Prussia

Origins and formation

Prussia was a German state on the North European Plain. It began with the 1525 secularization of the Prussian part of the Teutonic Order’s state. The Hohenzollerns ruled it for centuries and enlarged it with the Prussian army. The capital was Königsberg, then Berlin, when the state became the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. In 1871 Prussia formed the German Empire by uniting the German states. An emergency decree in 1932 transferred the Prussian government’s powers to Chancellor Franz von Papen, a de facto end, and an Allied decree in 1947 ended it de jure. The guide stops at the change from kingdom to empire. The state page continues to 1947. This essay’s scope stops at the proclamation, and it says so.^[1]

The guide says Prussia was relentless in modernization, rationality, and conquest, fought nearly all the major European powers, and tied coal mines to steel refineries by rail. It then says that by 1866 Prussia had encompassed most of present-day Germany and part of Poland, “leading to its transformation from kingdom to empire.” The unification page gives a different sequence. On 18 August 1866 the North German Confederation Treaty created the North German Confederation, at first a military alliance dominated by the kingdom. The German Empire was proclaimed on 18 January 1871, when the south German states joined. Other legal dates sit in 1871: 1 January for the accession and the name, 4 May for the permanent constitution, and 10 May for the Treaty of Frankfurt. 1866 is the confederation. 1871 is the empire. The guide’s sentence joins them.^{[2] [4]}

The Brandenburg Gate is earlier than both of those years. It is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, on the site of a city gate that began the road from Berlin to Brandenburg an der Havel. Frederick William II ordered the present structure, built from 1788 to 1791 to designs by Carl Gotthard Langhans. Johann Gottfried Schadow made the quadriga. The gate stands at Unter den Linden, toward the former city palace of the Prussian monarchs. The guide assigns it to Prussia as a wonder that adds production and war support. The building account is a king’s order in the decade before 1791, not a monument of 1871.^{[3] [4]}

Defining periods

Blood and Iron is the guide’s ability: military units grow stronger as relationships worsen, and trade routes can be kept with cities at war. The unification page does not use that phrase, and this essay does not import a speech it has not opened. What the page does date is the warlike politics of 1866 and 1871: a confederation dominated by the kingdom, then an empire led by that kingdom. Hostile neighbors as a combat bonus are a rule. They are not the text of the North German Confederation Treaty.^{[2] [4]}

The railway is the guide’s picture of industry. Its unique improvement is the Staatseisenbahn, placed when rail stations connect two cities, and it raises gold and production on rural tiles. The guide’s introduction pairs rail with coal and steel. The Prussia page says the state shaped Germany and names the army, the capitals, and the empire. It does not, in the passage used here, inventory mines and refineries. A railroad improvement can suggest that industrial map. It is not a census of the Ruhr, and it is not the gate of 1791.^{[1] [4]}

The units pull the name in two directions. The guide’s cavalry is a hussar, and its aircraft is a Stuka, an attack plane with extra strength against land units. A cavalry type associated with early modern armies and an attack aircraft do not share a service date on these pages. This essay does not date the aircraft, because none of the pages opened here does. It records the pairing, and it refuses to let the aircraft ride back to Frederick William II’s gate.^{[3] [4]}

Legacy and interpretation

Prussia’s legacy on these pages is a long state that became a kingdom, then the leading state of an empire, then was ended in the twentieth century. The guide wants the moment of transformation and the industries that made war modern. The dated transformation is not one year. A reader who stops at “by 1866” will miss January 1871. A reader who starts at the empire will miss a gate ordered in 1788. Both misses are easy if the wonder, the ability, and the confederation are one tooltip.^{[1] [2] [3]}

No Prussian leader essay is published, so none is linked. The kingdom of 1701 and the empire of 1871 are told here as the state’s own chronology. A later biography would have to say which of those years it belongs to. This civilization file does not borrow one.^{[1] [2]}

Berlin and Königsberg should stay in the sentence. Königsberg is the earlier capital. Berlin is the capital of the kingdom and the city of the gate. The guide does not have to choose, because a civilization has no street address. A history of the gate does. The road it marked ran from Berlin toward Brandenburg an der Havel, which is not the same as the road from a kingdom to an empire.^{[1] [3]}

A closer look

Iron Cross, Mediatization, Realpolitik, Coking, and Tugenden are tradition names. They add combat strength, culture in captured settlements, production from bad relationships, or science from sanctions. The unification page’s mediatization is not given a separate article here. The guide uses the word for culture in captured cities. Captured settlements and the legal joining of German states in 1866 and 1871 are not automatically the same act. One is a game reward. The other is a treaty and a proclamation.^{[2] [4]}

The gate’s later life is also larger than Prussia. It became a national landmark, with the Reichstag nearby and the old palace route along Unter den Linden. That later fame is why a wonder uses it. The commission is still Frederick William II’s, and the years are still 1788 to 1791. Fame after 1871 does not move the foundation stone.^[3]

In Civilization VII

The English guide names the ability Blood and Iron. Traditions include Coking, Iron Cross, Mediatization, Realpolitik, and Tugenden. The improvement is the Staatseisenbahn. There is no unique civilian. The military units are the Hussar and the Stuka. The associated wonder is the Brandenburg Gate. The simplified Chinese guide names the same slots in its own words. This essay keeps the English names and does not rewrite them into the Chinese ones. Combat and production figures stay on the guide.^{[4] [5]}

The accessed guide does not identify an edition. The codex publishes the essay with that gap visible and files the civilization as modern. The published Friedrich essay is that king, not this gate and not the proclamation of 1871. The first step back from the ability is to separate the kingdom of 1701, the gate of 1788–1791, the confederation treaty of 18 August 1866, and the proclamation of 18 January 1871.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}