Sunday, November 9, 2008

Which monarch was more important –Peter the Great or Frederick Wilhelm?

I personally think that Fredrick Wilhelm was more important in respect to his country. Austria before him was almost struggling. The Turks were literally knocking on the door and they had to rely on their allies to fend them off. Fredrick's talents in military were his biggest strength. Since Austria at the time had next to nothing overseas and relied mainly on what goods they produced from withing their country, they had no foreign power. At this point in Europe an Army both in number and skill was absolutely vital if you wanted any power as a country. Fredrick created a skilled army that was also enormous... ranging near 7 million. Although he never got to use such a force, his predecessor Frederick II used it to claim Silesia which was a great population builder and provided more resources in which to gain profit. I truly think that Frederick Wilhelm was an excellent leader and ended up being more important to his country than Peter the Great.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you meant Prussia when you said Austria? Anyway, I agree with you in that Frederick Wilhelm's emphasis on army had strengthened the international power of Prussia and paved the way to the famous militarism.