Sunday, March 18, 2007
The fall of the Holy Roman Empire
The actual end of the empire came in several steps. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which gave territories almost complete sovereignty, even allowing them to form independent alliances with other states, the Empire was only a mere collection of largely independent states. By the rise of Louis XIV of France, the Holy Roman Empire had lost all power in major European politics. The Habsburg emperors relied more on their role as Austrian archdukes than as emperors when challenged by Prussia, portions of which were part of the Empire. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs were involved in multiple European conflicts. From 1792 and on, revolutionary France was occasionally at war with parts of the Empire. The Empire was formally dissolved on August 6, 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II resigned, following a military defeat by the French Army under Napoleon. Napoleon reorganized much of the empire into the Confederation of the Rhine. This ended the “First Reich. Francis II’s family continued to be called Austrian emperors until 1918. In fact, the Habsburg Emperors of Austria, however nostalgically and sentimentally, considered themselves, as the lawful heirs of the Holy Roman monarchs, to be themselves the final continuation of the Holy Roman Imperial line, their dynasty dying out with the ousting of Karl I in 1918. Germany itself would not become one unified state until 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War.
-pitu