Prussian Politics

In the thirteenth century, Prussia was taken over by the Teutonic Knights, who played a large part in making Prussia [Germany] who they are today. The Prussians continually would revolt against the Teutonic Knights were pushed into doing peasent labor, and were for the most part slaves in many ways. The government was extremely centralized and so began the foundation of the Prussian state. The knights controlled the land from Marienburg but gave cities considerable amounts of freedom. A lot of the cities decided to join the Hanseatic League. The seizure of Danzig and Pomerilia created a large controversy with Poland, because Poland had already claimed those areas of land for themselves. Divided into East and West Prussia at the time, at the end of the controversy with Poland, they lost Pomerilia and West Prussia to Poland because they were defeated, leaving them with East Prussia. The capital was then made Konigsberg in East Prussia and the grand master [Duke] of Prussia was Albert of Brandenburg who openly accepted the Reformation and declared Prussia a "secular duchy." Also during the Rennissance and Reformation the Prussians were led by the Hohenzollern Family but they had very little power because most of the power was given to the "electors of Brandenburg" or the "dukes of Prussia." In 1618 the almost powerless family of the Hohenzollern died out and The Great Elector came to power in 1640 and was determined to unite the three provinces to make a great Prussia. Brandenburg, Prussia, and the scattered territories that Prussia held along the Rhine in Western Germany that they obtained in 1614.