into the grasp of the modern world. And quite quickly, men began to appreciate the change. They breathed a new air, they felt more alive, new doors seemed opened. Italian soldiers brought back a proud name for bravery from Napoleon’s great victories. And Napoleon, who hated Austria and the Pope, encouraged Italians in all parts to be Italian, not to think of themselves as Papal or Austrian or Neapolitan subjects. New ideas spread: ideas of equality and liberty and free thought. The old monotony was gone, the old submissiveness interrupted. Doctors, lawyers, middle-class citizens were given a share in state government. The power of princes was shaken for ever, and the ten states into which the peninsula had been divided suddenly had disappeared. Italy was all suddenly united.
But it was too sudden. There were new grievances. More than 60,000 Italians fell in Spain and Russia, conscripted by Napoleon for a quarrel that was none of theirs. Taxation became very heavy. Napoleon insulted the Pope and angered Italian instincts. After the Russian campaign French rule became hateful in the peninsula, particularly in the dark-minded South.
Waterloo made an end of Napoleon’s Italy. Down in the South, the brave Murat was chased away, and finally killed. With British help, the ignominious Bourbons returned to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, as Naples with South Italy and Sicily was called. At the dividing up of Europe, the Pope added to his papal states the Romagna and the Marches, the large and valuable province along the Adriatic, whose towns are Bologna, R
avenna, Ancona; Austria recovered Lombardy, and was given Venice and the Venetian territory, which before had been a republic; in the North, the one strong Italian power of Piedmont, ruled by the House of Savoy, called Kings of Sardinia, held its own against Austria and added to itself the Riviera territory and Genoa, so that the Genoese republic disappeared, like the Venetian; Austrian Leopold returned to the independent Grand-Duchy of Tuscany, where he ruled, however, with Tuscan ministers; Duke Francis, another Austrian prince, ruled in Modena; Napoleon’s Austrian wife, Maria Louisa, became Duchess of Parma and ruled kindly enough; while a princess of a Spanish house had the little duchy of Lucca.
So there was a great return of princes and rulers back to their states, whilst republics vanished, after the Congress of Vienna. In Italy, as in Spain and in Germany, the people wildly and joyfully welcomed back their old masters. Even the vile Ferdinand of Naples met with the same reception as sonic of the better princes of the North, and was hailed as if he were a god. Whereas Murat had been a much finer man.
Safe on their thrones once more, these princes set about to pull to pieces the work of the hated Bonaparte. The world must go back, back. But some of Napoleon’s reforms were too obvious to be done away with. Yet the spirit was killed even when the letter remained. Life was driven back. And soon Italians were thinking with wonder and admiration of the great days of Napoleonic government and Murat’s kingdom. Feudal privileges, monasteries, government by priests, courts of clerical justice — all the old abuses were restored. Only in Piedmont the people stubbornly but passively resisted the pushing back of life, and before long certain of the ministers of Napoleonic days were in office under the King of Sardinia.
Complete Works of D.H. Lawrence Page 917