Kingdom of Prussia

Prussia rose from a small Baltic duchy granted to the Teutonic Knights into the dominant German state. The Duchy of Prussia (1525) became Brandenburg-Prussia (1618) when the Hohenzollern Electors of Brandenburg inherited it. Frederick I crowned himself King in Prussia in 1701. Frederick the Great (r. 1740–1786) transformed it into a major European power through the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. Prussia was catastrophically crushed at Jena-Auerstedt (1806) but reformed under Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, playing a decisive role at Leipzig (1813) and Waterloo (1815). Under Bismarck and Wilhelm I, Prussia unified the German states through wars with Denmark (1864), Austria (1866), and France (1870–71), becoming the leading state of the German Empire proclaimed at Versailles in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia continued within the empire until 1918.

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