A constitutional crisis in 1860s Prussia could teach Americans the importance of public participation in democracy.

Frederick II accedes to the throne of Prussia after the death of his father. A few months later, he invades Silesia and starts an eight-year war with Austria. In the late 1740s Frederick began ...

But as 1806 drew to a close, Napoleon was still at war. Austria and Prussia had both surrendered, but the Russians — bloodied after Austerlitz — and Great Britain — all powerful on the seas ...

Now Great Britain, Prussia, Austria, and Russia united once again to declare Napoleon an outlaw — "an enemy and a disturber of the tranquility of the world" — and readied their armies for war.

In October 1813 Napoleon faced the combined might of the Sixth Coalition (Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden ... European history before the First World War, and one that changed the destiny ...