PRUSSIA

PRUSSIA was the leading State of the German Empire. It was de facto abolished 1934 and de jure abolished in 1947. The areas it contained are today part of Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium,
Czech Republic, and Switzerland.

Prussia occupied about two-thirds of the imperial territory, and contributed three-fifths of the population. It stretched from Holland and Belgium in the W. to Russia in the E., had Jutland and the sea on the N., and Lorraine, Bavaria, Hesse-Darmstadt, Saxony, and Austria on the S.; the SW. portion was hilly and the soil often poor, but containing valuable mineral deposits; the N. and E. belonged to the great European plain, devoted to agriculture and grazing; Hesse-Cassel is extremely fertile, and Nassau produced excellent wine; in the E. and in Hanover were extensive forests; Silesia, Westphalia, and Rhenish Prussia contain the chief coal-fields, and were consequently the chief industrial provinces; half the zinc of the world was mined in Prussia; lead, iron, copper, antimony, &c., were also wrought; the Hartz Mountains were noted for their mines; Salt, amber, and precious stones were found on the Baltic shores; textiles, metal wares, and beer were the main industries; Berlin and Elberfeld were the two chief manufacturing centres on the Continent; the great navigable rivers, Niemen, Vistula, Oder, Elbe, Weser, Rhine, and their tributaries and canals, excellent railways, and her central European position all favoured Prussia's commerce, while her coast-line, harbours, and growing mercantile fleet put her in communication with the markets of the world; seven-eighths of the people were Germans; Slavonic races were represented by Poles, Wends, Lithuanians, and Czechs, while the Danes appeared in Schleswig-Holstein; the prevailing religion was Protestant; education was compulsory and good; there were ten universities in the beginning of nineteenth century, and many great libraries and educational institutions; the Prussian was the largest contingent in the German army; the king of Prussia was emperor of Germany. The basis of the Prussian people was laid by German colonists placed amid the pagan Slavs whom they had conquered by the Teutonic knights of the 13th century; in 1511 their descendants chose a Hohenzollern prince; a century later the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg succeeded; despite the Thirty Years' War Prussia became a European State, and was recognised as a kingdom in 1703; Frederick the Great (1740-1786) enlarged its bounds and developed its resources; the successive partitions of Poland added to her territory; humiliated by the peace of Tilsit 1807, and ruined by the French occupation, she recovered after Waterloo; William I. and Bismarck still further increased her territory and prestige; by the Austrian War of 1866 and the French War of 1870-71 her position as premier State in the German Confederation was assured.