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German mediatization (German: ''deutsche Mediatisierung'') refers to the major territorial restructuring that took place between 1802 and 1814 in Germany and the surrounding region (until 1806 the Holy Roman Empire) by means of the mass mediatization and secularization〔In the present context, secularization means "the transfer (of property) from ecclesiastical to civil possession or use" (Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 1989〕 of a large number of Imperial Estates: ecclesiastical principalities, free imperial cities, secular principalities and other minor self-ruling entities that lost their independent status and were absorbed into the remaining states. In the strict sense of the word, mediatization consists in the subsumption of an immediate (German: ''unmittelbar'') state into another state, thus becoming ''mediate'' (German: ''mittelbar''), while generally leaving the dispossessed ruler with his private estates and a number of privileges and feudal rights, such as low justice. For convenience, historians use the term mediatization for the entire restructuring process that took place at the time, whether the mediatized states survived in some form or lost all individuality. The secularization of ecclesiastical states took place concurrently with the mediatization of free imperial cities and other secular states. The mass mediatization and secularization of German states that took place at the time was not initiated by Germans. It came under relentless military and diplomatic pressure from revolutionary France and Napoleon. It constituted the most extensive redistribution of property and territories in German history prior to 1945.〔Whaley, J., ''Germany and the Holy Roman Empire (1493-1806)'', Oxford University Press, 2011, vol. 2, p. 620.〕 The two highpoints of the process were the mediatization/secularization of ecclesiastical principalities and free imperial cities in 1802-1803, and the mediatization of secular principalities in 1806. ==Final Recess of February 1803== The Final Recess of the Reichsdeputation ((ドイツ語:Reichsdeputationshauptschluss) (ラテン語:Recessus principalis deputationis imperii)) was a resolution passed on 25 February 1803 by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire. It proved to be the last significant law enacted by the Empire before its dissolution in 1806. Based on a plan agreed in June 1802 between France and Austria, and broad principles outlined in Article 7〔Art. 7. ''"And since the transfer of territory from the Empire to the French Republic has dispossessed in whole or in part several Princes and Imperial Estates, and since it is the collective responsibility of the Holy Roman Empire to bear the losses resulting from the provisions of this treaty, it is agreed between H.M. the Emperor and King, in his name and on behalf of the German Empire, and the French Republic, that, in accordance with the principles formally established at the Congress of Rastatt, the Empire will be required to grant to the hereditary princes who lose their possessions on the left bank of the Rhine a compensation that will be taken from within the said Empire, according to the terms of an arrangement to be determined later"''.〕 the Treaty of Lunéville of 1801, the law established a major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Empire, to compensate numerous German princes for their possessions to the west of the Rhine that had been annexed by France as a result of the wars of the French Revolution. The Treaty had referred only to the compensation of "hereditary princes", which excluded from any claim to compensation the ecclesiastical princes (prince-electors, prince-bishops, imperial abbots), Free Imperial Cities and Imperial Knights who had also been dispossessed. The Final Recess was ratified unanimously by the Imperial Diet in March, 1803, and was approved by the emperor, Francis II, the following month. However, the emperor made a formal reservation in respect of the reallocation of votes within the Imperial Diet, as the balance between Protestant and Catholic states had been shifted heavily in the former's favour. The redistribution was achieved by a combination of two processes: secularization of ecclesiastical principalities, and mediatization of nearly all the Free imperial cities. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「German mediatization」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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