AD 1650-1800 Early modern

In the Holy Roman Empire (modern Germany, Austria and neighbouring areas) many individual states emerged stronger after the Thirty Years’ War (AD 1618-48), while the power of the Habsburg Emperors declined. In spite of European dynastic wars in the 18th century, rulers continued to centralise power. The most striking development was the rise of Brandenburg-Prussia as a major European power, rival to Austria.

The magnificent French court of Louis XIV, and many of the ideas of the Enlightenment (a European intellectual movement which emphasised the use of reason to acquire knowledge about the world – it also stressed liberty and revolution), were adopted by rulers of other great European states. A variety of governments flourished in the small western imperial states, from civic rule in ‘free’ cities like Hamburg, to principalities like Württemberg, which had a working parliament throughout the 18th century.

The French revolution (1789) found the Empire weakened by the conflicting political ambitions of individual states. French armies invaded in 1792 and quickly overran the area of modern Germany. In the west, the Low Countries and Switzerland welcomed Napoleon’s reforms. Austria and Prussia were allowed to survive, with curtailed frontiers. Many of the smallest states vanished, and the Holy Roman Empire ended in 1806. National revolution in Poland (1791-4) was brutally suppressed by Russia, and only Scandinavia and Russia escaped Napoleonic reconstruction.