The Changing Face of the Holy Roman Empire
H. M. Scott
F ew institutions have possessed as enduring importance in Europe's history the Holy Roman Empire. Dating its foundation to Charlemagne's coronation 800, it survived for a millennium, being dissolved only 1806 face of overwhelming threat from Napoleonic imperialism. Its geographical extent was equally remarkable: at peak, imperial territory stretched eastward North Sea far Poland, and southward shores Baltic deep into Italian Peninsula. Around 1800, shortly before nemesis, Empire second largest polity, with territorial area around 687,000 square kilometers. It eclipsed by Russia, which during later-seventeenth eighteenth century had expanded spectacularly. population too impressive: twenty-nine million inhabitants, rivals were France Russia. Claiming descent ancient Rome, long embodied idea unified Christendom, while defensive role against Ottoman expansion late fifteenth onward sustained religious mission even after Protestant Reformation. Yet is often squeezed out accounts past, an exclusion particularly evident early modern centuries.
Austrian History Yearbook