Question

How did Frederick William I help to unify Prussia after the death of his father in 1713?

Answer 1

Frederick William's main contributions to the growth of Prussian power involved the unglamorous and daily drudgery of administration. To bring all of the major functions of government under centralized supervision, Frederick William created in 1722 the General-Ober-Finanz-Kriegsund Domänendirektorium, known as the Generaldirektorium (General Directory). It functioned as an administrative board, all of whose decisions were examined by the king. The continuing royal policy, which the General Directory both administered and initiated, followed the standard model of eighteenth-century absolutism: centralization of administrative and policy decisions in the hands of the king and uniformity of application of law and administration across all classes and provinces. These were the goals of government everywhere during the eighteenth century, but nowhere in Europe were they so successfully and relentlessly pursued as in Prussia. By the time of his death in May 1740, Frederick William I had pulled together by sheer determination, persistence, and attention to the main elements of royal power the most efficient and best organized state in Europe.

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