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.
Context and causes
First Silesian War
First Silesian War | Context and causes
Brandenburg–Prussia's ruling House of Hohenzollern held dynastic claims to various duchies within the Habsburg province of Silesia Centuries-old territorial disputes between the two with Realpolitik and geostrategic factors provoking the conflict; and Maria Theresa's controversial succession to the Habsburg monarchy, thereby strengthening Prussia's position vis a vis to its regional rivals. No particular triggering event started the war. 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.
when did the first silesian war take place?
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1740
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where?
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Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia
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between whom?
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Prussia and Austria
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what was its prime cause?
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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
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
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
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
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)
Instead, she began a general reform of Austria's military and a review of its diplomatic policy, all aimed at one day recovering Silesia and relegating Prussia to the status of a lesser power. This policy eventually led to the formation of a broad anti-Prussian alliance between Austria, France and Russia, followed by the outbreak of the Third Silesian War and the wider Seven Years' War in 1756. The struggle with Prussia would become the driving factor behind wide-ranging efforts to modernise the Habsburg Monarchy over the next half century.
Second Silesian War | Austria
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
Bismarck now had all he wanted: a counter to Austria and the assurance of a one-front war.
Causes of the Franco-Prussian War | Russia
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
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
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
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
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
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
By early 1761 neither side retained the men or supplies needed to mount a major offensive. Prussia could field only 104,000 troops, many of them raw recruits, and there were shortages of even basic supplies like muskets for the infantry. The Prussian army was no longer fit for the sort of aggressive manoeuvers that had previously characterised Frederick's tactics, and the kingdom's situation was desperate. Daun, the chief Austrian commander, also ruled out major offensives for the year and made no plans to even attempt to reconquer Silesia, preferring to concentrate his efforts in Saxony against Prince Henry. Austria's finances were in a state of chaos, and its economy was choked by heavy war taxes.
Third Silesian War | Dwindling resources
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 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)
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
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
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
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
The causes of the Great War have generally been defined in diplomatic terms, but certain deep-seated issues in Austria-Hungary undoubtedly contributed to the beginnings of the First World War. The Austro-Hungarian situation in the Balkans pre-1914 is a primary factor in its involvement in the war. The movement towards South Slav unity was a major problem for the Habsburg Empire, which was facing increasing nationalist pressure from its multinational populace. As Europe's third largest state, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was hardly homogeneous; comprising over fifty million people and eleven nationalities, the Empire was a conglomeration of a number of diverse cultures, languages, and peoples.
Eastern Front (World War I) | Austria-Hungary
In the territorial settlement that ended the war, Prussia gained control of extensive new lands in Glatz and Silesia, a populous and densely industrialised region that would contribute substantial manpower and taxes to the Prussian state. The small kingdom's unexpected victory over the Habsburg Monarchy set it apart from German rivals such as Bavaria and Saxony, marking the beginning of Prussia's rise toward the status of a European great power. The seizure of Silesia made Prussia and Austria into lasting and determined enemies, beginning the Austria–Prussia rivalry that would come to dominate German politics over the next century. Saxony, envious of Prussia's ascendancy and threatened by Prussian Silesia's geostrategic position, also turned its foreign policy firmly against Prussia.
First Silesian War | Prussia
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
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
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
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
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
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
Technically an elected position, in January 1742 Charles became the first non-Habsburg Emperor in 300 years, supported by France, Prussia and Saxony. Maria Theresa was backed by the so-called Pragmatic Allies; Austria, Britain, Hanover, and the Dutch Republic. After four years of conflict, the main beneficiary was Prussia, which captured the Austrian province of Silesia during the First Silesian War (1740-1742). The richest province in the Empire, Silesian taxes provided 10% of total Imperial income and contained large mining, weaving and dyeing industries. Regaining it was a priority for Maria Theresa and led to the 1744–1745 Second Silesian War.
Battle of Fontenoy | Background
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
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
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
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
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
The defeats of the Silesian Wars cost the Habsburg Monarchy its wealthiest province, and capitulating to a lesser German prince significantly dented the House of Habsburg's prestige. Prussia's confirmation as a first-rate power and the enhanced prestige of its king and army were long-term threats to Austria's hegemony in Germany. Still, by winning Prussia's support for the imperial elections of her husband and son, Maria Theresa ensured the continuation of her family's titular preeminence in the Holy Roman Empire, though this was far less than she had hoped for. Defeat in the first two Silesian Wars at the hands of an enemy so apparently inferior created a strong impetus for change within the Habsburg Monarchy, resulting in the first wave of Theresian reforms: a broad restructuring of the Habsburg administration and military, and a total realignment of Habsburg foreign policy through the "Diplomatic Revolution".
Silesian Wars | Austria
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
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
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, 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 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
Frederick was apprehensive that an irresistible anti-Prussian coalition might soon develop between Britain–Hanover, Saxony, Russia and Austria. He viewed the Peace of Breslau as little more than another armistice with Austria, and he needed to prevent Maria Theresa from taking revenge at her convenience when the war elsewhere was concluded. Frederick decided that Prussia must restore its French alliance, build an anti-Austrian coalition with as many other German princes as possible, and then re-enter the war by striking first against Austria. So, in late 1743 and early 1744 Prussia conducted negotiations with France, Bavaria and other German princes to build a coalition to support the Emperor.
Second Silesian War | Preparations for a second war
Count Karl-Wilhelm Finck von Finckenstein, Frederick the Great's prime minister, believed that any Austrian acquisition in Bavaria would shift the balance of power in the Holy Roman Empire, diminishing Prussia's influence. Prussia's recent gains had been hard-won: thirty years earlier, Frederick had engaged in protracted wars in Silesia and Bohemia, resulting in Prussia's annexation of most of Silesia, and now, with the economy and society modernizing under his direction, Prussia was emerging as a world power. In the Silesian Wars and the Seven Years' War, Frederick had earned a new, if grudging, respect for his kingdom's military and diplomatic prowess from the European powers of France, Russia, Britain and Austria.
War of the Bavarian Succession | Interested parties
Bismarck's summary, as mistranslated by the French press Havas, made it sound as if the king had treated the French envoy in a demeaning fashion, which inflamed public opinion in France.
Franco-Prussian War | Causes
Saxony, envious of Prussia's ascendancy and threatened by Prussian Silesia's geostrategic position, also turned its foreign policy firmly against Prussia. Frederick's repeated unilateral withdrawal from his alliances in the War of the Austrian Succession deepened the French royal court's distrust of him, 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.
Second Silesian War | Prussia
He again took action by a preemptive war, invading Saxony and opening a Third Silesian War (and the wider Seven Years' War).
Austria–Prussia rivalry | History
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
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 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
The communication between the federal troops was as insufficient as their reconnaissance so that they often had to react instead of acting initiatively.
Campaign of the Main | Reasons for the Prussian victory
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
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
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
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
No particular event triggered the wars. 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 under the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 provided an opportunity for Prussia to strengthen itself relative to regional rivals such as Saxony and Bavaria. All three wars are generally considered to have ended in Prussian victories, and the first resulted in Austria's cession of the majority of Silesia to Prussia. Prussia emerged from the Silesian Wars as a new European great power and the leading state of Protestant Germany, while Catholic Austria's defeat by a lesser German power significantly damaged the House of Habsburg's prestige.
Silesian Wars | Introduction
His next active service, still under Trenck, was in the Silesian mountains in 1745 (during the Second Silesian War against Prussia), in which campaign he greatly distinguished himself as a leader of light troops. He was present also at the Battle of Soor. He retired shortly afterwards, owing to his distaste for the lawless habits of his comrades in the irregulars, and after long waiting in poverty for a regular commission he was at last made a captain in one of the frontier regiments, spending the next ten years in half-military, half-administrative work in the Karlovac district on the Military Frontier.
Ernst Gideon von Laudon | Silesian Wars
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
Prussia had been contesting Austria's supremacy in Germany since at least 1850, when a war between the two powers had nearly erupted over Prussia's leadership of the Erfurt Union, though at that time Prussia had backed down.
Austro-Prussian War | Causes
The first war between two major continental powers in seven years, it used many of the same technologies as the Second Italian War of Independence, including railways to concentrate troops during mobilization and telegraphs to enhance long-distance communication. The Prussian Army used von Dreyse's breech-loading needle gun, which could be rapidly loaded while the soldier was seeking cover on the ground, whereas the Austrian muzzle-loading rifles could only be loaded slowly, and generally from a standing position. The main campaign of the war occurred in Bohemia. Prussian Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke had planned meticulously for the war.
Austro-Prussian War | Course of the war
The status quo ante was restored. The war established Prussia as the fifth major power in Europe, but Prussia lost 180,000 soldiers during the war.
Wars and battles involving Prussia | Third Silesian War (1756–1763)
Meanwhile, Prince-Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria and Prince-Elector Frederick AugustusII of Saxony had each married one of Maria Theresa's older cousins from a senior branch of the House of Habsburg, and they used these connections to justify claims to Habsburg territory in the absence of a male heir. Frederick Augustus, who ruled Poland in personal union, was especially interested in gaining control of Silesia to connect his two realms into one contiguous territory (which would nearly surround Brandenburg); Frederick's concern to prevent this outcome contributed to his haste in moving against Austria when the contested succession provided an opportunity.
Silesian Wars | Moves toward war
For several centuries, Central Europe was split into a few large- or medium-sized states and hundreds of tiny entities, which while ostensibly being within the Holy Roman Empire ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor, operated in a largely independent fashion. When an existing Emperor died, seven secular and ecclesiastical princes each of whom ruled at least one of the states, would elect a new Emperor. Over time the Empire became smaller and by 1789 came to consist of primarily German peoples (aside from Bohemia, Tyrol, the southern Netherlands and Slovenia). Aside from five years (1740–1745), the Habsburg family, whose personal territory was Austria, controlled the Emperorship from 1440 to 1806, although it became increasingly ceremonial only as Austria found itself at war at certain times with other states within the Empire, such as Prussia, which in fact defeated Austria during the War of Austrian Succession to seize the state of Silesia in 1742.
Austro-Prussian War | Causes
The Electors of Bavaria and Saxony also had claims against Austria and seemed likely to join in the attack. 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.
Silesian Wars | Austrian succession
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 First Silesian War ended in a clear victory for Prussia, which secured some of new territory and around a million new subjects, greatly enhancing its resources and prestige. However, by twice making a separate peace while the War of the Austrian Succession raged on, Frederick abandoned his erstwhile allies in the League of Nymphenburg and earned a reputation for diplomatic unreliability and double-dealing. With Prussia removed from the wider war, Austria launched a major counter-attack and began regaining lost ground on other fronts, and the diplomatic situation shifted in Austria's favour. Prussia's seizure of Silesia also ensured continuing conflict with Austria and Saxony.
First Silesian War | Outcomes
By again defeating Austria, Prussia confirmed its acquisition of Silesia, a densely industrialised region with a large population and substantial tax yields. The small kingdom's unexpected victories over the Habsburg Monarchy marked the beginning of Prussia's rise toward the status of a European great power, as it began to leave German rivals such as Bavaria and Saxony behind. His series of battlefield victories in 1745 won Frederick general acclaim as a brilliant military commander; it was at the end of this war that he began to be spoken of as "Frederick the Great". The seizure of Silesia made Prussia and Austria into lasting and determined enemies, beginning the Austria–Prussia rivalry that would come to dominate German politics over the next century.
Second Silesian War | Prussia
After this major defeat, Prince Charles was removed from his command and replaced by Daun, who was now promoted to Field Marshal. Frederick hoped the major victories at Rossbach and Leuthen would bring Maria Theresa to the peace table, but she was determined not to negotiate until she had retaken Silesia. Prussia had already exhausted its treasury in the 1757 campaign, and it now devalued its currency while imposing fresh taxes on occupied Saxony and on the Catholic Church in Silesia to raise funds for the new year. With the Saxon–Silesian front stabilised, Frederick ordered the bulk of his East Prussian forces under Lehwaldt to reinforce Pomerania, predicting that no new Russian advance would come until after the winter.
Third Silesian War | Winter manoeuvres
They held onto the fortresses of Glogau, Breslau, and Brieg, but abandoned the rest of the region and withdrew into Moravia. This campaign gave Prussia control of most of the richest province in the Habsburg Empire, with the commercial centre of Breslau as well as mining, weaving and dyeing industries. Silesia was also rich in natural resources such as coal, chalk, copper and gold. Saxony joined Austria in the Second Silesian War, which erupted after Prussia proclaimed to keep Charles VII as Holy Roman Emperor and invaded Bohemia on 15 August 1744. The true cause behind the invasion was Frederick's personal expansionist ideas and goals.
Augustus III of Poland | War of the Austrian Succession
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
These could have been used elsewhere, such as against the Ottoman Empire during the Gallipoli Campaign. The most-important factor contributing to "Prinz Eugen" spending most of her time at port may have been the lack of coal. Prior to the war, the United Kingdom had served as Austria-Hungary's primary source for coal. In the years before the war an increasing percentage of coal had come from mines in Germany, Virginia, and from domestic sources, but 75% of the coal purchased for the Austro-Hungarian Navy came from Britain. The outbreak of war meant that these sources, as well as those from Virginia, would no longer be available.
SMS Prinz Eugen (1912) | 1914–1915
In January 1758 a Russian army commanded by Count William Fermor again invaded East Prussia, where the few remaining Prussian troops put up little resistance. Frederick abandoned the province to Russian occupation, judging it strategically expendable and preferring to concentrate on achieving another decisive victory in the Silesian theatre to force the Austrians to the peace table. In March France greatly reduced its financial and military commitments to the Austrian coalition with the signing of the Third Treaty of Versailles. As Prince Ferdinand's Prussian–Hanoverian army gradually forced the French out of northern Germany, Prussia and Britain quarrelled over the exact terms of their alliance, with Frederick demanding the commitment of British troops to Germany and the delivery of the long-promised naval squadron in the Baltic, while Pitt insisted on conserving Britain's resources for the wider global war.
Third Silesian War | Moravian campaign
Napoleon III made various proposals for resolving the Roman Question, but Pius IX rejected them all. Despite his previous support for Italian unification, Napoleon did not wish to press the issue for fear of angering Catholics in France. Raffaele De Cesare, an Italian journalist, political scientist, and author, noted that: Another reason why Beust's desired "revanche" against Prussia did not materialize was the fact that, in 1870, the Hungarian Prime Minister Gyula Andrássy was "vigorously opposed."
Causes of the Franco-Prussian War | Austria and Italy
Austria's resolve to repossess the rich province of Silesia, which had been lost to Prussia in 1748, was the major conflict leading to the Seven Years' War. Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, acquired the support of Russia, Sweden, Saxony, Spain, and France, with the specific aim of waging war against Prussia and its ally, Great Britain. It was King Frederick the Great of Prussia, however, who initiated the hostilities with his attack and capture of Saxony in 1756. The Seven Years' War started in 1756, with Prussia facing the allied forces of Austria, Russia, France, and Sweden.
Treaty of Hubertusburg | History
The First and Second Silesian Wars have been described as campaigns within one continuous War of the Austrian Succession. Partly for this reason, contemporaries and later historians have consistently viewed the Second Silesian War's conclusion as a victory for Prussia, which defended its seizure of Silesia. Prussia's intervention in Bohemia also seriously impeded the Austrian war effort against France. However, by making another separate peace while the French continued to fight the wider War of the Austrian Succession, Frederick damaged his own diplomatic credibility. The Treaty of Dresden also deepened Austria and Saxony's hostility toward Prussia, leading them into the anti-Prussian alliance that would spark the Third Silesian War in the following decade.
Second Silesian War | Outcomes
At that point Habsburg Austria started considering waging war against Russia. France, friendly towards first of all the Ottoman empire and both Prussia and Austria, suggested a series of territorial adjustments, in which the Ottoman empire would not suffer from Austria and Russia, and Austria would be compensated by parts of Prussian Silesia, and Prussia in turn would regain Ermland (Warmia) from Polish part of Prussia and parts of a Polish fief, the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia—already under Baltic German hegemony. King Frederick II of Prussia had no intention of giving up Silesia, having recently gained it in the Silesian Wars; he was, however, also interested in finding a peaceful solution—his alliance with Russia would draw him into a potential war with Austria, and the Seven Years' War had left Prussia's treasury and army weakened.
First Partition of Poland | Background
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
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
By agreeing to vote for Archduke Joseph in the Imperial election, Frederick accepted the continuation of Habsburg preeminence in the Holy Roman Empire, though this was far less than Austria had hoped to win in the war. Prussia's confirmation as a first-rate power and the enhanced prestige of its king and army were long-term threats to Austria's hegemony in Germany. The Silesian Wars made clear that the Habsburg Monarchy would need sustained reform if it was to retain its dominant position in European power politics. After the disappointment of the Third Silesian War Maria Theresa finally abandoned the hope of recovering Silesia, focusing instead on domestic reforms to better prepare the realm for future conflicts with Prussia.
Third Silesian War | Austria
This aim was epitomized by Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's quote: "I knew that a Franco-Prussian War must take place before a united Germany was formed." Bismarck also knew that France should be the aggressor in the conflict to bring the Southern German States to side with Prussia, hence giving Germans numerical superiority. The immediate cause of the war resided in the candidacy of a Prussian prince to the throne of Spain – France feared encirclement by an alliance between Prussia and Spain. The Hohenzollern prince's candidacy was withdrawn under French diplomatic pressure, but Otto von Bismarck goaded the French into declaring war by altering a telegram sent by William I.
Causes of the Franco-Prussian War | Introduction
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
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
Frederick of Prussia's invasion of Saxony in August 1756 began a Third Silesian War and sparked the wider Seven Years' War. Maria Theresa and Kaunitz wished to exit the war with possession of Silesia. Before the war started, Kaunitz had been sent as an ambassador to Versailles from 1750–1753 to win over the French. Meanwhile, the British still refused to help Maria Theresa in reclaiming Silesia, and Frederick II himself managed to secure the Treaty of Westminster (1756) with them. Subsequently, Maria Theresa sent Georg Adam, Prince of Starhemberg to negotiate an agreement with France, and the result was the First Treaty of Versailles of 1 May 1756.
Maria Theresa | Seven Years' War
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
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
Over the winter of 1756–1757 the belligerents worked to secure their respective alliances and coordinate strategy with their allies. In February William Pitt, the new Leader of the House of Commons and a determined foe of France, persuaded the British Parliament to firmly and finally commit to the Prussian cause against Austria and France, after which Britain began delivering supplies and badly needed subsidies to Berlin. Parliament also approved the deployment of an army of observation to defend Hanover (and Brandenburg) against the coming French invasion from the west, and Frederick again called for a British naval deployment in the Baltic to deter Russia and an increasingly unfriendly Sweden, though nothing came of it.
Third Silesian War | Winter diplomacy
As Austria and Russia made open preparations for renewed war, Frederick became convinced that Prussia would be attacked in early 1757. Rather than wait for his enemies to move at a time of their choosing, he resolved instead to act preemptively, beginning with an attack against the neighbouring Electorate of Saxony, which he correctly believed was a secret party to the coalition against him. Frederick's broad strategy had three parts. First, he meant to occupy Saxony, gaining strategic depth and using the Saxon army and treasury to bolster the Prussian war effort. Second, he would advance from Saxony into Bohemia, where he might set up winter quarters and supply his army at Austria's expense.
Third Silesian War | Preparations for war
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
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.
Second Silesian War | Methods and technologies
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)
A secondary Prussian force under General Johann Dietrich von Hülsen repulsed an Austrian advance into Saxony on 20 August in the Battle of Strehla. The Prussians and Austrians spent September skirmishing and manoeuvring in Silesia, while Saltykov's Russians held back in western Poland. With Prussian forces concentrated in Silesia and Saxony, Brandenburg was left largely undefended. In early October a Russian corps under General Gottlob Heinrich Tottleben advanced through Neumark and joined Lacy's Austrians in briefly occupying Berlin, where they demanded ransoms, seized arsenals and freed prisoners of war. However, the Russians soon pulled back to Frankfurt an der Oder for want of supplies, while Lacy's force moved south to support Daun as he sought a decisive engagement with Frederick in Saxony.
Third Silesian War | Battle of Torgau
The coronation of Maria Theresa as queen regnant of the Kingdom of Bohemia immediately triggered an invasion of the region of Silesia by King Frederick the Great of Prussia, thereby starting the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748). By the end of the First Silesian War in 1742, the Prussian forces had conquered almost all of the Habsburg crown land in Silesia, while according to the peace treaties of Breslau and Berlin, only some smaller parts in the extreme southeast, like the Duchy of Teschen as well as the southern parts of the duchies of Troppau and Nysa, remained possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy as Austrian Silesia.
Province of Silesia | Prussian Silesia, 1740–1815
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
The Prussian Bohemia Incursion was a military campaign led by the Prince Henry of Prussia during the Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years' War), to disrupt the Austrian military capacity by launching incursions against its military infrastructure in Bohemia.
Battle of Peterswalde | 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
His aggressive strategy may have partly been motivated by his wish to make Austria, rather than Russia, appear as the main victor of the war. Indeed, the general questioned the wisdom of inviting the Russians to intervene, as he considered that Austria, with reinforcements from Italy, could have won the war on its own
Julius Jacob von Haynau | Role in the revolutions
General der Kavallerie Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia Chief of Staff: Generalleutnant Konstantin Bernhard von Voigts-Rhetz
Königgrätz order of battle | First Army
Frederick saw in Austria's female succession an opportune moment for the seizure of Silesia, calling it "the signal for the complete transformation of the old political system" in a 1740 letter to Voltaire. He argued that the Pragmatic Sanction did not apply to Silesia, which was held by the Habsburgs as a part of the imperial demesne rather than as a hereditary possession. Frederick also argued that his father, King Frederick WilliamI, had assented to the Sanction in return for assurances of Austrian support for Hohenzollern claims on the Rhenish Duchies of Jülich and Berg, which had not yet materialised.
First Silesian War | Austrian succession
Napoleon III then committed a serious blunder by agreeing with Austria in a secret treaty to remain neutral in an Austrian-Prussian conflict in exchange for France acquiring Venetia plus the establishment of a neutral (i.e., French-leaning) state west of the Rhine; this violated the agreement Napoleon had made with Bismarck. After Prussia emerged victorious over the Austrian army at the Battle of Königgrätz (also known as Sadowa or Sadová) in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, negotiations were being held between Austria and Prussia in July and August of that year. It was during that period that Napoleon III first discovered that a bladder stone was causing him great pains, created from gonorrheal infection.
Causes of the Franco-Prussian War | European wars and the balance of power: 1865–1866
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 that 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.
Silesian Wars | Brandenburg–Prussia's claims