ABSTRACT
The issue of Prussia's external sovereignty was not raised again until Elector Frederick III aimed to transform his state into a monarchy. As the provinces of the Prussian monarchy were gradually united, a result above all of Frederick William I's administrative reforms, an awareness of the need for complete political independence grew. By 1768, with the experience of the Seven Years War behind him, it was stated more confidently that the growth of Imperial power had been stemmed since the Peace of Westphalia and was held in check by Austria's rivalry with Prussia. It is clear, then, that the King saw in the Holy Roman Empire neither a subordinate nor an equal power, but a passive system of smaller states in-capable of unified decision-making, from which two European great powers emerged. His relations with the Empire were more contradictory than those with any other European power.
