Gillian_Angela
07-11-2008, 12:37 AM
Which War am I talking about?! C'mon..you knooooooow ;) It all started with Austria Hungary...don't mind the little funsky story behind it all. Go to the last paragraph to catch on
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There once was a king named Frederick William. He ruled a small, open, flat and unfortified country called Prussia. The country had no natural resources or frontiers. Thus, William concluded that he must build an army that he could use to bargain with other European powers and to swing the balance of power his way. Therefore, King William allied himself with France. Too bad he had never been a battle, more or less fought in a war, but yet he considered himself the greatest general who ever lived. William’s life thus revolved around supporting the army and finding effective uses for it. The army grew so strong that it developed a life of its own. Every soldier was dutiful, obedient, and willing to sacrifice anything for the good of his people.
The story I will tell you today is of a time in history when William employed his army of 40,000 to force the local tailor to create a better design for the army uniforms. William, who was always dressed in uniform, grew tired of the same dark design and demanded that the tailor make the uniforms pink. However, for the tailor, pink was an extremely hard color to produce since the tailor, who gave most of his paycheck to the government in order to support the military, could not afford the many dyes that one needs to create the color pink. Furthermore, John the Tailor, a faithful Protestant, both disliked the King’s flamboyant ways and thought the idea of pink uniforms as ridiculous. Consequently, when John the Tailor told Frederick William that he couldn’t make them, the King reacted viciously by intending to invade the store!
Henceforth, Frederick William revamped Prussia’s military. He devised new forms of discipline, founded a cadet corps and devised a new recruiting system. He even gossiped to his friends by saying things like “Who does this John think he is? He’s going against my ideas of Absolutism!”
When Frederick besieged John’s store on August 6th, 1735, John came outside and surrendered to the King. He said that he was sorry for not listening to the king and would take any punishment for his crime out of loyalty to Frederick. Upon listening to John’s pleas and apologies, Frederick decided that it was in his best interest to forget the whole thing and let John the Tailor continue on with his menial life. I mean Frederick was an absolute ruler, and an insignificant tailor proved to be no threat to him, especially militarily.
As a result of this incident, the Prussian monarchy was based largely on an understanding between the ruler and the landlord gentry. The estates and parliamentary assemblages became extremely repressed and serfdom spread throughout Prussia. Every ounce of money went straight to building a strong military, even though Prussia was not in the midst of war.
When Frederick William died, his son Frederick II inherited the throne. Upon entering his reign, he startled the rest of Europe with a war chest of 7,000,000 Thalers, all of which his father had built up for him. When Charles VI of the Hapsburg House died, and the rest of Europe was hedging on the validity of the Pragmatic Sanction, Frederick II moved his forces into Silesia and doubled the population of Prussia. Thus he set up Prussia’s prominence as a major military force, all with a little help from his father, the metro-sexual army lover.
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There once was a king named Frederick William. He ruled a small, open, flat and unfortified country called Prussia. The country had no natural resources or frontiers. Thus, William concluded that he must build an army that he could use to bargain with other European powers and to swing the balance of power his way. Therefore, King William allied himself with France. Too bad he had never been a battle, more or less fought in a war, but yet he considered himself the greatest general who ever lived. William’s life thus revolved around supporting the army and finding effective uses for it. The army grew so strong that it developed a life of its own. Every soldier was dutiful, obedient, and willing to sacrifice anything for the good of his people.
The story I will tell you today is of a time in history when William employed his army of 40,000 to force the local tailor to create a better design for the army uniforms. William, who was always dressed in uniform, grew tired of the same dark design and demanded that the tailor make the uniforms pink. However, for the tailor, pink was an extremely hard color to produce since the tailor, who gave most of his paycheck to the government in order to support the military, could not afford the many dyes that one needs to create the color pink. Furthermore, John the Tailor, a faithful Protestant, both disliked the King’s flamboyant ways and thought the idea of pink uniforms as ridiculous. Consequently, when John the Tailor told Frederick William that he couldn’t make them, the King reacted viciously by intending to invade the store!
Henceforth, Frederick William revamped Prussia’s military. He devised new forms of discipline, founded a cadet corps and devised a new recruiting system. He even gossiped to his friends by saying things like “Who does this John think he is? He’s going against my ideas of Absolutism!”
When Frederick besieged John’s store on August 6th, 1735, John came outside and surrendered to the King. He said that he was sorry for not listening to the king and would take any punishment for his crime out of loyalty to Frederick. Upon listening to John’s pleas and apologies, Frederick decided that it was in his best interest to forget the whole thing and let John the Tailor continue on with his menial life. I mean Frederick was an absolute ruler, and an insignificant tailor proved to be no threat to him, especially militarily.
As a result of this incident, the Prussian monarchy was based largely on an understanding between the ruler and the landlord gentry. The estates and parliamentary assemblages became extremely repressed and serfdom spread throughout Prussia. Every ounce of money went straight to building a strong military, even though Prussia was not in the midst of war.
When Frederick William died, his son Frederick II inherited the throne. Upon entering his reign, he startled the rest of Europe with a war chest of 7,000,000 Thalers, all of which his father had built up for him. When Charles VI of the Hapsburg House died, and the rest of Europe was hedging on the validity of the Pragmatic Sanction, Frederick II moved his forces into Silesia and doubled the population of Prussia. Thus he set up Prussia’s prominence as a major military force, all with a little help from his father, the metro-sexual army lover.