Editing Holy Roman Empire (section)

=== Modern period ===
[[File:L'Empire d'Allemagne (Holy Roman Empire of Germany) Nicolas de Fer 1710 Colored Map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|L'Empire d'Allemagne (The German Empire), around 1710 by [[Nicolas de Fer]]. Map of the empire with [[Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Joseph I]] and internally highlighted borders]]
{{Main|18th-century history of Germany}}

==== Prussia and Austria ====
{{Further|Austro-Prussian rivalry|Kingdom of Prussia|Habsburg monarchy}}
[[File:Deutscher-Dualismus.png|thumb|upright=1|The [[Austro-Prussian rivalry]] illustrated as the [[Habsburg monarchy|Austrian]] elephant vs the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] lion]]

By the rise of [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]], the Habsburgs were chiefly dependent on their hereditary lands to counter the rise of [[Prussia]], which possessed territories inside the Empire. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs were embroiled in various European conflicts, such as the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1701–1714), the [[War of the Polish Succession]] (1733–1735), and the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] (1740–1748). The [[German dualism]] between [[Austria]] and [[Prussia]] dominated the empire's history after 1740.

==== French Revolutionary Wars and final dissolution ====
{{Main|Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire}}
[[File:Map of Holy Roman Empire 1789.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|The Holy Roman Empire before the [[Napoleonic Wars]], 1789]]
From 1792 onward, [[French Revolutionary Wars|revolutionary France]] was at war with various parts of the Empire intermittently.

The [[German mediatization]] was the series of mediatizations and [[secularization]]s that occurred between 1795 and 1814, during the latter part of the era of the [[French Revolution]] and then the [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Napoleonic Era]]. "Mediatization" was the process of [[annexation|annexing]] the lands of one [[Imperial State|imperial estate]] to another, often leaving the annexed some rights. For example, the estates of the [[Imperial Knight]]s were formally mediatized in 1806, having {{lang|la|de facto}} been seized by the great [[territorial state]]s in 1803 in the so-called ''[[Rittersturm]]''. "Secularization" was the abolition of the temporal power of an [[ecclesiastical]] ruler such as a [[bishop]] or an [[abbot]] and the annexation of the secularized territory to a secular territory.

[[File:Napoleon.Austerlitz.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|The [[Battle of Austerlitz]], 1805]]
The empire was dissolved on 6 August 1806, when the last Holy Roman Emperor [[Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire|Francis II]] (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) abdicated, following a military defeat by the French under [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] at the [[Battle of Austerlitz]] in 1805 (see [[Treaty of Pressburg (1805)|Treaty of Pressburg]]). Napoleon reorganized much of the Empire into the [[Confederation of the Rhine]], a [[satellite state|French satellite]]. Francis' [[House of Lorraine|House of Habsburg-Lorraine]] survived the demise of the empire, continuing to reign as [[Emperor of Austria|Emperors of Austria]] and [[King of Hungary|Kings of Hungary]] until the Habsburg empire's final dissolution in 1918 in the [[aftermath of World War I]].

The Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine was replaced by a new union, the [[German Confederation]] in 1815, following the end of the [[Napoleonic Wars]]. It lasted until 1866 when Prussia founded the [[North German Confederation]], a forerunner of the [[German Empire]] which united the German-speaking territories outside of Austria and Switzerland under Prussian leadership in 1871. This state developed into [[Federal Republic of Germany|modern Germany]].

The abdication indicated that the Kaiser no longer felt capable of fulfilling his duties as head of the Reich, and so declared:

''"That we consider the tie that has bound us to the body politic of the [[German Reich]] to be broken, that we have expired the office and dignity of the head of the Reich through the unification of the confederated Rhenish estates and that we are thereby relieved of all the duties we have assumed towards the German Reich Consider counted, and lay down the imperial crown worn by the same until now and conducted imperial government, as is hereby done."''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Erklärung Franz II. zur Niederlegung der Krone des Heiligen Römischen Reiches – Wikisource|url=https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Erkl%C3%A4rung_Franz_II._zur_Niederlegung_der_Krone_des_Heiligen_R%C3%B6mischen_Reiches|access-date=2022-10-28|website=de.wikisource.org|language=de}}</ref>

The only princely member states of the Holy Roman Empire that have preserved their status as monarchies until today are the Grand Duchy of [[Luxembourg]] and the [[Principality of Liechtenstein]]. The only Free Imperial Cities still existing as states within Germany are [[Hamburg]] and [[Bremen]]. All other historic member states of the Holy Roman Empire were either dissolved or have adopted republican systems of government.