ABSTRACT
The foundation of the Prussian army state has been called the most remarkable accomplishment in German political history. Prussian noblemen always looked enviously at the liberties of their Polish counterparts who could attend a diet where each representative enjoyed the right of veto. Prussia was divided into regimental cantons, subdivided further into company and squadron cantons. Prussia was a militarist state: that was true no less of peacetime, when the army was maintained at full strength, than of the thirteen years when the country was actually at war. In battle the Prussian soldier was steady. It was an important factor in Frederick the Great's victories, and recuperative powers after defeat, and it was partly due to the high morale of the officer class, superior to that of the Austrians or French. The failures of liberalism in the nineteenth century were not solely due to the success of Prussian autocracy or the strength of military tradition.
