The rise of Prussia between 1640 and 1786 occurred as a result of a combination of military, political, and social factors. War and the threat of war aided Frederick William and Frederick William I greatly in their attempts to build royal absolutism in Prussia. Due to the wartime atmosphere, Frederick William and Frederick William I were able to reduce the political power of the landlord nobility, and allow them to keep control over the peasantry. The landlords, satisfied with being unchallenged masters of their peasants, did not challenge the monarchs' power, which ultimately led to the rise of Prussia.

When Frederick William, of the Hohenzollern family, later known as the "Great Elector," gained power in 1640, in Brandenburg, Prussia, and scattered land along the Rhine in western Germany, he was determined to unify the areas and assert royal absolutism. During the early seventeenth century, the Estates of the provinces, dominated by the nobility and landowners, or the "Junkers," controlled taxation. However, the Great Elector gained power over in Brandenburg in 1653 and in Prussia between 1661 and 1663 to

Social factors also accounted for the rise of Prussia. The nobles had long dominated the government through the Estates; moreover, they were more concerned with their individual rights and privileges, particularly their unlimited control over the peasants. Therefore, in 1653 and after, when the Great Elector reconfirmed the power of the nobles over the peasants, they did not attack him for reducing their political power. The nobility accepted a compromise, whereby the ruler had the power to tax and mainly taxed towns, but the landlords had power over the peasants and on their land.

Frederick William achieved results in that the standing army increased by forty-five thousand soldiers during his reign. Prussia, twelfth in Europe in population, had the fourth largest army by 1740. Only the much more populous states of France, Russia, and Austria had larger forces, and even France's army was only twice as large as Prussia's. The Prussian army became the best in Europe, admired for the soldiers' precision, skill, and discipline. This army would usually win the crucial military battles for the next two hundred years.

Elector Frederick III, who succeeded Frederick William, did

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