The First Silesian War () was a war between Prussia and Austria that lasted from 1740 to 1742 and resulted in Prussia's seizing most of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland) from Austria. The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia (the lands of the Bohemian Crown) and formed one theatre of the wider War of the Austrian Succession. It was the first of three Silesian Wars fought between Frederick the Great's Prussia and Maria Theresa's Austria in the mid-18th century, all three of which ended in Prussian control of Silesia. No particular triggering event started the war.
Introduction
First Silesian War
First Silesian War | Introduction
1740 From 1740 to 1742 1740 1740
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The First Silesian War () was a war between Prussia and Austria that lasted from 1740 to 1742 and resulted in Prussia's seizing most of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland) from Austria. The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia (the lands of the Bohemian Crown) and formed one theatre of the wider War of the Austrian Succession. It was the first of three Silesian Wars fought between Frederick the Great's Prussia and Maria Theresa's Austria in the mid-18th century, all three of which ended in Prussian control of Silesia. No particular triggering event started the war.
First Silesian War | Introduction
Neipperg's Austrian forces were then recalled from Silesia to defend Austria against the western invaders, abandoning Neisse after a sham siege in early November and leaving the whole of Silesia under Prussian control.
First Silesian War | Negotiations of Mid-1741
This arrangement was formalised and confirmed in the Treaty of Berlin, signed 28 July 1742.
First Silesian War | Treaties of Breslau and Berlin
The Moravian campaign achieved no significant gains, and on 5April the Prussians retreated into Bohemia and Upper Silesia.
First Silesian War | Bohemia–Moravia campaign of 1741–42
The Prussian army had massed quietly along the Oder during early December 1740, and on 16 December, without a declaration of war, Frederick moved his troops across the frontier into Silesia. The Prussian force consisted of two corps totalling 27,000 soldiers, while Silesia was defended by an Austrian garrison of only 8,000 men. The Austrians were able to offer only light resistance and garrison a few fortresses; the Prussians swept through the province, taking control of the capital at Breslau without a fight on 2January 1741. The fortress at Ohlau was also taken without resistance on 9January, after which the Prussians used it for their winter quarters.
First Silesian War | Silesian campaign of 1740–41
Thus, upon the death of Charles VI on 29 October 1740, Frederick disputed the succession of the 23-year-old Maria Theresa to the Habsburg lands, while simultaneously making his own claim on Silesia. Accordingly, the First Silesian War (1740–1742, part of the War of the Austrian Succession) began on 16 December 1740 when Frederick invaded and quickly occupied the province. Frederick was worried that if he did not move, Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, would seek to connect his own disparate lands through Silesia. The Prussian king quickly snatched the territory, using as justification an obscure treaty from 1537 between the Hohenzollern and the Piast dynasty of Brieg (Brzeg).
Frederick the Great | War of the Austrian Succession
The First Silesian War marked the unexpected defeat of the Habsburg Monarchy by a lesser German power and initiated the Austria–Prussia rivalry that would shape German politics for more than a century.
First Silesian War | Introduction
By the end of January 1741, almost the entirety of Silesia had come under Prussian control, and the remaining Austrian strongholds of Glogau, Brieg and Neisse were besieged. After leaving winter quarters in early 1741, the Prussian forces began a spring campaign, and on 9March Prince LeopoldII of Anhalt-Dessau took Glogau by storm. In late March, an Austrian force of around 20,000 under the command of Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg crossed the Sudetes mountains from Moravia and broke the siege of Neisse on 5April, after which the main Prussian force manoeuvred to oppose its advance. The two armies engaged each other near the village of Mollwitz on 10 April, where the Prussians under Marshal Kurt von Schwerin successfully stopped the Austrian advance in the Battle of Mollwitz.
First Silesian War | Silesian campaign of 1740–41
Military supplies were stored in centralised magazines and distributed by baggage trains that were highly vulnerable to enemy raids. Armies were generally unable to sustain combat operations during winter and normally established winter quarters in the cold season, resuming their campaigns with the return of spring.
First Silesian War | Methods and technologies
After Emperor Charles's death on 20 October 1740, Frederick quickly resolved to strike first; on 8November he ordered the mobilisation of the Prussian army, and on 11 December he issued an ultimatum to Maria Theresa demanding the cession of Silesia. In return, he offered to guarantee all other Habsburg possessions against any attack, pay a large cash indemnity, acknowledge the Pragmatic Sanction, and give his vote as elector of Brandenburg to Maria Theresa's husband, Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine, in the forthcoming imperial election to replace the deceased Charles. Not waiting for a response and without a declaration of war, he led Prussian troops across the lightly defended Silesian frontier on 16 December, beginning the First Silesian War.
Silesian Wars | First Silesian War
The Second Silesian War () was a war between Prussia and Austria that lasted from 1744 to 1745 and confirmed Prussia's control of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Bohemia, and Upper Saxony and formed one theatre of the wider War of the Austrian Succession. It was the second of three Silesian Wars fought between Frederick the Great's Prussia and Maria Theresa's Austria in the mid-18th century, all three of which ended in Prussian control of Silesia. The conflict has been viewed as a continuation of the First Silesian War, which had concluded only two years before.
Second Silesian War | Introduction
The Franco-Bavarian forces occupying Prague were isolated and besieged, eventually giving up the city in December. By mid-1743, Austria would recover control of Bohemia, drive the French back across the Rhine into Alsace, and occupy Bavaria, exiling Emperor Charles Albert to Frankfurt.
First Silesian War | Austria
He fought near Glogau Fortress ("29 December 1740 – 2 January 1741"), near Breslau ("30 December 1740 – 3 January 1741"), Ohlau ("9 January 1741"), the Siege of Neisse ("15 – 22 January 1741"), in skirmishes between Nossen and Lindenau (‘’2 March 1741’’), at Göding (‘’10 March 1742’’), and at the Siege of Brno (‘’31 March – 3 April 1742’’) in Moravia.
Isaac de Forcade de Biaix | <a href="Silesian%20Wars%23First%20Silesian%20War">First Silesian War</a> (1740–42)
The Prussian's supplies were exhausted, however, and they withdrew again into Upper Silesia for the winter, driving out the Austrian light troops that had entered the region ahead of Prince Charles's main force.
Second Silesian War | Mid-1745: Battles of Hohenfriedberg and Soor
As Austria, France and Russia formed a new anti-Prussian coalition, Frederick became convinced that Prussia would be attacked in early 1757 and once again chose to strike first. On 29 August 1756 he preemptively invaded neighbouring Saxony, beginning the Third Silesian War. As Austria's and Prussia's allies joined the fighting, the conflict quickly widened into what became the pan-European Seven Years' War. The Prussians occupied Saxony in late 1756 and made large advances in Bohemia in early 1757, winning a series of battles while advancing to Prague. In May Prussian forces drove back the Austrian defenders in the Battle of Prague, taking great losses, and then besieged the city.
Silesian Wars | Third Silesian War
Prussia's withdrawal from the War of the Austrian Succession under a separate peace embittered its erstwhile allies, and the diplomatic position shifted in Austria's favour.
Second Silesian War | First Silesian War
In June, the Treaty of Breslau ended the First Silesian War, allowing Austria to recapture Prague in December. Hostilities resumed in 1744.
Battle of Chotusitz | Introduction
In return, he offered to guarantee all other Habsburg possessions against any attack, pay a large cash indemnity, acknowledge the Pragmatic Sanction, and give his vote as elector of Brandenburg in the imperial election to Maria Theresa's husband. Not waiting for a response, he and his troops advanced into Silesia.
First Silesian War | Moves toward war
Some 9,000 ethnic Poles sought refuge in the Second Polish Republic, taking along their family members. This came to an end when Allied forces were brought in to restore order, and the refugees were allowed to return later that year.
Silesian Uprisings | First war (1919)
After Austria's failure at Mollwitz to repel the Prussian invasion, other powers were emboldened to attack the beleaguered archduchy, widening the conflict into what would become the War of the Austrian Succession. France declared its support for Prussia's seizure of Silesia in the 5June Treaty of Breslau, and in July it joined in the Treaty of Nymphenburg, by which France and Spain committed to support Bavaria's territorial claims against Austria. French forces began crossing the Rhine on 15 August, joining the Bavarian forces on the Danube and advancing toward Vienna, while a Spanish–Neapolitan army attacked Austria's holdings in northern Italy.
First Silesian War | Negotiations of Mid-1741
In early 1742 Frederick organised a joint advance through Moravia toward Vienna with the Saxons and French, which began after their forces met on 5February at Wischau. The French, however, proved reluctant and uncooperative allies, and, after the seizure of Iglau on 15 February, they withdrew into Bohemia. The Prussians and Saxons marched on toward Brünn, the main Austrian stronghold remaining in Moravia, but they made little progress due to the substantial Austrian garrison and a shortage of supplies. The Saxons abandoned the effort on 30 March and returned to Bohemia, where they would remain until withdrawing completely from the war in July.
First Silesian War | Bohemia–Moravia campaign of 1741–42
By the end of January 1741 almost the entirety of Silesia was under Prussian control, and the remaining Austrian strongholds of Glogau, Brieg and Neisse were besieged. In late March an Austrian force relieved the siege of Neisse, but the main Prussian force engaged and defeated it in the Battle of Mollwitz on 10 April, securing Prussian control of the region. Seeing Austria's defeat at Mollwitz, other powers were emboldened to attack the beleaguered archduchy, widening the conflict into what would become the War of the Austrian Succession. As Bavaria, Saxony, France, Naples and Spain attacked Austria on multiple fronts during the succeeding months, Frederick began secret peace negotiations with Maria Theresa, with British urging and mediation; on 9October Austria and Prussia agreed to a secret armistice known as the Convention of Klein-Schnellendorf, under which Austria committed to eventually concede Lower Silesia in return for peace.
Silesian Wars | First Silesian War
The Silesian Wars () were three wars fought in the mid-18th century between Prussia (under King Frederick the Great) and Austria (under Archduchess Maria Theresa) for control of the Central European region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). The First (1740–1742) and Second (1744–1745) Silesian Wars formed parts of the wider War of the Austrian Succession, in which Prussia acted as one member of a coalition seeking territorial gain at Austria's expense. The Third Silesian War (1756–1763) was one theatre of the global Seven Years' War, in which Austria in turn led a coalition of powers aiming to seize Prussian territory.
Silesian Wars | Introduction
The conflict over Silesia foreshadowed a wider Austro-Prussian struggle for hegemony over the German-speaking peoples, which would later culminate in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866.
Silesian Wars | Introduction
Neither army acquitted itself well at Mollwitz, and Frederick at one point fled (on Schwerin's advice) to avoid capture, but the Prussians held the field and subsequently portrayed the battle as a victory. Brieg surrendered to the Prussians on 4May, after which the main Prussian force encamped through the succeeding months near Neisse, facing off against Neipperg's Austrians but fighting little.
First Silesian War | Silesian campaign of 1740–41
In 1685, when Austria was engaged in the Great Turkish War, Emperor LeopoldI gave Great Elector Frederick William immediate control of the Silesian exclave of Schwiebus in return for military support against the Turks and the surrender of the outstanding Hohenzollern claims in Silesia. After the accession of the Great Elector's son and successor, FrederickIII of Brandenburg, the Emperor took back control of Schwiebus in 1694, claiming the territory had only been personally assigned to the late Great Elector for life. As a young prince, FrederickIII had secretly agreed to this repossession in return for Leopold's payment of some of his debts, but as monarch he repudiated the agreement and reasserted the old Hohenzollern claims to Jägerndorf and the Silesian Piast heritage.
First Silesian War | Brandenburg–Prussia's claims
As the Franco-Bavarian allies made territorial gains, Frederick became concerned that Prussia might be sidelined in the eventual peace agreement, so he repudiated the Convention of Klein Schnellendorf, accusing the Austrians of violating its secrecy, and joined the general advance southward into Bohemia and Moravia. In December Schwerin's army advanced through the Sudetes into Moravia, occupying the capital at Olmütz on 27 December, while Prince Leopold's army besieged the fortress at Glatz on the edge of Bohemia. In January 1742 the Imperial election was held at Frankfurt, where Bavarian Elector Charles Albert was chosen as the next Holy Roman Emperor.
First Silesian War | Bohemia–Moravia campaign of 1741–42
Two generations later, the newly crowned Hohenzollern King Frederick II of Prussia formed designs on Silesia soon after succeeding to the throne in May 1740. Frederick judged that his dynasty's claims were credible, and he had inherited from his father a large and well-trained Prussian army and a healthy royal treasury. Austria was in financial distress, and its army had not been reinforced or reformed after an ignominious performance in the 1737–1739 Austro-Turkish War. The European strategic situation was favourable for an attack on Austria, with Britain and France occupying each other's attentions in the War of Jenkins' Ear and Sweden moving toward war with Russia; The Electors of Bavaria and Saxony also had claims against Austria and seemed likely to join in the attack.
First Silesian War | Austrian succession
On 15 August 1919, German border guards ("Grenzschutz") massacred ten Silesian civilians in a labour dispute at the Mysłowice mine ("Myslowitzer Grube"). The massacre sparked protests from the Silesian Polish miners, including a general strike of about 140,000 workers, and caused the First Silesian uprising against German control of Upper Silesia. The miners demanded the local government and police become ethnically mixed to include both Germans and Poles. About 21,000 Germans soldiers of the Weimar Republic's Provisional National Army ("Vorläufige Reichsheer"), with about 40,000 troops held in reserve, quickly put down the war. The army's reaction was harsh, with 2,500 Poles either hanged or executed by firing squad for their parts in the violence.
Silesian Uprisings | First war (1919)
Prussian forces resumed offensive operations in December, invading Moravia and blocking an Austrian drive toward Prague in early 1742. Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria won the 1742 Imperial election and became Holy Roman Emperor. In July 1742 Prussia and Austria made a separate peace in the Treaty of Berlin, under which Austria ceded the majority of Silesia to Prussia in return for Prussia's neutrality in the continuing war. In late 1742, while Prussia enjoyed the restored peace and worked to assimilate Silesia into its administration and economy, Austria fought on against Bavaria and France, reversing its losses from 1741. By the middle of 1743 Austria had recovered control of Bohemia, driven the French back across the Rhine into Alsace, and occupied Bavaria, exiling Emperor Charles Albert to Frankfurt.
Second Silesian War | First Silesian War
He fought near Glogau ("29 December 1740 - 2 January 1741"), Breslau ("29 December 1740 - 2 January 1741"), Ottmachau Palace ("12 January 1741"), Troppau ("23 January 1740"), Graetz ("25 January 1741"), the Battle of Mollwitz ("10 April 1741"), at Neisse ("19 October 1741 - 31 October 1741"), Laa ("12 March 1742"), Bruenn ("31 March 1742 - 3 April 1742"), Austerlitz ("10 April 1742") and Wartha ("25–26 May 1742").
Friedrich Wilhelm Quirin von Forcade de Biaix | <a href="Silesian%20Wars%23First%20Silesian%20War">First Silesian War</a> (1740–42)
The Silesian Offensive was a Russian offensive in 1914, during the First World War. It lasted from November 11 till December 6, and consisted of the Battle of Łowicz and Battle of Łódź. While it marked the furthest Russian forces would ever get to the West during the war, it was a tactical Russian victory - but their strategic defeat.
Silesian Offensive | Introduction
The Third Silesian War () was a war between Prussia and Austria (together with its allies) that lasted from 1756 to 1763 and confirmed Prussia's control of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Bohemia and Upper Saxony and formed one theatre of the Seven Years' War. It was the last of three Silesian Wars fought between Frederick the Great's Prussia and Maria Theresa's Austria in the mid-18th century, all three of which ended in Prussian control of Silesia. This conflict can be viewed as a continuation of the First and Second Silesian Wars of the previous decade.
Third Silesian War | Introduction
In 1741, during the first of the Silesian Wars, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Mollwitz, which took place here, cementing his conquest of Silesia from the Austrian Monarchy.
Małujowice | Battle of Mollwitz
In 1740, in the first year of his reign and shortly after his coronation Frederick II sent the Prussian Army to invade Austrian-ruled Silesia and so precipitated the First Silesian War and, in its broader sense, the Austrian War of Succession. Because Prussia allied itself with Bavaria, France, Saxony, the Electorate of Cologne, Spain, Sweden and Naples, whilst Prussia's main enemy, Austria allied itself with Great Britain, Sardinia, the Netherlands and Russia. For Prussia, the war was restricted to Silesia, and was able to capture the province after several victories.
Wars and battles involving Prussia | First Silesian War (1740–1742)
Maria Theresa's determination to recover Silesia would lead to renewed conflict with Prussia in the Second Silesian War only two years later, with a Third Silesian War to follow after another decade; Saxony would take Austria's side in both future conflicts.
First Silesian War | Outcomes
Prussia cited its centuries-old dynastic claims on parts of Silesia as a "casus belli", but "Realpolitik" and geostrategic factors also played a role in provoking the conflict. Maria Theresa's contested succession to the Habsburg Monarchy provided an opportunity for Prussia to strengthen itself relative to regional rivals such as Saxony and Bavaria. The war began with a Prussian invasion of Habsburg Silesia in late 1740, and it ended in a Prussian victory with the 1742 Treaty of Berlin, which recognised Prussia's seizure of most of Silesia and parts of Bohemia. Meanwhile, the wider War of the Austrian Succession continued, and conflict over Silesia would draw Austria and Prussia into a renewed Second Silesian War only two years later.
First Silesian War | Introduction
However, it did not prevent the Hussites from invading Silesia in 1420 (see also Hussite Wars).
Silesian Przesieka | Introduction
He also stationed Field Marshal Count Kurt von Schwerin in Silesia with 25,000 men to deter incursions from Moravia and Hungary. Finally, in August 1756 he personally led the main Prussian army of around 60,000 into Saxony, beginning the Third Silesian War.
Third Silesian War | Preparations for war
Meanwhile, the main Austrian force under Prince Charles of Lorraine would be occupied by the French in Alsace, where the French would counterattack on the opposite front as Prince Charles's army was pulled in two directions.
Second Silesian War | Preparations for a second war
The Empire was headed by the Holy Roman Emperor; in theory an elected post, it had been held by a Habsburg since 1437. France, Prussia and Saxony now challenged Austrian dominance by nominating Charles of Bavaria as Emperor. In December 1740, Frederick II seized the opportunity to invade Silesia and begin the First Silesian War. With a population of over one million, the Silesian mining, weaving and dyeing industries produced 10% of total Imperial income. Under Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin, the Prussians quickly over-ran most of the province and settled into winter quarters but failed to capture the southern fortresses of Glogau, Breslau, and Brieg.
Battle of Mollwitz | Background
Having made peace with Bavaria, in late April Austria prepared for a large-scale invasion of Silesia, moving the army of Charles of Lorraine into Moravia, while a Saxon army organised near Leipzig. Frederick abandoned the mountainous southern tip of Upper Silesia to the Austrian vanguard of pandurs, concentrating his defences around the town of Frankenstein in the valley of the Eastern Neisse. Meanwhile, LeopoldI of Anhalt-Dessau was put in command of a smaller force in Brandenburg to prevent a Saxon invasion. At the end of May, the Austrian–Saxon force crossed through the Giant Mountains and camped around the Silesian village of Hohenfriedberg, where Frederick staged a surprise attack on the morning of 4 June.
Second Silesian War | Mid-1745: Battles of Hohenfriedberg and Soor
The other belligerents in the wider Seven Years' War had already begun peace talks; now, negotiators from Austria, Prussia and Saxony convened on 30 December at Hubertusburg palace, near the front lines in Saxony, to discuss terms of peace.
Third Silesian War | Stalemate
Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg died in 1740 without a male heir; he was succeeded by his eldest daughter, who became ruler of the Archduchy of Austria, as well as of the Bohemian and Hungarian lands within the Habsburg Monarchy, as Archduchess Maria Theresa. During Emperor CharlesVI's lifetime, this female succession was generally acknowledged by the imperial states, but when he died it was promptly contested by several parties. The newly crowned King FrederickII of Prussia took this Austrian succession crisis as an opportunity to press his dynasty's territorial claims in the Habsburg crown land of Silesia, invading in December 1740 and beginning the First Silesian War.
Second Silesian War | First Silesian War
The Second Silesian War was also part of the Austrian War of Succession, but also a war fought for supremacy in Silesia between Prussia and Austria. Frederick II had allied himself at that time with France. Austria formed an alliance with Saxony, Great Britain and the Netherlands. In August 1744, Prussia ambushed Bohemia with 80,000 soldiers and thereby opened the Second Silesian War. After several hard battles, it was agreed in the Treaty of Dresden that Silesia would always remain in Prussian hands.
Wars and battles involving Prussia | Second Silesian War (1744–1745)
Peace with Prussia allowed the Austrians and their British–Hanoverian allies to reverse the gains made by the French and Bavarians in 1741. By mid 1743 Austria recovered control of Bohemia, drove the French back across the Rhine, and occupied Bavaria. In September 1743 Britain, Austria and Savoy–Sardinia concluded a new alliance under the Treaty of Worms, which led Frederick to suspect that Maria Theresa meant to retake Silesia as soon as the war elsewhere was concluded. So, on 7August 1744 Prussia declared its intervention in the ongoing conflict on behalf of Emperor Charles Albert, and Frederick led soldiers across the frontier into Bohemia on 15 August, beginning the Second Silesian War.
Silesian Wars | Second Silesian War
This closed the Bavarian theatre of the War of the Austrian Succession, allowing Austria to concentrate its forces on the remaining fronts in Silesia, Italy, and the Netherlands.
Second Silesian War | Early 1745: Bavarian defeat
Brandenburg–Prussia's claims in Silesia were based, in part, on a 1537 inheritance treaty between the Silesian Piast Duke Frederick II of Legnica and the Hohenzollern Prince-Elector Joachim II Hector of Brandenburg, whereby the Silesian Duchies of Liegnitz, Wohlau and Brieg were to pass to the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg should the Piast dynasty in Silesia become extinct. At the time, the Habsburg King FerdinandI of Bohemia (Silesia's feudal overlord) rejected the agreement and pressed the Hohenzollerns to repudiate it. In 1603, Hohenzollern Elector JoachimIII Frederick of Brandenburg separately inherited the Silesian Duchy of Jägerndorf from his cousin, Margrave George Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach, and installed his second son, Johann Georg, as duke.
First Silesian War | Brandenburg–Prussia's claims
Meanwhile, Emperor Charles Albert died on 20 January, destroying the rationale behind Frederick's alliance. Austria renewed its offensive against Bavaria in March 1745, decisively defeating the Franco-Bavarian army at the 15 April Battle of Pfaffenhofen, and making peace with MaximilianIII of Bavaria (the son of the late Emperor Charles Albert) by the Treaty of Füssen on 22 April. Having defeated Bavaria, Austria began an invasion of Silesia. At the end of May an Austrian–Saxon army crossed through the Giant Mountains into Silesia, only to be surprised and decisively defeated by Frederick in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg on 4June, removing any immediate prospect of Austria recovering Silesia.
Silesian Wars | Second Silesian War
Prince Henry's army pursued some "Reichsarmee" forces into Franconia and raided pro-Austrian principalities in the Holy Roman Empire in November and December. In November Maria Theresa proposed to open peace negotiations, to which Frederick immediately agreed; on 24 November the two belligerents declared an armistice in Saxony and Silesia, and formal peace talks began in late December.
Third Silesian War | Final campaigns
The succeeding months saw the Austrians retake Dresden and most of Saxony, with intermittent skirmishing in Saxony continuing into the next year.
Silesian Wars | Third Silesian War
The two belligerents eventually reached an agreement in the 11 June Treaty of Breslau, which ended the First Silesian War. Under this treaty, Austria conceded to Prussia the large majority of Silesia along with the Bohemian County of Glatz, territories which would later be consolidated to form the Prussian Province of Silesia. Austria retained the remainder of Bohemia and two small portions of the extreme southern end of Silesia, including the Duchy of Teschen and parts of the Duchies of Jägerndorf, Troppau, and Neisse; these lands would later be combined to form the crown land of Austrian Silesia. Prussia also agreed to take on some of Austria's debts that had been secured against assets in Silesia, as well as committing to remain neutral for the remainder of the ongoing War of the Austrian Succession.
First Silesian War | Treaties of Breslau and Berlin
Decisive field battles were relatively rare, though they played a larger part in Frederick's theory of warfare than was typical among his contemporary rivals. The Silesian Wars, like most European wars of the 18th century, were fought as so-called cabinet wars in which disciplined regular armies were equipped and supplied by the state to conduct warfare on behalf of the sovereign's interests. Occupied enemy territories were regularly taxed and extorted for funds, but large-scale atrocities against civilian populations were rare compared with conflicts in the previous century. Military logistics was the decisive factor in many wars, as armies had grown too large to support themselves on prolonged campaigns by foraging and plunder alone.
First Silesian War | Methods and technologies
The only action the 'Inter-Allied Military Control Commission' and the French government made was demanding immediate prohibition of the recruiting of German volunteers from outside Upper Silesia, and this was promptly made public.
Silesian Uprisings | Third war (1921)
While the Seven Years' War was a global conflict among many belligerents, its Central European theatre turned on lingering grudges from the War of the Austrian Succession (1741–1748). The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which had concluded the latter war, confirmed Prussian King Frederick II's seizure of the region of Silesia from the Habsburg Monarchy through two Silesian Wars. The defeated Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria nevertheless fully intended to retake the lost province and reassert Austria's hegemony in the Holy Roman Empire; after peace was restored, she set about rebuilding her armed forces and seeking out new alliances.
Third Silesian War | Context and causes
The Prussians followed the retreating Austrian–Saxon army into Bohemia, encamping along the Elbe while Frederick pursued a peace agreement. During the following months Maria Theresa won the support of enough prince-electors to see her husband named Holy Roman Emperor FrancisI on 13 September in Frankfurt, achieving one of her major goals in the war.
Silesian Wars | Second Silesian War
In the aftermath of Chotusitz, Prussia intensified its efforts to reach a separate peace with Austria, and negotiators from the two belligerents met again in Breslau in late May. Frederick now demanded almost the whole of Silesia, as well as the County of Glatz; Maria Theresa was reluctant to make such concessions, but the British envoy, Lord Hyndford, pressed her to make peace with Prussia and concentrate her forces against the French. The British treasury had financed much of Austria's war effort through cash subsidies meant to weaken France, and Hyndford threatened to withdraw Britain's support if Maria Theresa refused to concede Silesia.
First Silesian War | Treaties of Breslau and Berlin
Prussian forces quietly paralleled Prince Charles's march through Lusatia, until the Austrians had come nearly to the Brandenburg border. There, on 23 November Frederick launched a successful surprise attack on Charles's camp at Katholisch Hennersdorf; this Battle of Hennersdorf ended with the Saxon elements of the allied army destroyed and the larger Austrian force confused and scattered. Charles and his remnants were forced to retreat back into central Saxony and Bohemia, leaving Lusatia under Prussian control. Meanwhile, LeopoldI's army advanced into western Saxony on 29 November against minimal resistance, progressing as far as Leipzig by the next day and occupying that city.
Second Silesian War | Late 1745: Battles of Hennersdorf and Kesselsdorf
Saxony, formerly an Austrian ally, now joined the French alliance, and Britain declared itself neutral to prevent French or Prussian attacks on Hanover. Faced with the prospect of a total partition of her realm, Maria Theresa worked through the following months to regroup and prepare a counter-attack. On 25 June she received her formal coronation as Queen of Hungary in Pressburg and began trying to recruit a new army from her eastern lands. In August she offered Frederick concessions in the Low Countries and a cash payment if Prussia would evacuate Silesia, though she was immediately rebuffed. Meanwhile, fresh enemies attacked Austria on multiple fronts: the Franco-Bavarian force seized Linz on 14 September and advanced through Upper Austria, reaching the vicinity of Vienna by October, while Bohemia was simultaneously invaded by the Saxons.
First Silesian War | Negotiations of Mid-1741
The Battle of Mollwitz was fought by Prussia and Austria on 10 April 1741, during the First Silesian War (in the early stages of the War of the Austrian Succession). It was the first battle of the new Prussian King Frederick II, in which both sides made numerous military blunders but Frederick the Great still managed to attain victory. This battle cemented his authority over the newly conquered territory of Silesia and gave him valuable military experience.
Battle of Mollwitz | Introduction
In the early 18th century, Brandenburg–Prussia's ruling House of Hohenzollern held dynastic claims to various duchies within the Habsburg province of Silesia, a populous and prosperous region contiguous with Prussia's core territory in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Besides its value as a source of tax revenue, industrial output (particularly minerals) and military recruits, Silesia held great geostrategic importance to the belligerents. The valley of the Upper Oder formed a natural military conduit between Brandenburg, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Margraviate of Moravia, and whichever power held the territory could threaten its neighbours. Silesia also lay along the north-eastern frontier of the Holy Roman Empire, allowing its controller to limit the influence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and of the Russian Empire within Germany.
First Silesian War | Context and causes
Early in the First Silesian War, he justified his sovereign's choice by his brilliant leadership at the Battle of Mollwitz (10 April 1741), which, when he had persuaded the king to leave the battlefield explaining that he may be captured as a defeat was likely, converted a doubtful battle into a victory which decided for the time being the fate of Silesia.
Kurt Christoph Graf von Schwerin | Biography
8 . On October 15, 1734 he became chief of the regiment and on 28 March 1737 he was appointed Major General. He fought in the first Silesian War. On July 1, 1742, he was granted leave request, and died a few months later on January 5, 1743
Friedrich Siegmund von Waldow | Military career
Prussia and Britain hoped the Austrian defeats at Hohenfreidberg and Soor would persuade Austria to come to terms and concentrate its efforts against France, but Maria Theresa was resolved to fight on. On 29 August Austria and Saxony had agreed on a more offensive alliance aimed at seizing Prussian territory, and in early November they began a new offensive from multiple directions toward Brandenburg. Prince Charles's Austrian army marched north from Bohemia toward Lusatia, while the main Saxon army under Frederick Augustus Rutowsky prepared to attack from western Saxony, hoping together to seize Berlin and end the war outright. On 8 November Frederick was informed of these movements and ordered LeopoldI to prepare his troops in western Brandenburg, while Frederick himself departed for Lower Silesia to gather forces to meet Charles's advance.
Second Silesian War | Late 1745: Battles of Hennersdorf and Kesselsdorf
In the 1618 Bohemian Revolt and the ensuing Thirty Years' War, Johann Georg joined the Silesian estates in revolt against the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor FerdinandII. After the Catholic victory in the 1621 Battle of White Mountain, the Emperor confiscated Johann Georg's duchy and refused to return it to his heirs after his death, but the Hohenzollerns of Brandenburg continued to assert themselves as the legitimate rulers of Jägerndorf. In 1675 the "Great Elector" Frederick William of Brandenburg laid claim to Liegnitz, Wohlau and Brieg when the Silesian Piast line ended with the death of Duke George William of Liegnitz, but the Habsburg Emperor disregarded the Hohenzollern claims and the lands escheated to the crown.
First Silesian War | Brandenburg–Prussia's claims
After early Prussian successes, other powers were emboldened to attack the beleaguered Habsburg realm, widening the conflict into what became the War of the Austrian Succession. Prussia, France, Spain, Bavaria and others formed an alliance known as the League of Nymphenburg to support each other's efforts to seize Habsburg territory and Bavaria's bid for the imperial election. The allies invaded on multiple fronts in mid-1741, soon occupying Austrian Tyrol, Upper Austria and Bohemia, and even threatening Vienna. Faced with a potential war of partition, Austria negotiated a secret armistice with Prussia in October and redeployed its forces to face its other enemies.
Second Silesian War | First Silesian War
Though the Hohenzollerns' dynastic claims provided a legalistic "casus belli", considerations of "Realpolitik" and geostrategy played the leading role in provoking the war. An opportunity arose for Brandenburg–Prussia to press its claims when Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor CharlesVI died in October 1740 without a male heir. With the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Charles had established his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, as the successor to his hereditary titles. Upon his death she duly became ruler of Austria, as well as of the Bohemian and Hungarian lands within the Habsburg Monarchy. During Emperor Charles's lifetime the Pragmatic Sanction had been generally acknowledged by the imperial states, but when he died it was promptly contested by Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony.
First Silesian War | Austrian succession
Two generations later, the newly crowned Hohenzollern King Frederick II of Prussia formed designs on Silesia soon after succeeding to the throne in May 1740. Frederick judged that his dynasty's claims were credible, and he had inherited from his father a large and well trained Prussian army and a healthy royal treasury. Austria was in financial distress, and its army had not been reinforced or reformed after an ignominious performance in the 1737–1739 Austro-Turkish War. The European strategic situation was favourable for an attack on Austria, as Britain and France were occupying each other's attentions in the War of Jenkins' Ear and Sweden was moving toward war with Russia.
Silesian Wars | Austrian succession
The Treaties of Breslau and Berlin cost the Habsburg Monarchy its wealthiest province, and capitulating to a lesser German prince significantly dented the Habsburg Monarchy's prestige. The House of Habsburg was also defeated in the Imperial election, calling into question its preeminence within Germany. The Austrian army had found itself outmatched by the more disciplined Prussians, and in late 1741 the Nymphenburg alliance had threatened the Habsburg Monarchy with disaster. However, peace in the Silesian theatre gave the Austrian forces a free hand to reverse the gains made by the French and Bavarians the previous year. The western invaders were driven back up the Danube Valley in early 1742, and Saxony withdrew its forces from Bohemia after the Treaty of Berlin, making peace with Austria near the end of the year.
First Silesian War | Austria
In 1742 it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Silesian War.
Złotoryja | Early modern period
In late April 1921, rumours spread that the British position would prevail, prompting the local Polish activists to organise an uprising. The insurrection was to begin in early in May. Having learned from previous failures, the Third War was carefully planned and organized under the leadership of Wojciech Korfanty. It started on 2–3 May 1921, with the destruction of German rail bridges (see "Wawelberg Group") in order to slow down the movement of German reinforcements. A particular concern was to prevent the recurrence of violent acts against Polish civilians by members of the "Freikorps", demobilised Imperial German army units that had refused to disband.
Silesian Uprisings | Third war (1921)
In mid-October, Charles Albert of Bavaria and his French allies were encamped near Vienna, ready to besiege it, but he became concerned that Saxony and Prussia would seize parts of Bohemia, which he had also claimed. The French also deprecated a decisive move on Vienna, wishing to see Austria reduced rather than destroyed. So, on 24 October their forces turned north to march instead on Prague. The Bavarian, French and Saxon armies converged in November, besieging it and ultimately storming it on 26 November; Charles Albert went on to proclaim himself King of Bohemia on 7December. Meanwhile, in early November Frederick negotiated the border between putative territories of Prussian Silesia and Saxon Moravia with Frederick Augustus of Saxony, also securing French and Bavarian support for his seizure of the entirety of Silesia, along with the Bohemian County of Glatz.
First Silesian War | Bohemia–Moravia campaign of 1741–42
The Second Silesian Uprising () was the second of the three uprisings. In February 1920, an Allied Plebiscite Commission was sent to Upper Silesia. It was comprised via the representatives of the Allied forces, mostly from France, with smaller contingents from United Kingdom and Italy. Soon, however, it became apparent that the Allied forces were too few to maintain order. Further, the Commission was torn apart by lack of consensus: the British and Italians favored the Germans, while the French supported the Poles. Those forces failed to prevent continuing unrest. In August 1920, a German newspaper in Upper Silesia printed what later turned out to be a false announcement of the fall of Warsaw to the Red Army in the Polish–Soviet War.
Silesian Uprisings | Second war (1920)
In the Third Silesian War campaign of 1758 came his first opportunity for fighting an action as a commander-in-chief, and he used it so well that Frederick the Great was obliged to give up the siege of Olomouc and retire into Bohemia (Battle of Domstadtl, 30 June). He was rewarded with the grade of lieutenant-field-marshal and having again shown himself an active and daring commander in the campaign of Hochkirch, he was created a Freiherr in the Austrian nobility by Maria Theresa and in the peerage of the Holy Roman Empire by her husband the emperor Francis. Maria Theresa gave him, further, the grand cross of the order she had founded and an estate near Kutná Hora in Bohemia.
Ernst Gideon von Laudon | Silesian Wars
On 29 August 1756, the Prussian army preemptively invaded Saxony, beginning the Third Silesian War, a theatre of the Seven Years' War. Saxony was bled dry and exploited at maximum extent to support Prussia's war effort. The Treaty of Hubertusburg signed on 15 February 1763 ended the conflict with Frederick's victory and Saxony renounced its claim to Silesia.
Augustus III of Poland | Seven Years' War
Although the Seven Years' War was a global conflict, it was particularly intense in the European theater based on the recently concluded War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle gave Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great, the prosperous province of Silesia as a consequence of the First and Second Silesian Wars. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had signed the treaty to gain time to rebuild her military forces and forge new alliances; she was intent upon regaining ascendancy in the Holy Roman Empire as well as the Silesian province. In 1754, escalating tensions with Britain in North America offered France an opportunity to break the British dominance of Atlantic trade.
Battle of Zorndorf | Seven Years' War
In 1247 it became a filial monastery of the Cistercian Lubiąż Abbey. King Frederick II of Prussia hid here from Habsburg troops on February 27, 1741 during the First Silesian War.
Kamieniec Ząbkowicki | Introduction
The Third Silesian War involved Prussia and Austria (1756–1763). On the Indian subcontinent, the conflict is called the Third Carnatic War (1757–1763). The war was described by Winston Churchill as the first "world war", although this label was also given to various earlier conflicts like the Eighty Years' War, the Thirty Years' War, the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession, and to later conflicts like the Napoleonic Wars. The term "Second Hundred Years' War" has been used in order to describe the almost continuous level of worldwide conflict between France and Great Britain during the entire 18th century, reminiscent of the Hundred Years' War of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Seven Years' War | Nomenclature
Frederick's unilateral withdrawal from the Nymphenburg alliance (and its repetition at the end of the Second Silesian War) angered the French court, and his next perceived "betrayal" (a defensive alliance with Britain under the 1756 Convention of Westminster) accelerated France's eventual realignment toward Austria in the Diplomatic Revolution of the 1750s.
First Silesian War | Prussia
Prussian forces converged upon Prague, seizing the city on 16 September, and this new threat drew the Austrian army back from France through Bavaria. The French failed to harass and disrupt the Austrian redeployment, so Austria's army was able to return to Bohemia quickly and at full strength. Frederick gathered his forces around Prague and tried to force a decisive engagement, but Austrian commander Otto Ferdinand von Traun focused on harassing the invaders' supply lines, eventually forcing the Prussians to abandon Bohemia and retreat into Upper Silesia in November. With the January 1745 Treaty of Warsaw, Austria established a new "Quadruple Alliance" between Austria, Britain, Saxony and the Dutch Republic.
Silesian Wars | Second Silesian War
Austria was supported by Great Britain (in personal union with the Electorate of Hanover) and, eventually, Savoy–Sardinia and the Dutch Republic; the Russian Empire under Empress Elizabeth also indirectly took Austria's side in the wider conflict by making war against Sweden (a French ally at the time). Maria Theresa's aims in the conflict were, first, to preserve her hereditary lands and titles and, second, to win or compel support for the election of her husband, Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine, as Holy Roman Emperor, defending her house's traditional preeminence within Germany. After Emperor Charles's death on 20 October, Frederick quickly resolved to strike first; on 8November he ordered the mobilisation of the Prussian army, and on 11 December he issued an ultimatum to Maria Theresa demanding the cession of Silesia.
First Silesian War | Moves toward war
In 1740, the annexation of Silesia by King Frederick II the Great of Prussia was welcomed by many Silesians, not only by Protestants or Germans. Frederick based his claims on the Treaty of Brieg, and his 1740 invasion began the First Silesian War (part of the War of the Austrian Succession). By war's end, the Kingdom of Prussia had conquered almost all of Silesia, while some parts of Silesia in the extreme southeast, like the Duchy of Cieszyn and Duchy of Opava, remained possessions of the Crown of Bohemia and the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy. The Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years' War of 1756–1763) confirmed Prussian control over most of Silesia.
History of Silesia | Kingdom of Prussia
The Battle of Freiberg was fought on 29 October 1762 and was the last great battle of the Third Silesian War (and of the wider Seven Years' War).
Battle of Freiberg | Introduction
On the Austrian side, Maria Theresa negotiated through the middle of the year with the German prince-electors to make her husband Holy Roman Emperor, now that the Bavarian emperor had died. The 1745 Imperial election was held on 13 September in Frankfurt, where Francis Stephen of Lorraine was indeed named Emperor FrancisI (despite dissenting votes from Prussia and the Palatinate), achieving one of Maria Theresa's major goals in the war. Meanwhile, supplies had run low in the Prussian camp in Bohemia, and Prussia's forces were gradually pushed back by Austrian probes. On 29 September Prince Charles's army staged a surprise attack on Frederick's camp near the village of Soor; the resulting Battle of Soor ended in a Prussian victory, despite the Austrian surprise and superior numbers.
Second Silesian War | Mid-1745: Battles of Hohenfriedberg and Soor
The hussars and dragoons of General Zieten were also expanded. These changes led to a Prussian victory at Chotusitz (1742) in Bohemia, and Austria conceded Silesia to Frederick with the Peace of Breslau. In September 1743, Frederick held the first fall maneuver ("Herbstübung"). The different branches of the Army tested new formations and tactics; the fall maneuvers become annual traditions of the Prussian Army. Austria tried to reclaim Silesia in the Second Silesian War. Although successful in outmaneuvering Frederick in 1744, the Austrians were crushed by the king himself in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg and the Battle of Soor (1745).
Prussian Army | Silesian Wars
Although the Seven Years' War was a global conflict, it took on a specific intensity in the European theater based on the recently concluded War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle gave Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great, the prosperous province of Silesia as a consequence of the First and Second Silesian Wars. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria had signed the treaty to gain time to rebuild her military forces and forge new alliances; she was intent upon regaining ascendancy in the Holy Roman Empire as well as reacquiring Silesia. In 1754, escalating tensions between Great Britain and France in North America offered France an opportunity to break the British dominance of Atlantic trade.
Battle of Kunersdorf | Seven Years' War
From there, his army and Frederick's converged toward Dresden in early December. Frederick's force attempted to come between the Saxon capital and Prince Charles's Austrians, while Leopold's army advanced directly upon Rutowsky's Saxons, who were entrenched beside the village of Kesselsdorf. On 15 December Leopold's force attacked and destroyed Rutowsky's army in the Battle of Kesselsdorf, opening the way to Dresden, as Prince Charles and the remaining Saxon soldiers retreated through the Ore Mountains into Bohemia. The Prussians occupied Dresden on 18 December, after which Frederick once again sent envoys to Maria Theresa and Frederick AugustusII to propose peace.
Second Silesian War | Late 1745: Battles of Hennersdorf and Kesselsdorf
Austria made a further concession by formally renouncing its claim to Silesia; in return, Prussia committed to support Maria Theresa's son, Archduke Joseph, in the forthcoming 1764 Imperial election. With that, the belligerents agreed to end the Third Silesian War with the Treaty of Hubertusburg, signed 15 February 1763.
Third Silesian War | Treaty of Hubertusburg
In early 1760 Laudon was given his own command in Silesia, independent of Daun, and began campaigning there in March. After an inconclusive engagement with the Prussian garrison near Neustat on 15 March, Laudon's Austrians gradually advanced through Lower Silesia, besieging Glatz on 7June. De la Motte Fouqué led a force to relieve the fortress, but Laudon engaged and destroyed them on 23 June at the Battle of Landeshut, taking de la Motte Fouqué prisoner. The principal Prussian force under Frederick started eastward to defend Silesia, but it reversed course upon learning that Daun's main army was moving in the same direction.
Third Silesian War | Lower Silesian campaign
The ensuing Battle of Hohenfriedberg ended in a decisive Prussian victory, sending Prince Charles's army retreating in disarray back into the mountains. Austria's reversal at Hohenfriedberg removed any immediate prospect of recovering Silesia. The Prussians followed the retreating Austrian–Saxon army into Bohemia, harassing its rear as far as Königgrätz, where the two forces camped on opposite sides of the Elbe. The armies faced off but fought little during the next two months, while Frederick pursued a peace agreement that would again guarantee his control of Silesia. Britain's willingness to subsidise Austria's war against Prussia was greatly reduced by the outbreak of a new Jacobite uprising, and on 26 August Britain and Prussia agreed to the Convention of Hanover, in which both sides recognised each other's German possessions (including Prussian Silesia), and Prussia committed not to seek territorial gains in Bohemia or Saxony in any eventual peace agreement.
Second Silesian War | Mid-1745: Battles of Hohenfriedberg and Soor
By early November the Prussians were forced to retreat to Prague and the Elbe, and after some weeks of manoeuvre an Austrian–Saxon force crossed the Elbe on 19 November. At this point the Prussians abandoned Prague and gave up Bohemia, retreating in poor morale into Upper Silesia, which they defended through the winter against Austrian incursions.
Second Silesian War | Bohemian campaign of 1744
In the First Silesian War the regiment fought in Silesia, Bohemia and Moravia. He was involved in the seven-week Siege of Olomouc. During Second Silesian War, his regiment was in the vanguard of the army of Prince Prince Moritz of Anhalt-Dessau. In late 1744, upon his promotion to lieutenant general, he received a corps of 8,000 to 10,000 men, with whom he was to secure the Silesian countryside and occupy the fortifications. At the Battle of Hohenfriedberg (4 June 1745), he commanded the left wing and was able to contribute to victory. He conquered the fortress of Cosel and captured the garrison of 3,000 men.
Ernst Christoph von Nassau | Prussian service
As Prussia reactivated its Silesian claims and prepared for war against Austria, several other European powers made similar moves. Charles Albert of Bavaria launched a claim to the imperial throne along with the Habsburg territories of Bohemia, Upper Austria and Tyrol, while Frederick Augustus of Saxony laid claim to Moravia and Upper Silesia. The Kingdoms of Spain and Naples hoped to seize Habsburg possessions in northern Italy, while France, which viewed the Habsburgs as traditional rivals, sought control of the Austrian Netherlands. The Electorates of Cologne and the Palatinate joined these to form an alliance known as the League of Nymphenburg, which aimed at the diminution or destruction of the Habsburg Monarchy and its dominant position among the German states.
First Silesian War | Moves toward war
Military supplies were stored in centralised magazines and distributed by baggage trains that were highly vulnerable to enemy raids. Armies were generally unable to sustain combat operations during winter and normally established winter quarters in the cold season, resuming their campaigns with the return of spring.
Second Silesian War | Methods and technologies
Silesian Wikipedia () is the Silesian edition of Wikipedia. It was started on 26 May 2008.
Silesian Wikipedia | Introduction
But neither recognized this, and the last three years of the war are marked by an ever-increasing friction between the "Fabius" and the "Marcellus," as they were called, of the Austrian army.
Ernst Gideon von Laudon | Silesian Wars
An Austrian counter-attack culminated in the major Austrian victory at the Battle of Kolín on 18 June, which drove the Prussians out of Bohemia entirely. Meanwhile, Russian and Swedish invasions from the east and north divided Prussia's forces. The Russian invaders in East Prussia won the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf on 30 August, but they made little strategic progress due to recurring logistical problems. In late 1757 Imperial and French forces attempted to retake Saxony from the west, only to experience a decisive defeat in the Battle of Rossbach on 5November. This battle secured Prussia's control of Saxony for a time, and the defeat greatly reduced French willingness to contribute further to the Silesian War.
Silesian Wars | Third Silesian War
He fought with his unit at the Siege of Prague ("2–18 September 1744"), Beraun ("6 September 1744"), Selmitz ("19 November 1744"), Prague ("25 November 1744"), and the Battle of Hohenfriedberg ("4 June 1745"). He fought at the Battle of Soor ("30 September 1745"), Schönefeld near Leipzig ("29 November 1745"), Meißen ("9 December 1745"), and at the Battle of Kesselsdorf ("15 December 1745").
Isaac de Forcade de Biaix | <a href="Silesian%20Wars%23Second%20Silesian%20War">Second Silesian War</a> (1744–45)
Another Austrian army invaded Silesia, making significant progress until it was decisively defeated at the Battle of Leuthen on 5December, after which the Prussians pursued the defeated Austrian army back to Bohemia and recovered control of nearly all of Silesia. Over the winter a combined Prussian-Hanoverian army launched a series of offensives that eventually drove the French out of Westphalia and across the Rhine, securing Prussia's western flank for the duration of the war. In mid-1758 Prussia invaded Moravia, besieging Olmütz in late May. The city was well defended, and by late June the Prussians' supplies were exhausted. Austrians intercepted and destroyed a major Prussian supply convoy on 30 June in the Battle of Domstadtl, and the invaders abandoned the siege, retreating into Upper Silesia.
Silesian Wars | Third Silesian War
The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 caused a serious crisis in east-central Europe, with Prussia and Austria demanding compensation for Russia's gains in the Balkans, ultimately leading to the First Partition of Poland in 1772, in which Maria Theresa took Galicia from Austria's traditional ally.
History of Austria | Seven Years' War and Third Silesian War (1754–1763)