Part of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Silesian Wars
Prussian and Austrian cavalry fighting at the Battle of Mollwitz, by August Heinrich Ferdinand Tegetmeyer
Date
16 December 1740 – 11 June 1742
Location
Silesia, Moravia, Bohemia
Result
Prussian victory
Territorial changes
Habsburg Monarchy cedes the majority of Silesia to Prussia.
Belligerents
Prussia
Habsburg monarchy
Commanders and leaders
King Frederick II
Prince Leopold II of Anhalt-Dessau
Count Kurt von Schwerin
Archduchess Maria Theresa
Prince Charles of Lorraine
Count Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg
v
t
e
Silesian Wars
First
Second
Third
v
t
e
War of the Austrian Succession
Flanders and the Rhine
Dettingen
Menin
Ypres
Lauterbourg
Wissembourg
Furnes
Breisgau
Fontenoy
Tournai
Melle
Ghent
Oudenarde
Ostende
Brussels
Antwerp
Mons
Namur
Rocoux
Lauffeld
Hulst
Bergen op Zoom
Rhine Campaign
Maastricht
Bohemia and Moravia
1st Prague
Olmütz
1st Eger
Chotusitz
Sahay
2nd Prague
2nd Eger
3rd Prague
Budweis
Tabor
Soor
Silesia
Groß-Glogau
Mollwitz
Brieg
Neisse
Glatz
Hohenfriedberg
Kosel
Hennersdorf
Bavaria
Simbach
Deggendorf
Straubing
Ingolstadt
Vilshofen
Pfaffenhofen
Austria
St. Pölten
Schärding
Linz
Saxony
Kesselsdorf
War of Jenkins' Ear
First Silesian War
Second Silesian War
Italian campaigns
Sea battles
King George's War
Jacobite rising of 1745
First Carnatic War
The First Silesian War (German: Erster Schlesischer Krieg) 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. 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. 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.
and 27 Related for: First Silesian War information
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Global Information
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Habsburg monarchy