1772
Russia had ambitions towards the declining Ottoman Empire.
Other powers, notably Prussia and the Habsburg Monarchy, feared these Russian
ambitions. In order to divert from this potential conflict, the powers involved
cast their eyes upon the weak Kingdom of Poland. Prussia, the Habsburg Monarchy
and Russia averted war three times, satisfying each other with a piece of
Poland. This happened in 1772 and again in 1793 and 1795. This last Polish
division ended the existence of Poland altogether. As a result the German states
of Austria and Prussia were greatly extended towards the east and gained large
territories outside the Holy Roman Empire, thus compromising their German
character, causing a conflict of identity for these two powers, that Prussia
would eventually overcome, but from which Austria (already in the long-time
possession of Hungary and the mainly Slav Kingdom of Bohemia) would never
recover.
The
age of Enlightenment brought challenges to Absolutism and to the remaining
medieval anachronisms that Absolutism had failed to clear up. In 1789 the French
revolution did away with the absolute power of the King, and with the Monarchy
altogether in 1793. The first French Republic was born. Revolutionary France
came under attack immediately, and fought back with a missionary vengeance. The
first coalition against France was beaten in 1795. France took the German
Rhineland and the Habsburg Netherlands, and set up a client-republic in Holland.
Italy would be next. Client Republics were set up there also. All
client-republics are coloured lilac-purple on the maps. In France a fanatic
Jacobin dictatorship under Robespierre was eventually overcome. A Roman-style
consulate under General Napoleon Bonaparte brought some stability in 1799. The
second coalition against France ended with the Amiens peace of 1802.
