The Rise of Russia and Prussia: Crash Course European History #17

In eastern Europe, in the 17th century a couple of "great powers" were coming into their own. The vast empire of Russia was modernizing under Peter the Great, and the relatively tiny state of Prussia was evolving as well. Russia (and Tsar Peter) reformed many aspects of Russian governance, realigning them toward the way things were done in western Europe. In Prussia, efficiency of institutions became a thing, and Prussia turned into "a large army with a small state attached."
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Sources
Hosking, Geoffrey. Russia: People and Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Hunt, Lynn et al. Challenge of the West: Peoples and Cultures from 1320 to the Global
Age. Lexington: D. C. Heath, 1995.
Kivelson, Valerie A. and Ronald Grigor Suny. Russia’s Empires. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2016.
Stites, Richard. Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia The Pleasure and the Power. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
IMAGES and FOOTAGE:
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iStock/fotoVoyager
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[@sprucemoose18]

The Rise and Prise of Russia and Prussia

[@ComradeHellas]

ΗΑΗΑΗΑΗΗΑΗΑΑ

[@leeoswald668]

The Rus' and Prus' of Russia and Prussia

[@wzainuddin]

"As we learn from history, paradox is not unusual" Also not unusual: learning history from Paradox.

[@pigio9033]

Use historical lucky nations , or use historical ai focuses

[@hugomorgan1997]

this comment is life

[@iielysiumx5811]

its where my interest in the 16th and 17th century came from, before EU4 i did not care at all about the period, love paradox games but my bank account hates them

[@mortache]

Accidentally giving your Grand daughter as a concubine to your nephew

[@jessicadunne6095]

also not unusual: to be loved by anyone

[@matheuroux5134]

Can you imagine being 6'9 in the 18th century when everyone was like a foot shorter than they are now. Absolute lad.

[@user-xw8ge4jm2h]

Yeah, and he had a bodyguard even taller than he. (His sceleton is now in St. Petersburg museum, which had been collecting strange things all across the globe)

[@benaffleckisanokayactor]

He lived most of his life and adulthood in the 17th century*

[@SaiyanHeretic]

6'9" is just over 2 meters, but 3 meters is only off by 1, so close enough!

[@nourelhoudatube401]

Hi i'm new plz subscribe

[@Gamenetreviews]

Pretty sure he was joking.

[@zekeo3897]

NICE

[@DeborahFishburn]

2.057m, according to Google

[@zackakai5173]

As my OOP professor used to say, "the three most common programming errors are missing semicolons and off-by-one errors."

[@agentjohn4313]

Jhon Green: is Sweden have 12 kings named Charles?? France: Louis the 18th.

[@metametodo]

Although in my head Louis is the most french name ever, and Charles probably wouldn't be in my top 10 guesses for swedish names or regents.

[@Questionmark142]

@@metametodo well, names like Charles, Louis and Henry are different in different languages. Charles is Karl in Swedish and e. g. Louis and Henry are Ludwig and Heinrich in German. Also Charles XII of Sweden wasn't the 12th Charles in Sweden, but instead the 6th. This mess was started by Charles IX, who was actually the third Charles, but believe that there were probably more Charles' before that and the 9th was about right he felt or something like that. That idea was based and a partly fictitious list of swedish kings.

[@davidgustavsson4000]

Also Sweden's current king: Charles XVI

[@Payhellbay]

Also France: Charles the 10th We had a lot of kings since the 5th century...

[@m00rtin4]

@@metametodo so what will u call swedish kings then?

[@fairhair1539]

"Where some states have an army, the Prussian army has a state."

[@theghostinthemirror8158]

Fairhair a beautiful description.

[@wrudn]

And when army looses there is no state. Prussia land was divided by Poland and Russia and it's capital is now Russian city Kaliningrad.

[@chip1646]

@@wrudn Actually prussia was killed by Adolf Hitler. Not Russia

[@peeves3873]

Mr. Green! Mr. Green! are we getting a crash course Asia in near future??

[@monsouranda2822]

The return of the Mongols

[@OrbitalAstronaut]

+

[@peeves3873]

@@monsouranda2822 hahaha

[@allahstan4171]

No he is too old

[@TimeSorceror]

lol, China might need an entire Crash Course on its own. Could never keep those darn Dynasties straight. Would love a Crash Course Asia though.

[@elonwhatever]

"Every European state has an army, except for Prussia, Prussia's army has a state"

[@nicholasgutierrez9940]

Random fact. Bulgaria was known as the Prussia of the Balkans. They mobilized 25% of their entire country in WW1 (1 million out of 4). It was for a small time and didn't accomplish anyhing but it's neat.

[@user-xq5og9lt8p]

"there were problems and they proved to be catastrofic" *Laughs in Bolshevik*

[@alvedonaren]

The reason the Swedish Charles' have such high numbers is due to a fictional history of Sweden published nder the reign of Gustav Vasa that invented a boatload of fictional kings, many of them named Charles and Eric (which was the name of Gustav Vasa's oldest sons). The latter of these eventualy went insane and stabbed a guy which is why you don't see any Swedish kings named Eric anymore.

[@JukeboxTheGhoul]

Regnal numbers are always arbitrary

[@paritoshd]

Too bad because Erik the Heathen af Munso in ck2 is great.

[@alvedonaren]

That Erik isn't one of the made-up ones. He was attested as early as Adam of Bremen, though him being a pagan is mostly speculation by later historians.

[@thomasturner6980]

Poland has left the chat

[@stormssc]

oof

[@nooriman5944]

Cursed pfp

[@zlatko8051]

Don’t worry ,P. Shall be back 200 years later.

[@LA-MJ]

@@zlatko8051 100

[@kurttun7960]

ivan lau lol

[@ryleighelizabeth3788]

The first time I heard 'Prussia' was from a history teacher from Germany with a THICC accent and for half the semester I thought he was mispronouncing 'Russia'😬

[@jin_stix.a8679]

My teacher always just said it in German (despite us all speaking English) 😂. So for us it was ‘Russia’ and ‘Preußen’

[@dehavillandvampire]

Minor gripe: Sweden by the time of Charles XII had only had *6* Charleses But the Swedes at some point in the 1500s decided to set their regnal numbers by the equivalent of the Historia Regnum Britannia I.e. a work of fiction.

[@benjamincederberg818]

Charles IX probably just wanted to feel cool and with a long line behind him (tho Karl the first might be cooler...)

[@Todaem]

Charles XII was the sixth Charles. Charles IX was the one that based his regnal number on "The history of all Geatish and Swedish kings" but by then there had already been two Charleses (Including Charles "VIII" that actually called himself Charles II during his lifetime, Charles "VII" didn't use any regnal number).

[@dehavillandvampire]

Todaem ah thanks corrected the number now

[@JukeboxTheGhoul]

All regnal numbers are arbitrary. In Britain, there were three Edwards before Edward I

[@verdatum]

Anyone notice that John speaks waaaay slower than he did in the earlier CC History series?

[@qwertyuoip1234]

The tides of time wait for no man..

[@JJRamos14]

verdatum first thing i noticed.

[@karlkarlos3545]

No, I didn't notice it, even though I read the same stupid comment every new episode. Stop copy pacing, idiots!

[@hhoch9503]

Karl Karlos learn how to write “copy pasting”, idiot!

[@autumnavalanche1097]

I actually like it :) it's very calming

[@aasante3437]

So far he has talked about : Germany Italy France Turkey(if you want to make that Europe) Russia The Netherlands Poland Lithuania Spain Portugal England and some how still hasn't about the most important European country,Andorra SMH.

[@subutaynoyan5372]

Well, Ottomans were holding most of the southeastern Europe back then. Modern Turkey has a fraction of a land in Europe(about %10-15 of its total land) but Ottomans were huge and still very strong in Eastern Europe. I mean, they even managed to take Otranto twice. Otranto is in Italy, if you want to know where exactly their grip was starting to reach. For Europe's luck, 10th sultan Suleiman lost his enthusiasm for conquest after he saw that getting real results in Europe is not easy anymore. He had to pass all that land, fight very strong armies and breach very strong cities. Never tried to make a full scale war IN Europe after his failure in Vienna

[@Nicarand]

Also Austria!

[@centi9704]

@transylvanian About 1 billion Catholics disagree my friend

[@Christiangjf]

I don't see why he hasn't, he already talked about the mega European super power Lithuania.

[@JukeboxTheGhoul]

You forgot Scotland

[@DAJDC]

Charles (Karl) is the most common name for Swedish kings, and we're actually on number 16 now. However, a fair few of them never really existed as numbers 1-6 were just made up in the middle ages to make Sweden sound more ancient and important than it actually was. We also invented a whole bunch of Eriks etc.

[@TheOtherBeckham]

Mr Green, Mr Green! I am a big fan of what you're doing in the community and a while ago you inspired me to produce a similar project to crash course aimed at primary school children. It's been a while since then but I'm finally beginning to put writing into action and get some of it filmed. I am a teacher in England and have used small excerpts of your show for the 8 year olds I teach, however the whole videos are usually too adult focused or intense for the kids. As a teacher I am always looking for good educational videos and last year decided that there is such a gap for well produced educational videos for kids like mine (which do not talk down to them) that I should just do it myself. I watched your Ted Talk two days ago and loved every thing you said and it made me so excited to potentially be part of an online community of educators and learners that I decided it would be good to comment on the video and hopefully communicate a wish to you and the crash course team. What I'd like to humbly request is a behind the scenes video that explains how you make these brilliant shows and what hurdles you had to clamber over to get to this point. I think that if a community of learners is what you'd like to grow then this would be like putting the fertilizer down to help it grow... (Except the fertilizer in this case doesn't stink!) Thanks for reading, I'll see you next week for the enlightenment!

[@andreaswidham3607]

4:54 No. Charles IX was just bad at counting.

[@Cythil]

Sort off... Well the real reason was that he wanted to inflate the number to make his linage seem more impressive. (Personally I forget which of the Charles it was. There have been a lot of them even if we remove the inflated numbers. >_>)

[@Oxtocoatl13]

Charles IX was a usurper who only became king after a long civil war. He thus needed to boost his lineage through propaganda.

[@scopophobemusic7555]

Fun fact about that battle at Narva, Peter the great had the habit of inviting foreign experts to advise him on various things. At narva he left during the winter to return to saint petersburg and left a foreign expert in charge the only issue was that this expert was french and spoke no russian and so could not actually properly order the troops to form up to repel the swedes.

[@daveharrison84]

Saint Petersburg is a place I really want to go see.

[@barker505]

I hope you do an episode on the fall of Poland Lithuania. It's a very interesting case study in the failure of democracy and legislative gridlock

[@DaDunge]

9:55 There's no house of Brandenburg Prussia, there's the duchies (actually Brandeburg was a march not a duchy but still) of Brandenburg Prussia, but the house is von Hohenzollern.

[@zigzag4273]

“Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state.” ~ Voltaire

[@ata-ayitehunlede5632]

Bravo, congratulations Mr. Green. Fantastic narration of this important part of European History

[@DrunkenDriverStudios]

while peter is a very important historical figure and modernizer, the entire russian state was gradually reforming and taking on the best practices of the time (which were european ones thanks to you know, renaissance and age of discovery and all that). for example, the first russian military units taught in the ways of 17th century european warfare formed in 1640's. The first institution of higher learning (essentially a university except in name) formed in the 1680's, and foreigners have had a sizable presence in Moscow since Ivan the terrible. Peter the Great was successful in formalizing these changes and implementing them amongst all of nobility. Some do make a pretty convincing argument that his reforms may have been needlessly intrusive and that things were heading in that direction regardless. Obviously this is all very nuanced history that you don't have time to cram into a 10 minute video, but I thought I'd give some insight into some of the modern academic debate surrounding the figure of peter the great. Tying russian history into the wider european fold was done very well. Much better than ur video on Ivan the 4th that painted a very sort of cold war era understanding of his long rule

[@kyokyoniizukyo7171]

Sooo, what did peter do? Enbolden such reformers?

[@LookBackHistory]

Really well made and informative!

[@Strrroke]

I like that you’re speaking slower than at the beginning. I’d even watch 20-minute long videos with that pace.

[@rupertmthimkhulu2237]

One of the best episodes of Crash Course. Very fascinating topics discussed.

[@davidsan9654]

Excellent..I think these guys honestly had an awkward start back up but they are totally back onto what they had going with the early episodes.

[@victorheinsberg1212]

Very little was said about Prussia in terms of watch time

[@florianaugsbergers6756]

Beautiful video. :D

[@LlamaCourt]

Love the Eastern European history videos! Thank you!

[@yuuneeq9494]

Seeing the Dutch wealth, Peter is filled with DETERMINATION!

[@grizzerotwofour7858]

Another great episode

[@kalebg.7507]

Love these videos!!!!

[@acremidias]

Thank you very much Crash Course for your effort to bring us more education! Because in Brazil life is difficult and I live in north of Brazil Amazon forest where all is in 🔥

[@KirschblutenTsunami]

I love this series! I especially like that besides sharing political, economical and social systems and incidents you remain a critical view on how this circumstances are widely interpreted by modern history making and therefore deconstructing widely accepted views on historical "facts". I love love love your approach and recommend your videos to everyone I know. When I'm done paying off my student loans I'll support you financially as much as I can. Your work is so important! Thank you

[@parasuramang1860]

thanks for videos..

[@Gguy061]

The Brandenburg Conceto plays in my mind as I melt faces with the sheer power of my sophistication and intelligence. ENLIGHTENMENT TO THE MAXXX!

[@brine1986]

6:41 extra points for "hang in there" poster

[@civilwarfan12]

To be fair to Sweden; Denmark attacked Sweden and pulled in Russia and Poland. Sweden had to go on the offensive and took out Denmark and Poland but finally Russia decided to mobilize and improve their military after being disgraced at Narva. Charles (Karl) XII being unable to take St. Petersburg tried to go for Moscow and well we know how that all went.

[@m00rtin4]

exactly sweden fought a DEFENSIVE war it was the coalition that tought swedens baltic empire and influence to strong and russia was seeking a seaport in the baltic. sweden didnt do anything wrong....except wandering into the russian winter ofc

[@Artur_M.]

And Poland-Lithuania was pulled into it by it's current elected King Augustus II, who also happened to be the Elector of Saxony, and he did so using his Saxon troops without Polish-Lithuanian parliament approval. This and initial Swedish victories plunged Commonwealth into a civil war between the supporters of Augustus and his opponents (backed by Sweden), who elected Polish nobleman Stanisław Leszczyński as the king.

[@yorktown99]

I once heard a joke that while most countries have armies, Brandenburg could be thought of as an army with a country.

[@thegorb2653]

Got love the large army with a state attached. The underdog of history.

[@DZR3WIND]

I feel like the only people not thinking “what’s Brandenburg?” after hearing the word are EU4 players and Historians.

[@iMacPunk]

Also germans, lol.

[@erikakhatri2055]

Brandenburg is one of the 16th State in Germany.

[@Rocchardt]

Live these vids

[@mark00820]

Absolutely fantastic. You are a wonderful teacher, and so much of this history I always wanted to know but was never able or willing to make time to read. Hallelujah all for your talents to put this up for us; and for about the best use of the technology of Video production that I have seen.

[@juliaaddink6136]

I honestly appreciate this man for doing to for us

[@thedreamingsage]

Charles XII wasn't actually the twelfth Charles to rule Sweden, but the sixth. An earlier Swedish king called Charles IX had taken a false regnal number which messed up the numbering of Swedish kings.

[@tjoconnell2524]

It’s the house of hollenzoleren! That is the house that ruled Brandenburg Prussia.

[@bmyers8356]

12:12; Reinfeudation, bringing feudalism back. 😩

[@appleslover]

4:50 France's louis's say Hi

[@rodfer5406]

Excellent again... :-)

[@geoffreywinn4031]

Educational!

[@noellepcm3744]

Mr. Green, (0:55) 1 meter is approximately 3 ft., now if he was 6'9" he would be around 2.1 meters tall.

[@Rico-Suave_]

Great video, thank you very much , note to self(nts) watched all of it 14:32

[@eriksahlin8853]

Sidenote: Charles XII wasnt actually the twelve king nsmed Charles in Sweden. His official title was this but since an earlier king (known as Charles IX) during the 16th century had based his own number on a fictional story of Swedish history. This was something done before in Sweden during the 16th century partly to make the rulers more legit but also because they kinda believed that these fictional kings actually had existed. I beleive Charles XII actual title should have been (without the fictional kings) Charles VI.

[@rdc515]

Played it on 1.25x like it's meant to 😁

[@juanlikesmusicnstuff446]

Mr green! Crash course music theory would be super cool

[@ozeppeo]

To make it more confusing Frederick was named King IN Prussia, not King of Prussia. King OF Prussia would have signalled that he was entitled to the whole Prussian region, which in parts still belonged to Poland.

[@Ice5643]

There was also the issue that this would have been a challenge to the holy roman emperor as all the other rulers in the HRE were known as princes.

[@ozeppeo]

@@Ice5643 True.

[@markoDbogdanovic]

"A large army with s small state attached, like Russia today"....says the man from a country with the biggest army budget in the world, 10 times bigger then Russia's.

[@beth8775]

Yeah... that's a pretty fair point.

[@countdollars7491]

I love this channel and it's content!! I'd love to see you guys take on something like the history of Culinary Arts

[@Keres8096]

1st episode: Rock taste guuuud.

[@redrexi5448]

In short, Russia becomes great by becoming Europe. True stonks

[@a199719971997]

This is one of the only outlets of entertainment that I enjoy learning from.

[@lncerante]

Can this series come out faster? Also, when are the histories for the other 5 continents coming out?

[@theodorevogiatzis874]

Actually until Frederick the Great conquered west Prussia from Poland Lithuania during the first partition of Poland Lithuania the title the Hohenzollerns used was King in Prussia

[@alexhobbs2352]

4:46 Carl XVI Gustaf would like to have a word with you!

[@nothingtoospiffy7913]

I wish crash course would do an entire season of Roman history

[@johandebruin1394]

The mystery of John's Green missing energy is on.

[@thorzo90]

Charles, or Karl i the Nordic languages.

[@brianplank5905]

The beard tax/healthcare bit cracked me up.

[@basicpigeonbee]

Hey, Sweden was not the agressior in The Great Northern War, but yeah Karl the 12th was definitely land hungry.

[@m00rtin4]

was he really power hungry? he was ambitious cus he had so much success early on...i mean the whole invading russia...

[@FatemaLiya]

Peter the First could've been a basketball player if basketball existed at that time

[@ms-vq1os]

Great video, like always! However, the Habsburgs pushing out the ottomans/turks with the help of romanians? As an Austrian, this seems a little bit inaccurate. Most of the troops were imperials (from all over the HRE) and especially polish. Some minor contigents were italian etc.

[@idnwiw]

Also, when exactly was that discussed in the last episode? They just shortly mentioned the 2nd ottoman siege, but there was nothing about Prince Eugen or any pushing the Ottomans out of the balkans.

[@burakcanduzcan]

hey john, what's the difference between estates general and states general :D

[@jacobdoesstuff6178]

Great video! European history is so interesting, but so complicated... I love the variety on this channel, and every video inspires me to work even harder on my own channel. I just released my 8th video, this one about logical fallacies! It's so fun making videos about all kinds of topics. I'm not that good, but I hope to become better!

[@kangz8030]

I just found a picture in my Norwegian school book. It was about some book he has written, but I got really excited

[@nekman8521]

But Charles was Chosen by heaven

[@calebcave9898]

Never forget Voltaire “Where some states have an army, the Prussian Army has a state.”

[@CNFBGB]

Are there any sources you can recommend on Peter the Great reorganizing the aristocracy?

[@TheQueerTailor]

For Enlightenment, can we bring coffee to class Mr. Green?

[@IvoryValentine22]

"The Cities of New York and Portland would pay for healthcare for everyone" The best lines to ever be uttered in a KZbin video

[@katyaivanova7041]

As a person born in St.Petersburg and of Russian decent it delights me to see this video.

[@nAw00b]

Could we get more filming time of relevant pictures, maybe maps of where the events is going on ect. That would be just wonder, little less filming time with the weird Man :)

[@hazeldavis3176]

You know I was gonna fight you on the polo thing, but you're right. You have good taste in polos.

[@vinceb85]

is no one talking about peter's cute nod animation when he does anything....hahaha

[@BalzyMcSwollensack]

11:44, in the old painting, what is that 12 sided structure in the upper right?

[@matsui90]

A bastion fort

[@shyama555]

Class Consciousness.

[@raymondgough6070]

I hope he talks about Charil XCX in future episodes

[@alexanderle1610]

@crashcourse why is there a tissot watch and sausages with a tea mug and croissant in every shot?

[@themenrvan9255]

11:15 I want that as my laptop wall paper! Anyone know what it's called?

[@prakesh2904]

I dunno why but he seemed more enthusiastic in the old CC history episodes

[@pootispenser5089]

These extraordinarily tall soldiers however where not really intended for the battlefield but rather for parades - Friedrich liked to impress others with his collection.

[@DrewryPope]

What is this Jaden Smith Studio? Can you tell us more? I had never heard it before and the only 2 results in Google I can find are people quoting you from this and one other video. The top result is from a *chan website... which is the _only_ result I received from Bing.

[@juanclavell6475]

Mr Green, Peter the Great is 6'7" or 6'9". I am used to reading he was 6'7". Which height is correct? Thanks

[@anthonywolf943]

Did he just have to softly drop the HRE. Like hey kids donuts look.

[@Ny0s]

Always wondered if there a link between Russia and Prussia.

[@downtempus]

«Держись там, детка» This. Is. Perfect.

[@VoxTox]

Шо это за мем?

[@victorangeles655]

WHERE'S MY NEW CRASH COURSE IT'S WEDNESDAY

[@aisimined521]

You can subtitles on Russian, interesting to watch the episode

[@Nemrex]

7:10 Wonder what Stan said...