Friedrich Wilhelm raised a tremendous army. So powerful and drilled to the finest detail, he dared not use it. His son, Frederick the Great, however, deployed it almost immediately after his coronation and swiftly conquered Silesia. The wealthy and industrious Silesia was one of the crown jewels of the Habsburg monarchy. By acquiring this province, Prussia finally secured its status as a great power—at least economically.In the second and far more intriguing Silesian War, also known as the Seven Years' War—the world war before the First World War—it fell to Frederick the Great to defend his prize. The Habsburg Empire had secretly prepared a global conspiracy against the Hohenzollern monarchy for many years. During the so-called Diplomatic Revolution, alliances that had endured for centuries were reshuffled. The Habsburgs conspired with the French and the Russians against Prussia. France’s hostility was partially self-inflicted, as they had not yet understood that Prussia was no longer a second-rate power, merely a plaything of Europe's great powers.However, the involvement of Russia was a great misfortune, driven solely by the paranoid delusions of the Russian court, which had no rational reason to harm Prussia. This crucial factor is often forgotten when recounting the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg. Early misfortunes are overlooked, while late successes are maliciously resented! To add to the chaos, opportunistic Sweden also set its sights on plunder and spoils in the war against Prussia.It was the world against Prussia. The entire world against Prussia. Every single continental great power sought to put the upstart in its place. They wanted to crush it. A great power is defined by its ability to enforce its policies independently when necessary. In this war, Prussia had to prove that it could defend its claim to Silesia against France, Russia, the Habsburg Monarchy, their allies in the Holy Roman Empire, and Sweden—alone, if need be.
>>17428482Kino but let's not forget Britain please
But Prussia would succeed. It would prevail. After the death of the Prussia-friendly Tsar, Russia was so weakened and preoccupied elsewhere that re-entering the war against Prussia would have been madness. France, destabilized economically by its losses and stripped of prestige, saw its downfall contribute significantly to the French Revolution. The Habsburg Empire came close to bankruptcy and was forced to disband entire armies during the war, a move misinterpreted by Prussia as Austrian arrogance.In seven years, Prussia achieved all this but at great cost. It was severely drained. Little benefit was derived from Saxony, which had to be relinquished under the peace treaty—but not before taking all the beautiful women, spoils, and loot back to Prussia. The Saxon women, "pollinated" with Prussian seed, would bear new soldiers.In typical Prussian fashion, the old Fritz (Frederick the Great), prematurely aged but retaining his Prussian discipline, repaid all war debts entirely during his lifetime, so that his successors could continue their conquests. And so they did, with the partition of Poland—a true feast! But Great Britain? It would go on to become Europe's Hegemon and a colonial Superpower.>>17428486How could I? After all they became Europe's only Superpower through Prussia's efforts!
>>17428482Would've been a disaster if it weren't for the Russian archwhore dying and getting succeeded by Prussophile Peter III.
>>17428502read this>However, the involvement of Russia was a great misfortune, driven solely by the paranoid delusions of the Russian court, which had no rational reason to harm Prussia. This crucial factor is often forgotten when recounting the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg.You can't claim Prussia only won, because they were extremely fortunate, when the very fact that Russia attacked them in the first place was extremely unfortunate, because they had absolutely no rational reasons to do that.The Miracle of House Brandenburg only equalized an earlier misfortune. Nothing more. Prussia would never have challenged Russia's baltic possessions with Poland in the way. It was simply Russian paranoia. Afterwards Russia and Prussia did the natural thing and split Poland up multiple times like befits their strategic interest.So much for that "Prussia got lucky" myth.
>>17428514no refutation; only cope
>>17428516Seethe much?
>>17428482Man, shut up.
>>17428482
>>17429176https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastic_WarEven Portugal did well
>>17428482>driven solely by the paranoid delusions of the Russian court, which had no rational reason to harm Prussia.Remind me how that ended. No rational reason my ass, the hun should've been strangled in his crib.
>>17429176You can switch Britain and Portugal given how Britain fared on the North American theater (Braddock Expedition, Battle of Carillon, overall taking a decade to defeat an heavily outnumbered enemy....)
>>17429182I'm familiar with the Fantastic War, but without the British bank rolling and training the Portuguese army the war would have gone differently. When the Count of Lippe arrived in Lisbon, on his first night on the court, a couple of sergeants of the Royal Guard went to his room in tattered uniforms to beg for alms. The country was broke, still rebuilding from the Lisbon earthquake, plenty of border forts were in ruins and the army was practically non-existent.
>>17428482>driven solely by the paranoid delusions of the Russian court, which had no rational reason to harm Prussiaif anything they could grasp the future and tried to do right thing
>>17428488>through Prussia's effortsprussia never won a war against britain and many of its most important victories were won with the help of britain
>>17428482How the fuck did the Austria-Russia-France coalition lose? This was before the UK had dominion in India and North America.
>>17431068Because Prussians are literally the Spartans of 18th century Europe. The Sparta of Germany. Just like the historical Sparta it was their historical destiny to be the Hegemon of the rest of Germany, just like Sparta was the Hegemon of Greece. You can't fight destiny.
>>17431068Are you sure that this was before the UK had dominion in North America?
>>17431084Athenian-Persian = Austro-Rus’
>>17431068>mid-18th century >This was before the UK had dominion in... North America.
>>17431068Russia peacing out helped.
>>17431084Prussia is more like Macedon
>>17431068Enlighten Government of England could issue bonds to pay for the war, despotic kings could not
>>17431068Because Prussia was OP and BTFO the combined Austrian-Russian-French armies in Europe while Britain was busy struggling against a secondary French force it outnumbered 4 to 1 in North America
>>17431139>>17431118Spanish and French had more colonies in NA.
>>17432285>France had more colonies than the Brits with cities stretching the length of the East Coast from Georgia to Mass.What the fuck are you considering a "colony" you coping retard? A French fort on the Mississippi with 20 men manning it is not comparable to Boston, Charleston, Philly, etc. etc.
>>17432342But ... it's still colored blue on a map. That is what matters! Paint on a map!
Idk the Seven years war from Prussias perspective was kinda gay since they lost 90% of their manpower and eventually managed to scrap a status-quo peace.Lots of generations lost because kings wants to play at war.
>>17432370You are forgetting the fact that Prussia in the eyes of the other Great Powers was either an upstart Great Power or a second-rate Power, who did not act like a second-rate Power should act. Prussia had their own diplomacy and didn't just act as France's proxy to weaken Austria. The seven-year-war was Prussia's test to prove that it's a real Great Power, who can conduct their own foreign policy without the approval of other Great Powers. The emergence of Prussia as a GP by taking Silesia from the Austrians shocked the continent. The diplomatic revolution happened. It found itself in an incredibly unfortunate position. The war was not simply to fight for a status quo. It was also not simply to keep Silesia. It was to defend it's status as an equal Great Power and the existence of the state. Austria sought to completely abolish Prussia. If the war wasn't fought to a conclusion, then Austria might have just tried again a decade later.
>>17432359>>17432342Why are you so butthurt?
>>17432359Kek>>17432405>nnnoooooo!! If you call me out on being a retard y-y-you're butthurt!!! Retard.
>>17432399idk what you are on about.Prussia proved itself during the Austrian succession war, that's when they defeated Austria on the field and that's when they conquered Silesia, and thats when Prussia was regarded as a great power, and thats why Britain allied with Prussia and abandoned Austria, because Austria was already then deemed a sinking ship.
>>17432501Yes, but Prussia technically already proved it back then, but it had to defend their title. Austria was very quickly overrun and Prussia was very quick to make peace with Austria again and again, despite being in multiple coalitions against Austria. Austria on the other hand was busy biding their time, until it was time to deal with them.
>>17431084>Sparta was the Hegemon of GreeceLmaoooooooooo
>>17431055Britian never won a 1v1 against Prussia but how is a Prussian British war relevant to the Prussian British alliance sweeping off Britain's rivals?
>>17431166and where is that English gold now?
>>17432679>Britian never won a 1v1 against PrussiaBritain never won a 1v1 war against anyone in Europe
>>17429593>Without the richer ally whose policy was financing european allies, the poorer ally would have lost No fucking shit, mate
>>17433284Prussia still had to go into extreme debt. Britain's help didn't even cover their debt.
>>17431159Macedon more like Sweden
