Serfdom strengthened Juncker’s political dominance. From the perspective of social development, serfdom was a barbaric and backward mode of production. Serfs not only worked for the landlords for free, but also provided their own livestock and farm tools. Their property was arbitrarily deprived of, they had no personal freedom at all, and they were imprisoned in the landlord's farm and were not allowed to move.
However, if we look at this system in the historical context of the rise of Prussia, we will find something unusual. People today can criticize Frederick II for "strengthening the autocratic system of military Junker landowners and promoting servile education to his subjects" in Prussia as a historical retrogression, but they ignore the most basic fact that the pillar of the Prussian kingdom at that time They are nobles, and the strength of the nobles lies in their possession of vast real estate and the exploitation of serfs. From this perspective, there would be no Junkers without serfdom, and without the support of Junkers, the powerful Prussian monarchy could only be an empty talk. Promote mercantilism and focus on economic development. Germany's main rivers heading north to the sea, such as the Rhine, Weser, Elbe, and Oder, all flow through Brandenburg's territory, which gives Prussia an advantage for economic development. geographical location.
The rulers of Prussia also regarded industry and commerce as an important wealth. They dug canals, built bridges and roads, unified the currency system, and implemented protective tariffs to develop the economy.
At the same time, Prussia also focused on exploring overseas markets. In 1788, it exported more than 11,000 tons of pig iron to Britain. By the 1880s, Prussia had established three trading companies: the Eastern Mediterranean Trading Company, the China Trading Company, and the Bengal Trading Company. Encourage immigration and accommodate Protestants. Martin Luther's religious reform and the victory of the German Protestant Alliance in the Thirty Years' War made Prussia a paradise on earth for those who were fleeing religious persecution in Europe at that time.
By 1703, about 20,000 Huguenots moved from France to settle in Brandenburg, accounting for 1/9 of the city's residents at that time. These people were all skilled craftsmen or businessmen with certain capital. As a result, French industry and commerce suffered serious losses, while Prussia benefited. In addition to French immigrants, immigrants from other countries also entered the country in large numbers.
According to statistics, by 1740 Prussia had a population of 2.4 million, of which foreign immigrants alone accounted for a quarter, as many as 600,000. Brandenburg was the area hardest hit by the Thirty Years' War, and immigrants injected great vitality into its revival, allowing Prussia to achieve economic recovery and prosperity earlier than other German states. Rulers have a strong sense of worry and are less likely to be corrupted. Different from the extravagance prevalent in European royal families at that time, several generations of Prussian rulers lived a puritan-style frugal life that was almost masochistic in order to save precious military and government expenses. For example, when Frederick II's father Wilhelm I (the same person as the later Prussian emperor with the same name) was on the throne, Prussian diplomatic envoys were "famous" in Europe for being shabby and dirty. As for the prominent members of the royal family, whether they are princes, princesses, princesses or even the king himself, their food is poorly cooked and their meals are simple and meager, almost to the point of starvation. Because frugality reached the point of stinginess, people called William I the "Beggar King" behind his back. The ruling class followed the trend and promoted various reforms in a timely manner. The ruling class of Prussia was not like the feudal aristocrats of other European countries who blindly followed the old ways and stubbornly refused all changes. They are good at sizing up the situation and promoting reform from the top down (of course, they are also forced by the situation), and firmly control the leadership position of the reform, thereby not only complying with the historical trend, but also avoiding their own power. Unlike the formal reforms of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, most of the Prussian kings were able to stick to the reforms instead of abandoning the achievements of their predecessors halfway. This not only ensured the coherence of Prussia's major policies, but also kept the entire country on an upward path. momentum.
Take Prussia’s serfdom reform as an example. During the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia suffered successive defeats and was almost destroyed. The disastrous defeat of the war and the signing of the humiliating peace treaty enabled the Prussians to see more and more clearly the decline of serfdom society from the contest between feudal Germany and capitalist France. A group of far-sighted people deeply influenced by the ideas of the British and French bourgeoisie loudly called for reform of the old feudal order. Under this severe situation, Prussia began difficult reforms.
In October 1807, Baron Stein, who presided over state affairs, promulgated the "October Edict" to liberate the peasants, making Prussia finally take a step forward on the road to transforming from feudal serfdom to a bourgeois society. A major step forward.
However, the first round of reforms was not thorough, which made the Prussian bourgeois liberals very dissatisfied with Junkers' continued occupation of large amounts of land and manpower, so they once turned to the Nazis during the European Revolution of 1848. * and opposition to imperialism. In order to collude with each other and coordinate interests to consolidate power, the Juncker landlord class government promulgated the "Law to Adjust the Relations between Landlords and Peasants" in March 1850, thus finally completing the serfdom reform that began in 1807.
As a result of the reform, the capitalists obtained the cheap labor necessary to develop large industry, and the bourgeoisie was satisfied with the monarchy; by collecting high ransoms from serfs, a large amount of ceded land and wealth quickly accumulated to In the hands of the Junkers, the landlord class also made a windfall; but only the peasants went bankrupt, lost their land and livestock, and became semi-proletarians in large numbers, and then became wage workers in capitalist factories and Junker estates. This "experience" of the Prussian ruling class provided an excellent "model" for the subsequent serfdom reform in Tsarist Russia in 1861. The Awakening of the German National Consciousness The most important factor in the rise of Prussia is the human factor. The German nation has a strong desire to restore and rejuvenate the country. This has been the result of hundreds of years. Since the 16th century, due to division, the German nation was not a political entity in the eyes of Europeans, and was also considered a lifeless nation. It was this long-term humiliation and contempt that inspired the Germans' enterprising spirit of self-improvement and internalized it into the source of power for Prussia's rise.
It is also because of this spirit that they learn advanced things from foreign countries and vigorously develop education. The achievements of the Kingdom of Prussia in this regard are most praised by later generations. In order to implement nationalist education, Prussia began to implement compulsory national education in 1717, making it the first country in the world to implement compulsory education. It is worth noting that in 1763, Frederick II promulgated the "School Regulations", which made it mandatory for children aged 5 to 14 to attend school, and appointed veterans as principals to provide paramilitary training to students.
All this laid a solid foundation for Prussia to form a well-disciplined and high-quality army in the future. The education system reforms implemented by Humboldt after he became Prussia's supreme education minister in 1809 became the cornerstone of Germany's scientific, cultural, and basic development over the next two hundred years. The University of Berlin (today's Humboldt University), founded in 1810, served as The world's first new university influenced the development of higher education in various countries throughout the 19th century.
In Prussia, military service and education were regarded as two basic obligations of citizens. According to statistics, among the major European countries in the second half of the nineteenth century, Germany had the lowest illiteracy rate. Germans were ahead of other European countries in terms of reading, writing, and calculation abilities, as well as in the practical application of scientific theories. Make good use of diplomatic means to maximize the benefits of your country. Whether it was the early King Friedrich II of Prussia or the later Prime Minister Bismarck, they were recognized as one of the most astute diplomats of their time. Although these people can be described as "treacherous, greedy, ruthless and treacherous" in order to achieve their own goals, it is undeniable that without their superb diplomatic skills, it is difficult to imagine that Prussia could survive and grow in Europe surrounded by great powers.
Uniting allies and isolating opponents is Prussia’s most basic diplomatic strategy. For example, the Customs Union that came into operation in 1834 was a great achievement for Prussia. It not only promoted economic development, but also made the whole of Germany begin to move closer to it politically. It not only enhanced Prussia's ability and determination to lead German reunification, but also gradually Politically and economically, excluding Austria from Germany was killing two birds with one stone.
The Customs Union is somewhat similar to today's European Union. Through political and economic integration, each (state) country will eventually move towards a unified national body. Prussia was good at winning over the German states. As a member of the Customs Union, these states received material benefits from it. In addition, their level of development had not reached even close to the level of Prussia. Therefore, Prussia became the desire of the bourgeoisie of these states. center. These bourgeois regarded Prussia as their economic vanguard and future political backer. In this way, Prussia began to rise to the leadership position of Germany.
The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars were driven by external forces. The military victory from 1805 to 1807 allowed Napoleon to occupy and control most of Germany, and the Kingdom of Prussia acted as a vassal of France's anti-British and anti-Russian forces. In order to safeguard and realize the interests of the French bourgeoisie, Napoleon implemented military occupation, political rule and diplomatic manipulation of Prussia. At the same time, he also vigorously implemented a series of reforms in the local area in accordance with the model of the French Bourgeois Revolution.
For example, the abolition of the privileges of the church and the nobility; the abolition of serfdom, the lifting of peasants' feudal obligations to landlords; the abolition of ancient rules and regulations, the abolition of guild regulations, etc. Although Napoleon's bourgeois reforms in Germany ultimately failed to persist due to frequent wars and strong obstruction by anti-French forces, this move has had a profound impact on the future development of Germany.
It was precisely because Napoleon violently purged the feudal separatist forces and fostered the growing capitalist relations that Germany had a truly modern industry and the German national bourgeoisie achieved considerable development. . Therefore Engels once said: "The founder of the German bourgeoisie is Napoleon... He is the representative of the revolution in Germany, the disseminator of revolutionary principles, and the gravedigger of the old feudal society."
To sum up, it was through such a special development path that Prussia was able to rise rapidly and complete the unification of modern Germany in just a hundred years. Therefore, Prussia sometimes became the spirit and culture of the Germans. synonymous with the "Prussian Road", and the evolution history of the "Prussian Road" also constantly gives us warnings and inspirations in a sense.