Brandenburg Navy
The Electorate of Brandenburg, the predecessor of the Kingdom of Prussia, possessed its own naval forces from the 16th century onwards. Beginning around the year 1657, under Elector Frederick William (the "Great Elector"), these developed into an offensive naval force. The Elector designated navigation and commerce as the noblest undertakings of a state, and strove energetically to develop colonies overseas. Frederick William’s descendants had, however, little interest in such overseas adventures and on developing their own naval power. His son Frederick I, from 1701 the King in Prussia, was glad to sell colonial possessions to the Netherlands. At the time of Brandenburg’s elevation to the Kingdom of Prussia, the decline of the Brandenburg Navy had already begun; her end finally arrived with the sale of the colonies.
Read more about this topic: Prussian Navy
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