Germany and the Holy Roman Empire: Volume II: The Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich, 1648-1806 [Paperback]

In 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, Dr Whaley provides a full account of the history of the Holy Roman Empire. Volume II extends from the Peace of Westphalia to the Dissolution of the Reich.Germany and the Holy Roman Empireoffers a striking new interpretation of a crucial era in German and European history, from the great reforms of 1495-1500 to the dissolution of the Reich in 1806. Over two volumes, Joachim Whaley rejects the notion that this was a long period of decline, and shows instead how imperial institutions developed in response to the crises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, notably the Reformation and Thirty Years War. The impact of international developments on the Reich is also examined.Volume II begins with the Peace of Westphalia and concludes with the dissolution of the Reich. Whaley analyses the remarkable resurgence of the Reich after the Thirty Years War, which saw the Habsburg emperors achieve a new position of power and influence and which enabled the Reich to withstand the military threats posed by France and the Turks in the later seventeenth century. He gives a rich account of topics such as Pietism and baroque Catholicism, the German enlightenment, and the impact on the Empire and its territories of the French Revolution and Napolean. Whaley emphasizes the continuing viability of the Reich's institutions to the end, and the vitality of a political culture of freedom that has been routinely underestimated by historians of modern Germany.Preface to Volume III. Reconstruction and Resurgence 1648-1705: the Reich under Ferdinand III and Leopold I1. Historians and the Reich after the Thirty Years War2. The Last Years of Ferdinand III: Western Leagues and Northern Wars3. From Ferdinand III to Leopold I4. Leopold I and his Foreign Enemies5. A New Turkish Threat6. Renewed Conflict with France7. ThelÓy