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Habsburgs therefore still held much power in Europe, but their control of "Imperial" states not under their direct rule was largely a dead letter.

Outside the Empire, France was clearly the dominant power, politically, economically and above all, culturally. "Germany" and "Italy" did not yet exist as political entities, both had a common language and culture, but were fragmented into many of small states. The exception was Prussia, which had risen to the status of a major European power by 1763. Spain ruled half of The Netherlands (now Belgium) and, from 1735, large territories in Italy. Russia was rapidly becoming Westernised and seeking to extend its boundaries. This and the Moslem Ottoman Empire, which included Greece and the Balkan states, made an uneasy and unstable frontier between Europe and Asia. The rise of Prussia and Russia also contributed to the decline of Poland, Sweden and the other Baltic countries. England shared its ruler with the German state of Hanover, and was struggling to maintain a hold on Scotland and Ireland.

In the 18th century, however, national boundaries were both more and less important than they are today. If you were of noble birth or well educated you had closer cultural ties with your peers in a "foreign" country than with the common people in your own. Given the proper introductions, and if you knew how to behave in polite society, you could expect to be welcomed or at least tolerated in "foreign" countries, whether you had gone there for business, or for study, for sightseeing, or even to escape your creditors. People of lower status also were readily accepted into another nation if they possessed useful crafts. Foreign military service was not limited to the rank and file, officers too moved from country to country like star football players today. Many states were ruled by men or women born in other countries, and the consorts of rulers were even more likely to be foreign, and to bring many other foreigners in their train. There are also plenty of examples of ministers of state, artists, educationists, technical experts and outstanding scholars, who were invited from one country to another.

If, however, you were born into the common people, who numbered at least eight in ten of the population, you had little chance of leaving your birthplace and much depended on where that was. Your political status could vary from serfdom (as in Russia) to membership of an assembly where all adult males had a vote (as in some cantons of Switzerland). Most of your legal rights and duties, and almost all economic ones, would be decided quite close to home, and were unlikely to be much altered. Even if your homeland was annexed by another country, many features of the legislative and judicial systems, the maintenance of public order, local taxation, the powers of the guilds, trade privileges, even religious freedom, would quite probably be left untouched. The world that Bräker was born into was an intensely conservative one.

One of the greatest forces for conservatism was the persistence of monarchy as the preferred form of government. Only some of the Italian states, Holland, and some German city-states, were republics of any political significance. Though Switzerland was seen as more "democratic" in its government than most European countries, some of its territory was in fact still under monarchic rule, including Bräker's homeland of the Toggenburg. Nearly all 18th century governments were badly administered by modern standards, much of the executive powers were in the hands of non-governmental officials, and even those officers appointed by the national governments had poor training and were inadequately paid. Taxation was also usually inequitably applied and inefficiently collected. No government had anything like a modern police force and public order had to be maintained by the military. Most civil disturbances were, however, caused by economic factors such as unemployment and high food prices, this meant that they were to some extent predictable and therefore easily suppressed. Economic factors were also largely responsible for huge numbers of people living well below the poverty line, creating an underclass of migrant workers, beggars and criminals. Class in the early 18th century was also a conservative structure, it was based on hereditary rights and duties. Wealth and merit were less important; trying to rise above the station in life to which God had called you was often seen as sacrilegious as well as presumptuous. In some places, including parts of Switzerland, your "order" could dictate your behaviour in quite intimate matters such as what sort of clothes you

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