Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

The first single-author account of German history from the Reformation to the early nineteenth century since Hajo Holborn's study written in the 1950s
Provides a full account of the history of the Holy Roman Empire - an institution often claimed to be incomprehensible
Challenge historians of modern German nationalism to revise their ideas about the alleged lack of a German national identity before 1800
Gives a full account of German religious movements from the Reformation to the early nineteenth century, and of their implications for the development of the Holy Roman Empire and German society
Engages with historiographical debates of recent decades

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

Description

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire offers a new interpretation of the development of German-speaking central Europe and the Holy Roman Empire or German Reich, from the great reforms of 1495-1500 to its dissolution in 1806 after the turmoil of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Going against the notion that this was a long period of decline, Joachim Whaley shows how imperial institutions developed in response to the crises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably the Reformation and Thirty Years War, and assesses the impact of international developments on the Reich. Central themes are the tension between Habsburg aspirations to create a German monarchy and the desire of the German princes and cities to maintain their traditional rights, and how the Reich developed the functions of a state during this period.

The first single-author account of German history from the Reformation to the early nineteenth century since Hajo Holborn's study written in the 1950s, it also illuminates the development of the German territories subordinate to the Reich. Whaley explores the implications of the Reformation and subsequent religious reform movements, both Protestant and Catholic, and the Enlightenment for the government of both secular and ecclesiastical principalities, the minor territories of counts and knights and the cities. The Reich and the territories formed a coherent and workable system and, as a polity, the Reich developed its own distinctive political culture and traditions of German patriotism over the early modern period.

Whaley explains the development of the Holy Roman Empire as an early modern polity and illuminates the evolution of the several hundred German territories within it. He gives a rich account of topics such as the Reformation, the Thirty Years War, Pietism and baroque Catholicism, the Aufklarung or German Enlightenment and the impact on the Empire and its territories of the French Revolution and Napoleon. It includes consideration of language, cultural aspects and religious and intellectual movements. Germany and the Holy Roman Empire engages with all the major debates among both German and English-speaking historians about early modern German history over the last sixty years and offers a striking new interpretation of this important period.

Volume II starts with the end of the Thirty Years War and extends to the dissolution of the Reich

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

Preface to Volume II
I. Reconstruction and Resurgence 1648-1705: the Reich under Ferdinand III and Leopold I
1. Historians and the Reich after the Thirty Years War
2. The Last Years of Ferdinand III: Western Leagues and Northern Wars
3. From Ferdinand III to Leopold I
4. Leopold I and his Foreign Enemies
5. A New Turkish Threat
6. Renewed Conflict with France
7. The Emperor, the Perpetual Reichstag, the Kreise, and Imperial Justice
8. Imperial Networks: the Reichskirche and the Imperial Cities
9. The Imperial Court at Vienna and Dynastic Elevations in the Reich
10. The Nature of the Reich: Projects and Culture
11. Interpretations of the Leopoldine Reic
II. Consolidation and Crisis 1705-1740: the Reich under Joseph I and Charles VI
1. Two Wars and Three Emperors
2. Leopold I, Joseph I, and the War of Spanish Succession
3. Joseph I and the Government of the Reich
4. Charles VI: Fruition or Decline?
5. Conflicting Priorities: c.1714 - c.1730
6. Charles VI and the Government of the Reich
7. The Return of Confessional Politics?
8. The Problem of the Austrian Succession
9. The Ebb of Imperial Power 1733-40?
10. The Reich in Print
III. The German Territories, c. 1648-c.1740
1. An Age of Absolutism?
2. Contemporary Perceptions: From Reconstruction to Early Enlightenment
3. Sonderwege: the Smaller Territories
4. Sonderwege: Austria and Brandenburg-Prussia
5. The Revival of the Court and the Development of Territorial Government
6. The Court: its Culture, its Functions, and its Critics
7. The Development of Military Power
8. Princes and Estates
9. An Oppressed Peasantry?
10. Government and Society
11. Government and Economic Development
12. Public and Private Enterprise
13. Christian Polities: Baroque Catholicism
14. Christian Polities: the Territories of the Reichskirche
15. Christian Polities: Protestant Orthodoxy and Renewal
16. From Coexistence to Toleration?
17. Enlightenment and Patriotism
IV. Decline or Maturity? The Reich from Charles VII to Leopold II, c. 1740-1792
1. Three Emperors and a King
2. Silesian Wars, 1740-1763
3. Managing the Reich without the Habsburgs: Charles VII (1742-45)
4. The Return of the Habsburgs: Francis I (1745-1765)
5. The Reich without Enemies? Germany and Europe 1763-1792
6. Renewal: Joseph II 1765-c.1776
7. The Great Reform Debate: Joseph II c. 1778-1790
8. Restoration: Leopold II 1790-92
9. Central and Intermediate Institutions of the Reich
10. The Reich, the Public Sphere, and the Nation
V. The German Territories in the Later Eighteenth Century
1. Enlightenment and the Problem of Reform
2. Crisis and Opportunity
3. The Challenge of the Enlightenment and the Public Sphere
4. Protestant, Catholic and Jewish Aufklarung
5. Aufklarung and Government
6. Cameralism, Physiocracy, and the Provisioning of Society
7. Economic Policy: Manufactures, Guilds, Welfare, and Taxation
8. Administration, Law, and Justice
9. Education and Toleration
10. Courts and Culture
11. The Impact of Reform: Immunity against Revolution?
VI. War and Dissolution: the Reich 1792-1806
1. Ruptures and Continuities
2. The Reich in the Revolutionary Wars
3. Reverberations of the French Revolution: Unrest and Uprisings
4. Reverberations of the French Revolution: Intellectuals
5. Schemes for the Reform of the Reich in the 1790s
6. The Peace of Luneville (1801) and the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (1803)
7. The Transformation of the Reich 1803-05
8. Final Attempts at Reform and the Dissolution of the Reich 1806
VII. Conclusion
Glossary
A Note on Terminology and Usage
A Note on maps and other online resources
Abbreviations
Bibliography

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

Author Information

Joachim Whaley read History at Christ's College Cambridge. He held Fellowships in History at Christ's College and Robinson College before becoming a Lecturer in German in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge, where he teaches German history, thought, and language. He is the author of Religious Toleration and Social Change in Hamburg 1529-1819 and of numerous articles on early modern and modern German history. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1984.

Germany and the Holy Roman Empire

Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806

Joachim Whaley

Oxford History of Early Modern Europe

Reviews and Awards

"Joachim Whaley crowns a long generation's work of demystifying the empire's history with these two large, learned, and impressive volumes...[A] magnificent achievement."--Journal of Modern History

"Whaley's account is one of the best works on early modern German history. From the first page to the last, it shows how German history can be presented as both a history of Emperor and Empire, and a history of common culture. It will immediately establish itself as a standard guide to its subject."--Georg Schmidt, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena

"These two volumes offer an historical survey of roughly three centuries such as I have never before encountered. Joachim Whaley has produced a masterpiece. He has not overlooked anything at all. The two volumes are perfectly researched and the price of 130€ is more than reasonable. Anyone interested in modern history and in particular the history of Germany must read this work."--Fachbuch Kritik (review of the German edition)

"[A] pleasure to read...Whaley shows how the efforts to create an intellectual and political framework in the pre-constitutional era had lasting effects to the present."--Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (review of the German edition)

"[A] great achievement that he has introduced the English-speaking public to German history before the twentieth century in such a comprehensive manner and that he shows so decisively how the old national narrative has been revised. The sheer volume of the material that he employs also commands respect."--Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (review of the German edition)

"The new standard work on the period in which people still spoke of 'German liberties.'"--Die Zeit (review of the German edition)