The Importance of the German Empire

German freedom depended on belonging to the empire, not emancipation from it. This was a crucial factor in blunting the Reformation's potential to become a separatist movement because few Protestants were prepared to defy imperial authority altogether. By 1795 Brandenburg Prussia encompassed over 309,000 square kilometres - more than double its size in 1740 and nearly three times as large as it had been in 1648.