In 1780, Theresa died, and her son Joseph II inherited the throne. Although it is said that, strictly speaking, Joseph II currently holds substantial power, because he in 176

Five years after his father's death, he inherited the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. After Joseph had substantial power, he adopted very radical reform measures to further strengthen centralization, abolished serfdom, and strictly restricted

Catholic power.

However, this series of measures taken by Joseph violated the interests of the nobility, so it also intensified the contradictions in democracy. The main reason was that ordinary civilians simply could not figure out these things. By 1790, Joseph II died, and he gave himself

The epitaph reads: Here sleeps a king who was pure in heart but saw all his efforts fail.

But we cannot deny that the reforms of Theresa and Joseph II indeed achieved great achievements and were also the beginning of Austria's modernization.

Next, let’s talk about Prussia, which we just mentioned above: Prussia was actually a small vassal state of the Holy Roman Empire. It was not very powerful at first, but King William I worked hard to govern and expand armaments, and gradually became a military power in Europe.

William I called himself the Soldier King and believed that a king must be an excellent military strategist. He increased taxes on the people in the country, then expanded the army, forced farmers to serve as soldiers, and reduced the Prussian army from the original 40,000 people.

The number rose to more than 90,000, and they also participated in the Northern War against Swedish hegemony.

But the biggest headache for William I was his son Frederick. Frederick did not like military affairs, but liked music. In fact, Frederick had been influenced by French culture since he was a child, and he wanted to be a musician and philosopher.

.He was not only able to play the flute skillfully, compose his own music, but also wrote many beautiful poems. When William I saw Frederick's situation, he was very angry, and he was really angry, so he thought that his son Frederick

What he learned were completely useless things. It was precisely because of this incident that Frederick had a very fierce conflict with his father William I. Even Frederick was preparing to flee to England with his friends.

As a result, Frederick was intercepted by his father on the way. In the end, William I imprisoned Frederick. Later, Frederick felt that he was no match for his father at present, so he gave in and expressed his willingness to study military affairs.

Only then did he gain freedom.

In 1740, William I died, and Frederick came to the throne and was called Frederick II. After Frederick II came to the throne, he no longer indulged in literature and art, but worked diligently in political affairs and worked hard every day.

He got up at four or five in the morning and worked until late at night. The clothes he usually wore were the most ordinary soldier uniforms, and he only wore a robe when attending celebrations. Frederick II's life was simply extremely extreme.

He was simple, and his officials' salaries were very small. He required officials to strictly abide by the law and severely punish corruption. In fact, in this era, corruption has long been common in various European countries, and only Prussian officials were very

honest.

In order to enhance national strength, Frederick II promulgated a series of laws and vigorously developed the economy. He organized people to transform rivers, drain swamps, provide livestock and seeds to farmers, and issue loans. He established mines in Silesia, which is very rich in mining areas.

market, many factories were built in Berlin.

The rise of Prussia is inseparable from their having a very powerful army. Frederick II built the army above all else. He expanded the original army of only more than 90,000 people to more than 200,000.

Four-fifths of the country's revenue was spent on military expenditures. Therefore, the Prussian army was very well-equipped, well-trained, and disciplined.

Frederick II led his army to fight everywhere. After two wars, Prussia occupied Silesia, the richest and most industrially developed country in Austria. It was like taking the jewel in the Austrian crown, gaining 35,000 square meters.

Kilometers of land, the area of ​​the country directly increased by one-third, and the strength also increased greatly. During the Seven Years' War between Britain and France from 1756 to 1763, Prussia united with Britain and France

, Austria and Russia fought. Although the capital Berlin was once occupied by Russia, they later turned defeat into victory, consolidated their own territory, and became one of the powerful powers in Europe.

In 1772, Frederick II colluded with Austria and Russia to carve up Poland and seized 36,000 square kilometers of land. A senior French official exclaimed: All other countries have an army.

, while Prussia owned a country with its army!

Frederick II was actually a famous general in our European history. He spent his whole life engaged in strategic and tactical research and created a variety of tactics. The most famous of which was linear tactics. In fact, at this time, European soldiers went to the battlefield.

In war, a musket can only fire one bullet at a time. After firing one bullet, the cartridge case must be ejected to load the second bullet. There will be a period of time in between. But Frederick II arranged the soldiers into three

The soldiers in the first row lie down, the soldiers in the second row kneel on one knee, and the soldiers in the third row stand. When the soldiers in the first row shoot, the soldiers in the second and third rows load bullets. The soldiers in the second and third rows

When firing, the first row of soldiers loaded bullets, and in this repeated cycle, they could shoot non-stop, which was very lethal. Relying on this tactic, Frederick II won many battles.

However, during the battle with Russia, his tactic failed. It turned out that the Russian cavalry was very fast and rushed to the Prussian army's position like a gust of wind. The Prussian soldiers had no time to load their bullets, so they also

It suffered a disastrous defeat.

However, Frederick II also learned a lesson from his failure and concluded that the key to war is speed. So he designed a new tactic. First, he used artillery to bombard the enemy's position, and then sent cavalry to charge.

Finally, the infantry stepped forward to consolidate the results. This tactic of combining artillery, cavalry and infantry has become the most effective offensive method in the history of our modern warfare.

On August 17, 1786, Frederick II died, and he was honored as the Great. Before his death, the priest preached: People come naked, and they go naked. Frederick II

Shi struggled to sit up and shouted: I don’t want to go naked, I want to put on my military uniform! Later in our human history, Napoleon came to his tomb, and then said to his generals: If he is still alive

, we can’t come to Berlin at all.

Then let’s get to know Catherine II. Catherine II’s real name is Sophia Augusta. She is the daughter of a young Duke in Germany. When she was young, Sophia was influenced by French Enlightenment thinkers and often

Writing letters to Montesquieu. This correspondence continued for a long time, and it continued after she became empress. In 1744, the fifteen-year-old Sophia came to Russia with her mother and changed her name.

Became Catherine Alexeyevna, and married the future Tsar Peter III the following year.

Ekaterina came to a completely unfamiliar environment, and the relationship with her husband Peter was not good, so she often felt isolated and lonely. She spent all her time reading and understanding Russia, and accumulated experience for herself.

She gained a wealth of knowledge. At the same time, she also deliberately accumulated strength and gained the support of the Russian nobles and the army. In 1762, Catherine launched a coup with the support of the Guards officers and imprisoned the heirs.

Peter III, her husband for only half a year, killed him three days later and ascended the throne of Russian Tsar.

During the period after Catherine came to the throne, the domestic situation was very unstable. In fact, there were many nobles who opposed her usurping the throne. However, she took a series of measures to safeguard the privileges of the nobles, strengthen the dictatorship of the nobles, and consolidate the serfdom system.

, stabilized the foundation of her own political power. She also extended the Russian serfdom system to the vast conquered areas of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic Sea coast, and stipulated that serfs were the private property of landlords and could be bought and sold at will. She also brought a large number of state-owned farmers together with

Land was given to the nobility, so that by the beginning of the 18th century, about 49% of the country's population had become serfs. Catherine's reign was also a period of rapid development of serfdom in Russia.

In fact, it is not difficult to see from here that based on what we know so far, Ekaterina is simply a devil! To say that she is a devil is an understatement. The concept of serfs is actually outright

Slaves, in order to consolidate her own power, Catherine used this method to please the nobles, so almost all the people became slaves, but the people were unable to resist because Catherine had

The army, and the nobles can also organize the army, so at this time, Yekaterina was simply living an easy life by herself, which made all the people miserable.

Then Catherine also reformed the central and local political organs, established a highly centralized autocratic system, and took a series of measures to encourage the development of industry and commerce, which led to Russia's national strength regaining its strength after Peter I.

It developed rapidly and entered its heyday. She also accepted the enlightened and authoritarian political ideas of French Enlightenment thinkers, had close contacts with French thinkers such as Voltaire and Diderot, and convened a meeting of the drafting committee of the new code in the summer of 1767.
Chapter completed!