Page 30 RAIN ooks 1\uning Swiss Cities and Empire 1450-1550 Winter/Spring 1991 Thomas A. Brady, Jr. Cambridge University Press 1985. $42.50 During the 16th century, France, Britain and Russia firmly established centralized, dynastic monarchies that led to modem nation-states. Germany did not. Nationalistic German historians have moaned for a century about Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian's failure to create a unified Germany before his death in 1519. The forceful Hapsburg prince liquidated many forms of independence in the Empire, but was unsuccessful in creating a German monarchy for his family. The right-wing scholars are mistaken if they believe that a consolidated Germany around 1504 would have looked anything like Bismark's Imperial Germany of 1871, which was created as an extension of Prussia. There are, however, similarities in the extent, if not the quality of domination. In his move towards monarchy, Maximilian constrained the reformation, put down peasant revolts, provoked battles between city and countryside and caused much stress in Switzerland. His success was directly proportional to misery in the region. The great internal threats to the Holy Roman Maximilian: A formschneider engraving by Albrect Durer. Empire were the free cities, the independent rural nobility, and the Swiss Confederation. Switzerland was the only one of these three to survive the Empire. The free cities were merchant cities of the Empire that were not part of noble estates. Since the Empire was an alliance of nobility, the cities and their leaders were skittish about their Imperial membership. Most of the cities in Southern Germany considered joining the Swiss confederation, and many did. But Maximilian at length convinced the remaining free cities that Switzerland was a threat, ~sing both mild incentives and some anti-Swiss propaganda with striking similarities to modem anti-communism. Maximilian offered the cities membership in a political alliance, the Swabian League, that would give them some minimal say in Imperial affairs. He then turned this league against the Empire's upstart nobility. These few rogue nobles were almost always unfriendly with the cities, attacking and taxing the merchants who ran them. After the league of Swabian cities was seasoned in these battles, Max pushed them to fight against the Swiss. The Swiss won. The failure of much of Germany to Turn Swiss can be viewed as the failure of rural interests (wealthy princes) to find enough in common with city interests (merchant patricians) to annex themselves to the Swiss
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