Silesian Wars

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The Silesian Wars (German: Schlesische Kriege) were three wars fought in the mid-18th century between Prussia, under King Frederick the Great, and Habsburg Austria, under Empress 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 was a member of a coalition seeking territorial gain at Austria's expense. The Third Silesian War (1756–1763) was a theatre of the global Seven Years' War, in which Austria in turn led a coalition of powers aiming to seize Prussian territory. 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...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Frederick William Longman Charles Colbeck (editor), Public domain