Editing Frederick William I of Prussia (section)

== Reign ==
[[File:Anthoni Schoonjans - Portrait of crown prince Frederick William as David with a sling.jpg|thumb|''Portrait of Crown Prince Frederick William as David with a Sling'' by [[Anthoni Schoonjans]]|left|303x303px]]
His father had successfully acquired the title of king for the Duchy of Prussia for which he had paid the high price of 2 million ducats to Emperor [[Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor|Leopold I]], 600,000 ducats to the German clergy and 20,000 thalers to the [[Jesuit order]].<ref>Werner Schmidt: ''Friedrich&nbsp;I. Kurfürst von Brandenburg, König in Preußen'', p. 89−135, Diederichs, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-424-01319-6.</ref> In addition, Frederick was obligated to provide Leopold with 8,000 soldiers for the [[War of the Spanish Succession]]. To demonstrate his new status, he had the [[Berlin Palace]], [[Schloss Charlottenburg|Charlottenburg Palace]], and [[Königsberg Castle]] doubled in size and furnished at considerable expense. However, in doing so, he had largely ruined the state's finances.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}

On ascending the throne in 1713, Frederick William therefore dismissed his father's corrupt "[[Cabinet of Three Counts]]". He worked persistently to reorganize the finances that had been shattered by his father, furthermore to enhance the economic development of his far-flung countries and to build up one of the largest and best equipped and trained armies in Europe. He would expand the Prussian Army from 38,000 men in 1713 to 80,000 in 1740,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Beloff |first=Max |title=The Age of Absolutism: 1660–1815 |publisher=Routledge Revivals, Taylor and Francis |year=2013 |pages=106}}</ref> with an average of 1 out of every 25 Prussian men serving in the military.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Duffy |first=Christopher |title=The Military Experience in the Age of Reason |publisher=Routledge |year=1987 |location=London |pages=69}}</ref> He expanded military obligations for the peasant class<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shennan |first=Margaret |title=The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia |publisher=Routledge |year=1995 |location=London |pages=55}}</ref> while replacing mandatory military service among the middle class with an annual tax, and he established schools and hospitals. The king encouraged farming, reclaimed marshes, stored grain in good times and sold it in bad times. 

Frederick would also work to expand state income. He increased excise taxes, both on domestic and foreign goods, as well as subjecting the Prussian nobility to a land tax.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shennan |first=Margaret |title=The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia |publisher=Routledge |year=1995 |location=London |pages=54}}</ref> He dictated the manual of Regulations for State Officials, containing 35 chapters and 297 paragraphs in which every public servant in Prussia could find his duties precisely set out: a minister or councillor failing to attend a committee meeting, for example, would lose six months' pay; if he absented himself a second time, he would be discharged from the royal service. In short, Frederick William I concerned himself with every aspect of his country, ruling an [[absolute monarchy]] with great energy and skill.

The king also took an interest in [[German colonial projects before 1871|Prussian colonial affairs]]. In 1717, he revoked the charter of the [[Brandenburg Gold Coast|Brandenburg Africa Company]] (BAC), which had been granted said charter by his father to establish a colony in [[West Africa]] known as the [[Brandenburg Gold Coast]]. The king was unwilling to spend money on maintaining either the colony or the [[Prussian Navy]], preferring to utilise state revenues on enlarging the Royal [[Prussian Army]]. In 1717, Frederick William sold the Brandenburg Gold Coast to the [[Dutch West India Company]].<ref name="BrahmRosenhaft2016">{{cite book|author1=Felix Brahm|author2=Eve Rosenhaft|title=Slavery Hinterland: Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680–1850|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0JMcDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA28|year=2016|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=978-1-78327-112-2|pages=26–30}}</ref>

In 1732, the king invited the [[Salzburg Protestants]] to settle in [[East Prussia]], which had been [[Great Northern War plague outbreak|depopulated by plague]] in 1709. Under the terms of the [[Peace of Augsburg]], the prince-archbishop of [[Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg|Salzburg]] could require his subjects to practice the Catholic faith, but Protestants had the right to emigrate to a Protestant state. Prussian commissioners accompanied 20,000 Protestants to their new homes on the other side of Germany. Frederick William I personally welcomed the first group of migrants and sang Protestant hymns with them.<ref name=walker1992>{{Cite book|title = The Salzburg Transaction: Expulsion and Redemption in Eighteenth-Century Germany|last = Walker|first = Mack|publisher = Cornell University Press|year = 1992|isbn = 0-8014-2777-0|location = Ithaca, New York|url-access = registration|url = https://archive.org/details/salzburgtransact00walk}}</ref>

In 1733 he began building the [[Dutch Quarter]] in [[Potsdam]], where he invited talented Dutch craftsmen to settle.

Frederick William intervened briefly in the [[Great Northern War]], allied with [[Peter the Great]] of [[Russian Empire|Russia]], in order to gain a small portion of [[Swedish Pomerania]]; this gave Prussia new ports on the [[Baltic Sea]] coast. More significantly, aided by his close friend [[Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau]], the "Soldier-King" made considerable reforms to the Prussian army's training, tactics and conscription program—introducing the [[Canton System (Prussia)|canton system]], and greatly increasing the Prussian infantry's rate of fire through the introduction of the iron ramrod. Frederick William's reforms left his son Frederick with the most formidable army in Europe, which Frederick used to increase Prussia's power.

Although a highly effective ruler, Frederick William had a perpetually short temper which sometimes drove him to physically attack servants (or even his own children) with a cane at the slightest perceived provocation. His violent, harsh nature was further exacerbated by his inherited [[Porphyria cutanea tarda|porphyritic disease]], which gave him [[gout]], obesity and frequent crippling stomach pains.<ref>Mitford, Nancy (1970). ''Frederick the Great'', New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, p. 17.</ref> He also had a notable [[Francophobia|contempt for France]], and would sometimes fly into a rage at the mere mention of that country, although this did not stop him from encouraging the immigration of French [[Huguenot]] refugees to Prussia.