Prussia, Austria, and the Westernization of Russia

This is Unit Three of Western Civilization Two, part one of two: Prussia, Austria and Russia, the three eastern monarchies that copied Louis the Fourteenth, and the tsar who went west in disguise. Unit two closed on the kingdom that refused absolutism and grew stronger for it. This unit is the three that built it, and its governing idea, which part two pays off, is one bargain. Louis had beaten and then bought his nobles; the eastern monarchs could afford neither, so they paid their nobles in peasants. This part shows the bargain three times: Prussia's Great Compromise of sixteen fifty-three, Austria's robot in Bohemia and its resistance in Hungary, and Russia's serfdom by law in sixteen forty-nine, with Spain as the monarchy that could not bargain at all. Then Peter begins, working in Dutch shipyards and taxing his nobles' beards. The first of the exam's sample questions lives here, the Ottoman Empire on three continents, and it rests on the witness. By the end you will be able to describe Prussia from the Compromise to the Soldier-King. To describe Austria's bargain and the Turks at Vienna. To describe Habsburg after Westphalia and Spain's failure. To trace Russia to serfdom by law. And to describe Peter's embassy and his beards.

Four entries on Prussia: how every monarchy imitated Louis, the Great Compromise, the office that ran taxes from the army, and the king who wore his uniform everywhere.

Every state, its own compromise.

WC2 0201 Imitating Louis: Palaces, Taxes, Officials, Compromises

Almost every monarchy copied Louis the Fourteenth: a Versailles of its own, new taxes forced by the military revolution and his wars, and reliance on royal officials. From Sweden to Austria, king and nobles compromised at the peasants' expense. Imitation was never copying; each state built absolutism on its own compromise, and this unit's three compromises share one currency.

Taxes for an army, peasants for the nobles.

WC2 0202 Brandenburg-Prussia: Scattered Lands and the Great Compromise of 1653

In sixteen eighteen the elector of Brandenburg inherited East Prussia, unconnected lands. In sixteen fifty-three the Great Elector's Compromise gave him taxes for a standing army and law without noble oversight; the nobles got a land monopoly and their peasants, serfdom made permanent and the Junkers bound to the crown. The anchor calls him king; he was elector until seventeen-oh-one.

Soldiers guaranteed taxes, taxes paid soldiers.

WC2 0203 The Prussian Tax-and-War Office: An Efficient State Built From the Army

Prussia became, in the anchor's judgment, the most successful absolutist state after France by running tax collection out of the war office at twice French efficiency: one apparatus gathered revenue, paid the army and managed the royal domains. Taxes existed to pay soldiers, and soldiers guaranteed taxes. The anchor names the office and a founder; no witness confirms either.

A king in a few rooms.

WC2 0204 King in Prussia, 1701, and an Army With a Country

Frederick the First gained the title King in Prussia in seventeen-oh-one, the witness's date. His son Frederick William, the Soldier-King, put all state power into the army, thirty thousand to eighty-three thousand by the anchor's figures, with conscription and reserves. He lived in a few rooms and wore his uniform everywhere: an army with a country, the anchor says.

Two entries on the Habsburgs and their frontier: three kingdoms and three bargains, and the Turks at Vienna in sixteen eighty-three.

Three kingdoms, three bargains.

WC2 0205 Austria: Diverse Domains, Bohemia's Robot, Hungary's Resistance

The Habsburgs' ancestral state was the Empire's most powerful, but diversity blocked absolutism. In Bohemia the crown won control by letting nobles work their peasants three days a week unpaid, the robot; in Hungary the nobles resisted. One dynasty, three kingdoms, three bargains: the same trade of serfs for taxes as Prussia, without Prussia's concentration.

Three continents, and a siege.

WC2 0206 The Ottoman Frontier: Vienna 1683 and an Empire on Three Continents

The anchor mentions Austria's Turkish wars without dates, so the witness supplies them: the Ottomans reached Vienna in sixteen eighty-three before being pushed back, and at their height held the Middle East, northern Africa and much of southeastern Europe, three continents, until a Holy League drove them south. This entry is witness-built, and the exam's Ottoman question wants the three continents.

Two entries on the dynasty and its rival: what Habsburg meant after Westphalia, and Spain, the absolutism that failed.

Habsburg came to mean Austrian.

WC2 0207 Habsburg Austria After Westphalia, and Maria Theresa

Charles the Fifth split the dynasty at his abdication in fifteen fifty-six, Spain to his son and the imperial lands to his brother; the Spanish line died in seventeen hundred. After Westphalia, the anchor says, Habsburg meant Austrian: Austria, Hungary, Bohemia. Maria Theresa, from seventeen forty, rationalized offices and kept subjects loyal. The anchor's fifteen fifty-eight is corrected on the witness.

Reforms on Richelieu's model that failed.

WC2 0208 Spain: The Absolutism That Failed

Spain was bankrupt by the sixteen twenties and split into near-independent territories, its king ruling only Castile directly. Reforms on Richelieu's model failed, regional parliaments revolted, Portugal broke away in sixteen forty, and the dynasty ended with Charles the Second in seventeen hundred. A small middle class, nobles barring commoners from office, and, the witness says, a second-rank power; Cervantes wrote its nostalgia.

Three entries on Russia before Peter: Kiev, the Horde and two Ivans, thirty years without a sovereign, and the law that chained the peasants.

Orthodoxy from Byzantium, terror from Ivan.

WC2 0209 From Kiev to Muscovy: Orthodoxy, the Mongol Yoke, Ivan III and Ivan IV

Swedish Vikings, the Rus, mixed with Slavs around Kiev and took Orthodoxy from Byzantium; the Mongols' Golden Horde ruled from the thirteenth century. Ivan the Third of Moscow threw off the Horde; Ivan the Fourth, crowned Tsar of All the Russias in fifteen forty-seven by the witness's date, took the title and broke the boyars by terror. His atrocities are the anchor's account, attributed.

A dynasty chosen by nobles.

WC2 0210 The Time of Troubles and the First Romanov, 1613

After Ivan's death in fifteen eighty-four Russia passed thirty years without a recognized sovereign: noble independence, civil war, invasion. In sixteen thirteen an assembly of nobles elected Michael, the first Romanov, and weak tsars followed, facing risings. The dynasty that ruled to nineteen seventeen began as a nobles' choice. The witness has the Troubles; the election date is the anchor's.

Land abundant, hands scarce.

WC2 0211 Serfdom by Law, 1649: Too Much Land, Too Few Peasants

In sixteen forty-nine serfdom was instituted across Russia, the anchor's date. Peasants had fled to Siberia and the borderlands, and in a land-rich, labor-poor country the state bound them to the soil and to conscription, legally little better than slaves. Land abundant, hands scarce, so the hands were chained. Prussia fixed serfdom by law four years later.

Two entries on Peter's beginning: a tsar who worked in shipyards under a false name, and a nobility shaved, redressed and sent abroad.

A letter to a tsar twelve years dead.

WC2 0212 Peter the Great, 1682 to 1725: A Tsar Disguised as a Workman

Russia was so little known that Louis the Fourteenth wrote to a tsar twelve years dead. Peter, tsar from sixteen eighty-two and sole ruler from ninety-six by the witness, which also has Azov taken that year, learned of the West from foreigners and traveled there on the Grand Embassy, working disguised in shipyards to learn ships and military organization. Seven feet tall, the anchor says, attributed.

A shaved face as a test of loyalty.

WC2 0213 Westernizing the Nobility: Beards, Dress, Schooling Abroad, Service

Peter forced Western dress and manners on the nobility and sent noble children abroad to study. The witness dates the beard and robe taxes to September sixteen ninety-eight and the new calendar to ninety-nine. Boyars were pushed into military schooling and officer service. Westernization meant the nobility; the peasants paid for it, as part two's conscription shows.

Look at what you can now do. You can describe Prussia from the Great Compromise through the tax-and-war office to the Soldier-King's army with a country. You can describe Austria's three bargains and the Turks at Vienna in sixteen eighty-three, an empire on three continents, which the witness supplies for the exam's first sample question. You can describe Habsburg meaning Austrian after Westphalia, Maria Theresa, and Spain's failure to bargain at all. You can trace Russia from Kiev and the Horde through the Troubles to serfdom by law in sixteen forty-nine. And you can describe Peter's Grand Embassy and the beards, dress and schooling he forced on his nobles. Part two conscripts one serf in twenty, builds a city on a marsh, names the Table of Ranks the exam asks about, and pays the bargain off.