War of The Austrian Succession - Silesian Campaign of 1740

Silesian Campaign of 1740

Prussia in 1740 was a small but well-organized emerging international power whose new, well-educated king, Frederick II wanted to unify the disparate and scattered crown holdings by gathering intervening lands into a unified, contiguous state. Although Prussia and Austria had been allies in the War of Polish Succession, concluded only two years before, when the Holy Roman Emperor died, distracting the Habsburg Monarchy to the southeast, Frederick opportunistically invaded and annexed Silesia, using a questionable interpretation of a treaty (1537) between the Hohenzollerns and the Piasts of Brieg as pretext. Meanwhile, as expected, the other princes of Europe also prepared to exploit an opportunity to acquire Habsburg possessions and humble and diminish their power.

While the only recent war experience of the Prussian Army was in the War of the Polish Succession (Rhine campaign of 1733–1735) it had largely been kept out of combat, since Prussia was not fully trusted by Austria. It therefore had an uninspiring reputation and was counted as one of the many minor armies of the Holy Roman Empire. However, King Frederick William I had drilled it to a perfection previously unknown in Europe. The Prussian infantry soldier was so well-trained and well-equipped that he could fire 3 shots a minute to an Austrian's 1—Prussian cavalry and artillery were comparatively less efficient, but they were still of better quality than average. Furthermore, while the Austrians had to wait for conscription to complete the field forces, Prussian regiments took the field at once, and thus Frederick was able to overrun Silesia almost unopposed.

The Prussian army had massed quietly along the Oder River during early December, and on 16 December 1740, without declaration of war, it crossed the frontier into Silesia. The extant forces available to the local Austrian generals could do no more than garrison a few fortresses, and they necessarily fell back to the mountain frontier of Bohemia and Moravia with only a small remnant of their available forces left in the garrisons.

On their new territory, the organized Prussians were soon able to go into winter quarters, holding all Silesia and investing the strongholds of Glogau, Brieg and Neisse. In one step, Prussia had effectively doubled its population and made huge gains in its industrial productivity.

Nationalism as we know it today was not a factor, but an evolving concept just coming into its early years. Prussia benefited greatly from the apolitical nature of the society of the era, as the masses in central Germany would correspondingly suffer as the contending armies rampaged through their plains yet again.