THE WARS OF FREDERICK THE GREAT
was to re-create the army, which had sunk to the
condition of a disorderly and ineffective rabble.
So successful was he in this task that when the
Peace of Westphalia came to be concluded, he was
able to speak with authority, and to emerge from
the conference bringing with him a fresh batch of
bishoprics and also the province of Eastern Pornerania
(recovered from the Swedes), which went a long
way towards filling up the gap between his German
margravate and his Polish dukedom.
The remaining forty years of his electorate
(1648-88) were spent in unremitting toil for the
aggrandisement of Brandenburg-Prussia. He had
no regard for Germany as a whole; no conception of
Europe or of Humanity. On behalf of Brandenburg-
Prussia he was ready to use all the force at his dis-
posal. He was also equally ready on her behalf
either to make or to break treaties. Thus by
intervening in a war which took place between
Poland and Sweden (a.d. 1655-60), and by alter-
nately supporting and deserting both sides, he
secured the emancipation of East Prussia from
Polish suzerainty. Further, as the result of much
negotiation and a considerable show of force, he
was able in a.d. 1666 to establish secure possession
of the Rhenish territories of Cleves, Mark, and
Ravensberg to which the Hohenzollern had been
making claims, by right of inheritance, for more
than half a century.