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11.	King Frederick William I’s Handwritten Instructions to the East Prussian Land-Tax Commission [Generalhufenschoß-Kommission] (April 23, 1716) In this famous statement, the Prussian “soldier king” (r. 1713-40) bluntly expresses his determination....
12.	Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt, Political Testament (June 4, 1660) Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt (r. 1626-61) weathered the Thirty Years War and an embittered succession dispute. According to historian Volker Press, he was a “pious man, who took pride in....
13.	Maria Theresa's Political Testament (1749-50) The extraordinary nature of this document justifies its being reproduced here at length. The document amounts to a political autobiography of Maria....
14.	Ottoman Sultan Mahmud IV's Declaration of War on Emperor Leopold I, signed at Adrianople [Edirne] (February 20, 1683) This ominous statement accompanied the resurgence of war between the Ottoman Empire and Habsburg Austria. The sultan’s threat-laden declaration shows that religious and political questions were inseparable....
15.	Philip Wilhelm von Hörnigk, "Austria over all, if she only wills it" (1684) The book from which the following excerpt derives gained fame in its time and thereafter as a confidence-inspiring account of state-guided, tariff-protected, population-expanding, bullion-hoarding....
16.	Political Testament of Frederick II ("the Great") (1752) In 1768, Frederick revised this document, meant only for his eventual successor’s eyes, to take....
17.	Political Testament of Frederick William ("the Great Elector") (May 19, 1667) This extraordinary document displays Frederick William’s psychology and statecraft with unvarnished....
18.	Prussian "Soldier King" Frederick William I Instructs his Officials on Peasant Colonization in East Prussia (July 2, 1718) Mercantilism advocated measures to increase the human population, which the Prussian kings enthusiastically termed Peuplierung. By the time Frederick William issued these instructions on peasant....
19.	Samuel Pufendorf, The Constitution of the German Empire (1667) Taken from a famous and influential work, these brief excerpts highlight the political divisions within the Holy Roman Empire. In assessing the constitution, or makeup, of the empire, author Samuel....
20.	The "Youngest Recess" [jüngster Reichsabschied] of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in 1654 (May 17, 1654) This recess, or resolution, of the Imperial Estates – that is, the ecclesiastical and secular princes and Imperial Cities assembled in the Imperial Diet [Reichstag] – was important for the....
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