Of no small concern among the major European powers in the early 1700s was their
power relative to each other. Thus it was that in 1702 Great Britain was alarmed
at the prospect of the grandson of the King of France, Louis XIV, inheriting the
Spanish throne. Great Britain, the United Netherlands, Austria and
Brandenburg-Prussia united against France in what was called the War of Spanish
Succession, a war from 1702 to 1713 that ended in exhaustion and a temporary
settlement, signed at Utrecht in the United Netherlands.
The family of Louis XIV - the Bourbons - gained from the settlement by
recognition of his grandson, Philip V, as king of Spain. But, to the pleasure of
the British and their allies, the king of Spain lost territory: the Kingdom of
Naples, the Duchy of Milan, and Sardinia. These lands, like the Spanish throne
itself, had belonged to the Habsburg family - which had intermarried with the
Bourbons - and now the Treaty of Utrecht left these lands with the Habsburgs,
who were ruling from Vienna, in Austria. To the Habsburgs also went what had
been called the Spanish Netherlands (around Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels). The
treaty also took Sicily from Spain and gave to Vittorio (Victor) Amadeus of the
House of Savoy - which won international recognition as royalty. (The
Hohenzollern family, which ruled Brandenburg-Prussia, was also given
international recognition as royalty.) The treaty took the island of Gibraltar
from Spain and gave it to the British. And the treaty also gave the British
territory in the Americas that had belonged to the French: Hudson Bay territory,
Newfoundland and that part of Acadia that the British called Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, in 1711, a Habsburg prince in Spain, Charles, had inherited Habsburg
lands and also had become ruler of the Holy Roman Empire - by now little more
than a titular position. Prince Charles was now Charles VI. With the Spanish
throne passing to a Bourbon, he moved to Vienna, but he looked forward to the
Habsburgs returning to power in Spain and all Habsburg lands remaining united
under one king.
From Austria, Charles ruled more territory than any other monarch in Europe. He
ruled what had been the Spanish Netherlands, Bohemia (including Prague),
Silesia, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia and, thanks to an
expansion against the Ottoman Turks late in the previous century, he was also
king of Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Transylvania.
After the settlement at Utrecht, the French viewed Austria as their nation's
primary rival on the European continent. And, as a counter to France, Charles
maintained his family's tie to the British, which included loans and financial
debt, while the British and French enjoyed a respite from their traditional
hostilities. Both nations had been exhausted by war and were in need of
recuperation, and in 1715 both nations had new kings: Louis XV under a regent,
and George I in Britain.
But the British remained at odds with that other Bourbon power: Spain. The
Spanish were stopping and boarding British ships suspected of trading with their
territory in the Americas, the Spanish interrogating British crews and looking
for goods such as indigo and cocoa and for Spanish money.
In the years just after the Treaty of Utrecht, conflict was taking place also
between the Ottoman Empire and Venice. Austria joined the war against the
Ottomans, and, to help the Christians against the Ottomans, Pope Clement XI
equipped a Spanish fleet. Spain, instead, used the fleet to win back Sardinia
and Sicily. The Austrians defeated the Ottomans near Belgrade. In mid-1718,
Austria settled with the Ottomans and gained northern Bosnia, Banat, Belgrade,
much of Serbia and a part of Walachia (Wallachia). Also in 1718, the British,
Dutch and Austria teamed up against Spain's move. So too did the French -
Bourbon against Bourbon, the French trying to expand against Spanish territory
along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1719, Austria sent troops
against the Spanish in Sicily. And Britain declared war on Spain and sank the
Spanish navy.
Spain felt overwhelmed militarily and sued for peace. With the Treaty of London
the major powers solidified the peace they made at Utrecht. Philip V of Spain
finally recognized the loss of the Spanish Netherlands to the Habsburgs of
Austria. Charles VI recognized the succession of Philip to what he had thought
should be his rule in Spain. Charles was recognized as ruler over Sicily, and
Vittorio (Victor) Amadeus of the House of Savoy, who had ruled Sicily, was
instead given rule over Sardinia.
Also in the years between 1718 and 1721, those powers that had been involved in
the Great Northern War settled their differences: Denmark, Saxony,
Brandenburg-Prussia, and Russia made a peace of sorts with Sweden. Europe was at
peace, for awhile.
Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia
A promoter of Pietism was the ruler of Brandenburg-Prussia since 1713 -
Frederick William. He reinforced Lutheranism's subservience to the state and
created a closer tie between his rule and the university at Halle, where Pietism
dominated and where he sent his sent administrators for training. Frederick
William saw the world as filled with sin and believed it was his duty to clean
it up. Harlotry, he claimed, was the most terrible sin. He kept the devil away
from his personal life by providing his wife with fourteen children and with
devotion to his work, arriving at his study each morning at seven. He was also
devoted to cleanliness, careful not to soil his uniform and quick to wash his
hands. He disliked everything French and was devoted to frugality and the stern
discipline associated with his military.
Frederick William believed in the sword more than the pen. He saw military
strength as dominating international realities, and after he made peace with
Sweden in 1720 (at the end of the Great Northern War) he maintained and trained
an army of conscripted peasants, led exclusively by noble officers. He believed
that noblemen were more inclined to act on family honor while commoners were
inclined to give greater consideration to personal safety.
Like some other armies, Frederick William's military had a free-enterprise
element. Military commanders were also entrepreneurs. Captured wealth went to
them to divide as they pleased, and they could amass a fortune in weapons and
demand compensation for these weapons when they retired.
Frederick William tried to advance his realm economically. He had spent several
years with his relatives among the Dutch, learning economic advancements, but in
agriculture - the most important economic activity - his kingdom remained
handicapped by a soil that was more sandy than some other places in Europe. His
government assumed control over the realm's economy - Frederick William hoping
for more income to pay for his military. He protected domestic production with
high tariffs. New industries were founded, and textile manufacturing received
special government attention as a state industry. Frederick William imported
sheep from Spain, and he founded a warehouse in Berlin, through which all wool
had to pass. As in Germany as a whole, his kingdom remained with a smaller
middleclass and less manufacturing compared to Britain or the United
Netherlands. But he did achieve some efficiency in government administration,
giving Brandenburg-Prussia a reputation as a highly bureaucratized state. His
inspectors supervised all aspects of production to assure quality. His
government offered workers in state-owned enterprises above average wages. He
abolished labor guilds, and he made illegal exports of wool products a capital
offense.
In the area of crime and punishment, Frederick William remained a stern
conformist. He left in place various traditional punishments: branding, pinching
with hot tongs, beheading, drawing and quartering, breaking on the wheel, and
hanging. Infanticide was punished by sewing the offending woman into a leather
bag and throwing her into a river to drown. But he demanded the removal from
public squares all stakes upon which accused witches had been burned.
Charles VI and the War of Polish Succession
In years of peace, Austria failed to diminish its debt or advance economically,
and it failed to reform its military. Charles VI was no Peter the Great. He
abolished some minor trade barriers but not the bigger barriers between his
various lands. He built a road between Vienna and his port at Trieste, which
helped develop Austria's maritime trade, to the annoyance of Venice. But
Austria's international trade would advance little because of French and British
competition.
Charles did strengthen Austria in one area. He signed a defensive treaty with
Russia's new ruler, Peter the Great's widow, Catherine (who ruled to 1727). The
treaty was defensive - against an attack by the Ottomans. But it was Poland that
was to be the focus of concern that would lead to the next war. Monarchical
succession was still a source of instability. Augustus II - ruler of Saxony and
King of Poland - died in 1733. Russia (now ruled by Anne, a daughter of Peter
the Great’s feeble-minded half brother) joined with Austria in favoring the son
of Augustus for Poland's throne. Louis XV of France favored his father-in-law,
Stanislaus I, who had been king of Poland earlier in the century. And Louis'
agents bribed Polish nobles in an attempt to win their support for Stanislaus.
Russians still saw Stanislaus as an old enemy, and as soon as Stanislaus arrived
in Warsaw, a Russian army arrived to expel him. Polish nobles complied with
Russian and Austrian wishes and elected the son of Augustus II, Augustus III, as
their king. The French were enjoying a new prosperity and felt recuperated from
war. They were looking to recover their old position as Europe's leading power,
and in 1733 they retaliated against Austria's position on Poland by declaring
war. That year they sent an army across their border into the Holy Roman Empire
- to Lorraine - fighting the Austrians and others from the Holy Roman Empire,
and taking the town of Kehl.
The British, still in détente with France, preferred not to intervene, ignoring
their old allies on the continent. The Swedes, on the other hand, were
frightened by Russia's aggression in Poland and the possibility that Russia
might interfere in a monarchical succession in their country. Sweden also chose
to stay out of the war. But, to defend itself better, Sweden buried its
differences with Denmark, and those two kingdoms signed an alliance.
Seeing another opportunity to win back territory in Italy, Philip V of Spain
signed a "family compact" with his Bourbon relative, Louis XV, and Spain
declared war against Austria. France bribed the new king of Sardinia, the son of
Vittorio Amadeus II, Charles Emanuel III, and he also joined the war against
Austria. In 1734, French and Spanish troops drove Austrians from the city of
Naples. Charles Emanuel won a battle against the Austrians at Guastalla, near
Parma in northern Italy, the Austrians losing 10,000 killed, and France
recognized Charles Emanuel as ruler of the Duchy of Milan.
In 1735, Russian troops joined the Austrians fighting against the French in
western Germany. The French had been urging the Ottomans to side with them
against the Austrians and Russians. The Ottoman Empire was distracted by a war
against its neighbor to its east: the Shiite Muslims in Iran. The Russians hoped
to take advantage of this and were planning to expand to the Black Sea. And they
talked the Austrians into joining them against the Ottomans, the two powers
agreeing to divide the spoils equally.
In 1736, the Russians ravaged and slaughtered their way to Azov, but they were
unable to live off the land devastated by the defenders. The Russians succumbed
to famine and illness, and were forced to evacuate. The Austrians were also
suffering - from a shortage of money and from the quality of their military
commanders. In 1736, while continuing to fight against the Ottomans, Austria
felt obliged to make peace with France. In an agreement with France, Austria
recognized Naples and Sicily as belonging to Spain and agreed to Louis XV
acquiring Lorraine. And France agreed to the Duchy of Milan being returned to
Austria, Victor Emmanuel III of the House of Savoy having to be content to give
up Milan and settle for nearby Novara and Tortona.
By the summer of 1737 the Ottomans were better prepared for war against the
Russians and Austrians. The Russians that year captured the area around Otyakov,
west of the Crimea, but then at Bender the Ottomans drove the Russians back. The
Austrians were advancing in Walachia and beyond Bosnia into Serbia, and they
took Nish in August. But by late October, the Ottomans were also driving back
the Austrians, retaking Nish and routing the Austrians near Bucharest.
In 1738, the Russians failed to interest Christians in the Balkans in joining
them against the Ottomans. Their war against the Ottomans stalled, while the
Ottomans were advancing farther against the Austrians. In 1739, both Austria and
Russia decided to negotiate an end to their war against the Ottomans. In this
settlement, Austria returned to the Ottomans the city of Belgrade and territory
south of the Sava River - territory it had won from the Ottomans in 1718. Russia
was allowed to keep Azov on condition that it destroy the forts there and that
it sail no ships on the Sea of Azov or the Black Sea. And the Tatars in the
Crimea - the Kabardias - were to remain an independent buffer between the
Ottomans and Russia.
Frederick the Great and the War of Austrian Succession
Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia trained his son, Frederick, to be a
hardy soldier. But Frederick disliked rifle shooting and horseback riding.
Unlike his father, he was interested in French literature. He enjoyed poetry and
music and, like some others of the Enlightenment, he scoffed at religion. His
father thought him soft, frivolous and unmindful of his duties. And when
Frederick refused to put his signature on a Right to Succession, for a few
moments his father strangled him.
In 1730, at the age of eighteen, Frederick tried running away to England. He and
a friend who had helped him were caught, and Frederick's father had him tried by
a court martial and sentenced to death, and he had Frederick's friend beheaded
in his presence. The father threatened his son with execution if he were
disobedient again. Frederick languished in prison for awhile. But by 1735, at
the age of twenty-three, he had recovered from his disgrace and was serving in
his father's army, fighting against the French near the Rhine during the war of
Polish Succession.
Frederick William died on May 31, 1740 at the age of fifty-two, and Frederick
became Frederick II. (His grandfather had been Frederick I.) Still with a bent
towards the Enlightenment, Frederick allowed Christian von Wolff to return from
exile. Wolff had annoyed his fellow professors of the university at Halle by his
attachment to intellectual currents from France. Wolff had been interested in
improving society. He had opposed torture and prosecuting people for witchcraft.
He had been a hero to students at Halle, and authorities at the university
supported by Frederick William had driven him into exile. But now, Wolff
returned to the university in triumph and with acclaim.
Frederick began doing what he could to make his city, Berlin, a center of
research, learning, art and culture. He was corresponding with Voltaire,
pursuing his interest in literature, and he kept his mind on matters political.
He described his rule as a sort of contract with his subjects, with himself as
first servant of the state, duty bound to promote well-being and security. And
seeing the world filled with others eager to expand their power, he saw, as had
his father, that a strong military was vital for security.
The Outbreak of War
On October 20, 1740, Austria's Habsburg monarch and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles
VI, died - after a short illness said to have been caused by eating mushrooms.
Without a son to succeed him, Habsburg rule passed to his eldest daughter, the
dutiful and religiously devout Maria Theresa, then 23, who acquired the titles
of Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Bohemia, and Queen of Hungary.
Europe's rulers had no fear of Frederick at this time. He was known for having
been a crown prince who despised war, who loved reading and wrote bad verse and
who preferred to play the flute rather than review his troops. Maria Theresa's
husband, Francis Stephen, also had no fear of Frederick. He had recently
attended Frederick's wedding and considered him a friend.
Frederick was aware of Austria's economic and military weakness, made more
apparent during the War of Polish Succession. He decided that the time was right
to expand his rule southward into Silesia, an area that would double the number
of Frederick's subjects - to six million. Silesia was relatively advanced in
industry, rich in agriculture and mineral wealth, and Protestant - unlike the
Habsburgs who presently ruled there. It was an area that included principalities
claimed by Frederick's family, the Hohenzollerns: Liegnitz, Brieg, Wohlau and
Jägerndorf. Frederick believed that Silesia should be his reward for the support
he planned to give Maria Theresa and for his vote, as an elector, in selecting
her husband as the new Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick was seeking his reward
first because he had inherited his father's distrust of Habsburg promises in
exchanging favors and because he believed that the Habsburgs did not take
Hohenzollern power seriously enough.
By the end of November, much of Europe was aware of Frederick's troop
concentrations. French authorities sent Voltaire on a courtesy visit to report
of Frederick's intentions. But Frederick refused to answer Voltaire's questions.
On December 16, Frederick asked his generals to think of "the good name of
Prussia" which their forefathers had earned on the battlefield. Then he and his
army marched into Silesia, and not having announced his intentions paid off. In
the coming weeks he and his army took over Silesia without serious opposition.
In Vienna, Maria Theresa was aghast. Rather than accept Frederick's proposal of
friendship and help, she sent troops to reconquer Silesia. A showdown battle
occurred on April 10, 1741, at Mollwitz. Austria's cavalry fell apart when
attempting to ride down Frederick's infantry. Frederick's troops had a five to
three advantage in rapidity of fire, and they drove off the Austrian infantry.
And news of Frederick's success at Mollwitz traveled across Europe, awakening
all of Europe that Brandenburg-Prussia was a power to be reckoned with.
The War Broadens
French strategists were delighted to see a division between Brandenburg-Prussia
and Austria. Austria's defeat at Mollwitz inspired France to seek a treaty with
Fredrick. Frederick was happy to have France as an ally against Habsburg
hostility, and in signing a defensive treaty with the French he promised to cast
his vote for their friend, Charles Albert of Bavaria, rather than for Francis
Stephen, for emperor.
In June, Maria Theresa, was shoring up what support she could. She dressed in
Hungarian attire, sailed eighty kilometers down the Danube River to Bratislava,
on a ship bedecked in Hungary's national colors. When greeted by Hungarian
nobles and churchmen she was a picture of dignity and simplicity. She reassured
the Hungarians of their autonomy and won their support for her as their queen.
NOTE
Autonomy means self-rule with an overlord in charge of foreign relations.At the
end of July, 1741, France's ally, Bavaria, attacked Austria at the town of
Passau, and the war entered a new phase. Maria Theresa wanted support from her
ally, Russia, but Russia was occupied by a threat from Sweden. Sweden was allied
with France and declared war on Russia on August 4. The political party in power
in Sweden, the Hats, believed that the time was right to win back from Russia
the territories Sweden had lost in the Great Northern War of 1700-21.
In August, Maria Theresa returned to Bratislava and won Hungarian regiments for
her armies. In September, the Russians defeated the Swedes in Finland, at
Wilmanstrand, but rather than help the Austrians, the Russians would remain
occupied with the Swedes in Finland. Also in September, a French and Barvarian
army was pushing into Maria Theresa's Bohemia. Meanwhile Augustus III, Elector
of Saxony and King of Poland, had turned his back on his former allies, Russia
and Austria, and had joined the alliance of France, Bavaria and
Brandenburg-Prussia. He wished to be on the winning side and was hoping for a
reward of more territory. His troops from Saxony joined forces with an army of
French and Bavarians, and in late November they captured Prague.
Hearing news of her loss of Prague, Maria Theresa burst into tears. She was only
a little more than twenty-four years-old, pregnant with her fifth child and
surrounded by elderly male advisors of questionable competence. She was outdoing
them in planning and resolve, complaining that her pregnancy prevented her from
mounting a horse to lead her troops.
The Year 1742
Austrian troops were withdrawn from Italy to meet challenges closer to home, and
the Italian wife of Spain's King Philip, Elizabeth Farnese, who was running
foreign policy, sought advantage from this and was again hoping to win back
territory in Italy. In November (1741), a fleet of Spanish ships landed 14,000
men at Orbetello. And at the end of January, they landed 12,800 more at Spezia -
unopposed.
Also in January, the Holy Roman Empire's electors selected Charles Albert
emperor - Charles Albert becoming Charles VII. He also declared himself King of
Bohemia. Maria Theresa sent troops to retake Bohemia, and, to help Charles,
Frederick led an army, augmented by French and Saxon troops, into Maria
Theresa's Moravia. He went deep into enemy territory and cursed himself for his
inadequate planning and lack of provisions. His French troops left him to help
in the fighting near the Rhine, and Frederick retreated to Bohemia.
Frederick's financial reserves were running out, and Britain thought it was a
good time for Maria Theresa to make peace with Frederick - in order for her to
better combat France and Spain. In May, Maria Theresa's army clashed with
Frederick's army in Bohemia, at Chotusitz. Frederick won, and this helped
persuade Maria Theresa to agree with the British. A treaty between her and
Frederick was drawn, Maria Teresa agreeing to Frederick's hold on Silesia except
for parts of southern Silesia called Jagerndorf and Troppau, which Frederick
agreed would go to the Habsburgs.
Maria Theresa pursued her war against Spain, France and Bavaria, while Russia,
in August, was taking Helsingfors (Helsinki) in Finland. Sweden capitulated, and
Russia proposed an independent Finland as a buffer between it and Sweden.
Meanwhile, according to Voltaire, all Europe "had its eyes on Prague," which was
now being held by 25,000 French troops, surrounded by an Austrian army of around
70,000. Civilians in the city were suffering, and the French were eating their
horses. The French sent troops to the rescue, and the Austrians shifted their
forces around to meet that force. Winter set in, and in mid-December around
14,000 of the French in Prague sneaked passed the Austrian lines, leaving behind
their sick and wounded.
The Austrians moved into Prague and allowed France's sick and wounded to return
home. The Austrians took reprisals against people in Prague suspected of having
collaborated with the French. Jews were among the suspects, and Maria Theresa
banished Jews from the city and from all her territories. Some others suspected
of collaboration with the enemy received fines or loss of property. Some were
sentenced to life imprisonment, to maiming, or to death. But Maria Theresa,
being a woman of generosity and having a soft heart, commuted the death
sentences.
Britain Leads an Anti-Bourbon Alliance
Great Britain had been at war with Spain since 1739 - the War of Jenkins' Ear -
over the mistreatment of English seaman. The War of Jenkins' Ear was merging
with the War of Austrian Succession. Britain had been technically at peace with
France since 1713, but friction between the two powers still existed in the
Americas and India. Britain was still aligned with Austria, and now that Maria
Theresa and Frederick were at peace, Britain signed a defensive treaty with
Brandenburg-Prussia, happy to keep the French and Frederick apart and to have
Frederick's good will regarding security for Hanover - which belonged to King
George II. Britain also signed a defensive treaty with Russia, and in the spring
of 1743 it brought the Dutch into the alliance, Britain wanting as large an
alliance as possible against Spain and France.
In April, an allied force of 20,000 British, 20,000 from the Austrian
Netherlands, 16,000 from Hanover, and around 6,000 Germans from Hesse, were
camped at Mainz. Before moving against French troops still in Germany, they were
waiting for the arrival of their military leader from England, George II. A
force from Austria, was moving into Bavaria, the French withdrawing and burning
villages to the ground to deprive the Austrians provisions. Munich surrendered
to the Austrians in early June. King George arrived at Mainz in mid-June, and
the allied force marched south, meeting and defeating the French late that month
at Dettingen, the French suffering around 4,000 casualties and the allied force
half that many. News of their defeat at Dettingen brought despondence to the
French, while in England and Austria people rejoiced. Then King George's force,
short of supplies, retreated northward to Hanau.
Great Britain hoped to split Charles VII of Bavaria from France and urged Maria
Theresa to settle with Charles, and the British urged her to settle with Charles
Emmanuel of the House of Savoy and Sardinia. Spain was having little success at
warfare in Italy, including having lost a battle at Campo Santo. Maria Theresa
ceded to Charles Emmanuel territory at her expense - Vigevano (24 kilometers
southwest of Milan), Piacenza (60 kilometers southeast of Milan) and a few other
places, while Charles Emmanuel agreed to recognize Maria Theresa's rule in the
Duchy of Milan. The British, Charles Emmanuel and Maria Theresa agreed that if
the Bourbons were defeated, the Habsburgs would regain the kingdom of Naples and
the House of Savoy would regain Sicily. The agreement was signed in September,
in the town of Worms, on the Rhine River, and became known as the Treaty of
Worms.
France responded by signing a treaty with Spain - the Treaty of Fontainebleau.
France declared war on Charles Emmanuel of the House of Savoy, and France chose
all out war against Great Britain. France prepared to invade Britain and looked
forward to a rising of Catholics there and toward returning a Catholic Stuart to
the British throne. On March 7, 1744, a gale tore apart the French fleet in the
English Channel, and the French dropped their plans to invade. But they formally
declared war on both Great Britain and Hanover. And in May they formally
declared war on Austria.
Frederick Chooses More War
None of this was too tedious for Frederick. He was alarmed over the Treaty of
Worms not having recognized his hold on Silesia. He believed that Maria Theresa
did not really accept his hold on Silesia and that George of England-Hanover
disliked him. He feared Maria Theresa's husband, Francis Stephen, becoming
emperor in place of Charles VII. He disliked the shift of August III of Saxony
and Poland back to the side of Austria. His solution: side with the French
against Austria. In June 1744 Frederick and the French struck another agreement,
the French hoping that pressure from Frederick would force Austria to withdraw
troops from Italy. The French agreed to attack Austria along the Danube River
and to keep Hanover in check, and Frederick agreed to attack in the direction of
Vienna.
Frederick carefully planned his move toward Vienna, among other things
increasing his military to 140,000 men. In August he led 80,000 of these men
across the frontier into Bohemia, his first major target being Prague. The
reaction in Austria was outrage, with Frederick's ambassador there having to be
protected from angry crowds. The British were mortified and pledged more money
to Austria. And Saxony promised Austria 20,000 of its soldiers.
Frederick and his army captured Prague in mid-September, Frederick seeing his
cousin's head blown away by an Austrian artillery shell. Then Frederick began
pushed farther south, and the going became tougher. Rather than France helping
Frederick as he had expected, France was giving priority to fights along the
Rhine. A combined Austrian and Saxon force of 75,000 outnumbered Frederick's
army. And, in December, Frederick retreated back to home territory, his invasion
a failure. More or less 25 percent of his troops had been lost, many having died
of dysentery. His reputation was diminished, and he was angry at the French,
believing that they had let him down.
Austria and Brandenburg-Prussia Settle Again
In Munich, in January 1745, Charles VII died, and the coming elections to
replace Charles as emperor looked good for Francis Stephen, with many of the
electors, including George of Hanover and Maria Theresa, supporting his
candidacy.
In May, the French defeated an allied force, including Dutchmen, in the Austrian
Netherlands at Fontenoy. And other successes soon followed, at Tournai and
Ghent. In June, Frederick defeated an Austrian attack in Silesia, at
Hohenfriedberg (a little to the west of Mollwitz). In June, George was facing a
rebellion in Britain: the Jacobite rebellion, which was hoping for help from the
French. Britain withdrew forces from the Austrian Netherlands and mobilized
30,000 troops against the rebellion.
In late August, Britain and Frederick signed an agreement, George II winning
assurance from Frederick that he would respect the territorial integrity of
Hanover and support the candidacy Francis Stephen as emperor, and Frederick
winning Britain's support for his one big interest: an end to war that left him
with Silesia.
In September, Francis Stephen was elected emperor. Maria Theresa was still
reluctant to give up Silesia, but Frederick defeated her army at Soor. And in
December, Frederick defeated the Saxons near Dresden. Then Maria Theresa gave in
again to British pressure. On Christmas Day, Austria signed the Treaty of
Dresden, Austria recognizing Silesia as belonging to the Hohenzollerns, and
Frederick recognizing Francis Stephen as Holy Roman Emperor and the right of all
Habsburg lands to remain under the rule of one Habsburg monarch. Frederick also
agreed to return to Augustus III all territory that had been his, in exchange
for a large payment of money ( one million crowns).
For Frederick the war of Austrian Succession was over, but Austria was still at
war with France and Spain, the Austrians losing Milan to the Spanish in
December.
The Final Years, from 1746 to 1748
In March, 1746, Austria's ally, the Sardinians, surprised the French force that
had been stationed at Asti (100 kilometers southwest of Milan) the French
surrendering without resistance. Ten days later, the Spaniards evacuated Milan.
Then King Philip of Spain died and was succeeded by a son by his first marriage,
Ferdinand VI, who was less interested than his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Farnese,
in Italy and more interested in peace.
In July 1747, the Sardinians and French fought in mountainous territory around
200 kilometers southwest of Milan - the Battle of Assietta - where the French
were slaughtered trying to ascend a ridge, losing a quarter of their troops in
one day - a total of 5,300 casualties and perhaps 3,700 dead. The war in this
area dwindled to a series of small, cross-border raids, while in the Netherlands
the French advanced into Dutch territory, overrunning Bergen-op-Zoom in
September.
By the second half of 1747 the British blockade of French ports was hurting the
French. The British public had been elated by victories at sea against the
French and the Spanish but it had become disillusioned by the expense of the war
and the elusiveness of a decisive victory. War weariness and depleted finances
was making all of the belligerents more interested in peace. In January, 1748,
Austria and France met to end to their war. In April, the British and French
representatives met to settle their differences. In October, Britain, France,
Spain and the Dutch signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappel, Austria and Sardinia
adding their signatures in November. The treaty confirmed Brandenburg-Prussia's
hold on Silesia. France agreed to the Habsburgs regaining their Netherlands. And
the British agreed to return areas in the Americas and India to the French.
The Seven Years' War
With Europe's major powers having settled their differences, Voltaire,
Montesquieu and some other intellectuals became optimistic about the nations of
Europe getting along with each other. In 1751, Voltaire described Europe
(excluding that controlled by the Ottoman Turks) as "a sort of great republic."
The kingdoms of Europe, he wrote, had "the same principles of public and
political law unknown in other parts of the world" and were bent on "maintaining
among themselves as far as possible an equal balance of power."
If there was a balance of power in Europe it was not an effective instrument in
maintaining peace. War was still not dreaded enough to adequately motivate
compromise and harmony. Military action was still viewed more than economic
development as a means to well-being. In European civilization there was still
no international law to which all the powers felt obliged to adhere. And not all
powers would endure in taking seriously the recent agreements that ended the
last great war.
Among the British, more war with the French seemed likely over their differences
in the Americas. The English politician, William Pitt the Elder - not yet prime
minister - was thinking that conflict with France in the Americas would
eventually be settled through war in Europe, and he advocated the maintenance of
military pacts with dependable allies.
Renewed conflict between Britain and France erupted in the Ohio Valley in 1754 -
to be known as the French and Indian War. In early 1755, troops left Britain and
crossed the Atlantic. In late April, troops from France embarked for the
Americas, and in early June the British attacked the French ships carrying these
troops. It had been seven years since the British public was tired of war, but
now they were again eager for war against the French.
Maria Theresa still saw Silesia as rightly belonging to her, and she believed it
should be Catholic in faith. She saw the return of war between Britain and
France as an opportunity. She suggested to Britain that she would support
Britain's war against France only if Britain supported her against Frederick.
Instead, King George II of Britain, who was concerned about his territory in
Hanover, signed a defensive treaty with Frederick - the Treaty of Westminster -
to discourage the French from attacking Hanover. Frederick of
Brandenburg-Prussia hoped that with this alliance, Britain's other ally, Russia,
would diminish in animosity towards him. The treaty would instead make Hanover
less secure, and increase Russian hostility toward Frederick.
Austria was shaken by Britain's agreement with Frederick. Maria Theresa's
foreign minister urged her to forget the 250-year-old feud between the Bourbons
of France and her Habsburg family and ally herself with France. Wielding some
power in France was Madame Pompadour, who was hostile toward Frederick, sparked
by his insult to her. She had sent Frederick greetings through Voltaire.
Frederick and Voltaire had had a falling out and an angry Voltaire had returned
to France, describing Frederick as a homosexual and telling Madame Pompadour
that when he had passed along her greeting to Frederick, Frederick had responded
by saying "I don't know this woman."
France, at any rate, was ready to take advantage of the falling out between
Britain and Austria. French strategists interpreted recent British aggressions
against them on the high seas and in the Americas as stemming from the certainty
of assistance from its treaty with Brandenburg-Prussia. And they were ready to
accommodate Austria with an alliance.
Russia also felt threatened by the treaty between Britain and
Brandenburg-Prussia. The ruler of Russia since 1741 was Peter the Great’s
daughter, Elizabeth, who had also been the target of Frederick's insults -
Frederick having described her, according to rumors, as a superstitious and
indolent voluptuary. Elizabeth was unhappy about Frederick having territory
alongside Poland and unhappy about his possessing Silesia. In April 1756, her
ministry suggested to Austria that Frederick's Prussia be partitioned, with
Silesia and Glatz (Kladsko) going to Austria, East Prussia going to Poland, and
Courland (just north of East Prussia) going to Russia.
On May 1, 1756, France and Austria signed an alliance that was ostensibly
defensive - the First Treaty of Versailles. It was recognized that Austria was
to remain neutral regarding France's war against Britain, and Austria had
France’s acceptance of Austria’s attack on Brandenburg-Prussia. Russia joined
this alliance - upsetting its traditional hostility towards France. And the new
alliance between Madame Pompadour of France, Maria Theresa of Austria and
Elizabeth of Russia became known as the League of the Three Petticoats.
The Fighting Begins
This time Frederick was not the aggressor. He did not want war, but he believed
that to defend himself he should move first. He sent 11,000 men to Pomerania to
guard against Sweden joining the war to take back that area, and he sent 26,000
men to his frontier with Russia. Then, on August 29, 1756, with an army of
70,000, Frederick and his army crossed into Saxony - which had been conspiring
with the League of Three Petticoats. Frederick had learned from the last war
that it was dangerous to leave a hostile Saxony on his border while fighting
others, and he did not want to commit that mistake twice. On September 10,
Frederick and his army took the Saxon capital, Dresden, and defeated Saxons were
ordered into Frederick's army - the forced recruitment typical of those
times.
NOTE
"Men from other principalities were also added to Frederick's armies by
promising them work and then forcing them into the military. And it was the
habit of armies in Frederick's time not to encamp next to a forest, where
deserters could run and hide.One elector of the Holy Roman Empire invading the
territory of another elector did not set well with some of Germany's other
elector-princes, and they joined France, Austria and Russia against Frederick.
The War to its Conclusion in 1763
The object of warfare among the Europeans at this time was not to force a
showdown against the enemy. Showdowns were considered too risky and too costly.
The preferred strategy was to outmaneuver the enemy army, to prevent the enemy
army from acquiring adequate supplies, including food, and to force it to
retreat. Nevertheless, on October 1, Austria's army and Frederick's met on
October 1, at Lobositz, just south of Saxony. On that day the two sides
exchanged artillery fire and cavalry charges followed by a clash of their
infantries. Each side lost about 3,000 men, killed and wounded, with indecisive
results: Maria Theresa’s army managed an orderly withdrawal from the
battlefield, and Frederick's army returned to Saxony to wait out the winter.
In March 1757, Sweden joined the war against Brandenburg-Prussia - despite
Frederick’s sister being Queen of Sweden. In early May, Frederick's forces began
maneuvering against Austria's forces in Bohemia, and on May 5 the two armies met
just outside the city of Prague. The fighting lasted two hours, with Frederick
losing 11,740 killed and wounded and 1560 as prisoners - about 21 percent of his
army's strength. The Austrians lost about as many and retreated behind Prague's
walls.
On May 17, 1757, a Russian army of 85,000 advanced against Königsberg in East
Prussia. And that spring the French crossed the Rhine River and overran Hanover.
In November, Frederick defeated a French army at Rossbach, just south of Leipzig
in Saxony, and a month later he defeated the Austrians at Leuthen, in Silesia.
In 1758, William Pitt the Elder, now leader of a coalition government, began to
give more active aid to Brandenburg-Prussia, while Frederick was surrounded by
advancing enemies: Sweden from the north, Russia advancing across East Prussia,
and the Austrians coming at him from the south. France was distracted by a
ground war in America, where it was hoping to stave off defeat while winning in
Europe - while Britain was hoping to win in America and just hold on in Europe.
And Austria was distracted by new threats from the Ottoman Empire.
In 1759, Frederick still had 150,000 in the field, but they were slower in
loading and firing their rifles compared to his troops at the start of the war.
His ability to maneuver was also reduced and his cavalry weaker. And in August,
at the Battle of Kunersdorf, he lost half of his force of 43,000 men against a
combined force of Russians and Austrians, who together lost 15,700. Fortunately
for Frederick, however, the Russians and Austrians failed to pursue Frederick's
defeated force.
In 1760, all the belligerents were again hurting enough from war that again all
of them wanted peace - except for Great Britain. That year the British were
tightening their noose around the French in Canada. In October, while Frederick
and his army were under pressure in Saxony, a combined force of Russians and
Austrians occupied and looted Berlin. Then, hearing that Fredrick and his army
were on their way, they fled. Also in October, George II died. The new king,
George III, cared little about Hanover, and British subsidies to Frederick were
discontinued.
Late in 1760, Frederick was drawn into battle against the Austrians in Saxony,
at Torgau, where he won the battle but lost 30 percent of his force of 44,000.
In 1761 the British defeated the French in India, while France's army in Germany
was marching around, occasionally confronting the enemy and gaining nothing.
That year, Frederick was moving rapidly between the Russians and Austrians,
striking here and there, trying to keep the Russian and Austrian armies from
joining, and by the end of 1761 Frederick was exhausted.
Russian armies around the Pomeranian seaport of Colberg had failed to take the
city but had reduced it to starvation, and they took up winter quarters in
Pomerania. Frederick withdrew into an entrenched camp in Silesia, where his
enemies refused to risk an attack. Then Frederick was blessed by good luck. On
January 5, Russia's empress, Elizabeth, died. She was succeeded by Peter III, a
33-year-old grandson of Peter the Great on his mother's side, who saw himself as
German, disliked Russia and was a great admirer of Frederick. On February 23 he
declared an end to the war against Frederick. In Brandenburg-Prussia it was seen
as a miracle (to be remembered during World War II - the miracle that Goebbels
and Hitler had in mind when Franklin Roosevelt died in 1945.) Peter put Russia's
armies on the side of Brandenburg-Prussia. Making former allies into enemies and
former enemies into allies in the middle of a war was awkward. But for Sweden it
was an opportunity to abandon a war from which they had lost hope of gains, and
on May 22 the Swedes made peace with Frederick.
On June 28 a military coup overthrew Peter III and placed his wife, Catherine
II, on the throne, and she declared Russia's neutrality. Maria Theresa,
suffering from the loss of Russia as an ally and receiving little help from
France, was also ready for negotiations. Also her military was exhausted and she
was without money. She saw no hope in defeating Frederick and sent him
representatives to discuss an end to the war.
By now the war had also impoverished Great Britain's treasury, and Britain's
political leaders saw the time as right to negotiate. On February 10, 1763,
Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, and on February 15,
Austria and Brandenburg-Prussia signed the Peace of Hubertusburg.
Frederick had successfully defended his hold on Silesia, but Austria had gained
nothing. France lost all of its possessions in the Americas to the British -
except for some small islands in the Caribbean and on the St. Lawrence River. To
the British it also lost its African colony by the Senegal River, and it agreed
to pull out of India. The royal French government was also deeply in debt, which
would contribute to a coming revolution. And the debt of the government of King
George III of Britain would also to lead to conflict - over taxation in his
American colonies.
More Enlightenment in Brandenburg-Prusssia
After the Seven Years' War, Frederick lived modestly while promoting
reconstruction and agriculture and trying to strengthen his rule. Content to
remain an absolute monarch, he called himself the first servant of the state.
Next in line remained his landed nobility - his Junkers - the backbone of his
army and leaders in his government. He left the landed nobility with its
privileges and serfs.
Frederick renewed his friendship with Voltaire, and in a letter to him he wrote
that he wanted to enlighten "my people, cultivate their manners and morals, and
make them as happy as human beings can be, or as happy as the means at my
disposal permit." With others of the Enlightenment he continued to believe in
tolerance, especially the tolerance of his subjects toward one another. But
regarding this he would not be completely happy with the results. To Voltaire in
1771 he would write: "Drive out prejudices through the door, and they will
return through the window."
Frederick transformed the university at Halle into a showplace of Enlightenment.
But it was an enlightenment that he controlled. Professors were state officials
and dependent on the state financially. His realm had few of the wealthy patrons
of the arts that allowed artists and writers independence from government
control. Criticizing Frederick was discouraged. Subversion was not tolerated.
Frederick allowed his subjects freedom of thought and expression in religion and
some other areas. But some were to describe free speech in Brandenburg-Prussia
as amounting to little more than permission to make anti-clerical jokes.
Education for the common people remained poorly developed. Schools were in a
rented room of the home of a pastor or artisan. Often there were no books. Many
parents resented the expense of books and the little money they paid the
schoolmaster. Farming families did not want their children removed from work on
the farms, so in rural areas attendance was poor. During the growing season
there was no attendance. And Frederick allowed the education of peasant children
to consist almost entirely of reading religious manuals and other simple
religious texts.
A few families in Germany were eager to have their children educated, and some
of them were not satisfied with religion as the only subject. Pietism's
opposition to pleasure was declining, and the reading of non-religious books was
rising - in the whole of Germany. In the late 1600s books in Germany had been in
Latin, but by the 1760s only a fourth of the books were in Latin. The most
popular book aside from the Bible was Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. And there
was an appetite for travel books, and some interest in poetry.
Humanism was creeping into some of German life, as was the Enlightenment's
devotion to reason. At least a few theologians were trying to depict everything
in scripture, including miracles, as something that could be accepted not on
faith but from reason. Some intellectuals were opting for Deism, and Biblical
criticism appeared, to some extent as a part of a Pietist tradition of
interpreting the Bible without the authority of church leaders.
The Philosopher Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Following Leibniz, another philosopher arose to notoriety among the Protestant
Germans: Immanuel Kant of Königsberg (in East Prussia), a grandson of a Scottish
immigrant. He had been influenced by Lutheranism, Pietism, the Enlightenment and
Christian von Wolff. He wrote of the courage to use one's own intelligence
rather than blindly accept tradition, and he saw the Enlightenment as liberating
humanity from what he called immaturity.
Like the British empiricists, Kant dwelled on personal experience as the source
of knowledge, but he rejected the skepticism of the latest British philosopher
of note: David Hume. He believed that Hume had gone too far in his skepticism.
He believed that there were limits to what people could know but that by
weighing thoughts in a disciplined manner, people could establish certitudes.
Kant believed that he was uniting philosophy with science. He urged people to
use scientific thinking to understand their own nature and nature outside of
themselves. With such thinking, he claimed, religion could transcend tradition
and dogmatism. Knowledge, he believed, allowed people to know what they should
do. And, without seeing tradition involved in his own thinking, Kant saw
knowledge as the source of proper religion and morality.
The Age of Mozart in Austria
In Austria the age of Amadeus Mozart had arrived. Mozart, the son of a composer,
had been playing the piano since the terrible year of 1759, at the age of three.
At the end of the war, at the age of five, he was already composing his own
music and presenting concerts in cities across Europe.
Austria's empress, Maria Theresa, meanwhile, remained as wedded to absolutism as
Frederick of Brandenburg-Prussia. But, unlike Frederick, she had initiated
reforms, cautiously and gradually reducing the powers of the nobles over their
serfs, and their overall power in her realm - except in Hungary. Faced with the
rise of Brandenburg-Prussia as a rival, she had wanted to make government more
efficient. Her reforms had come in wartime, when her government was in need of
more money, and all classes, including the nobility and the clergy, were to pay
taxes - a "God-willed equality" according to the empress.
Maria Theresa promoted a technical education for her more talented subjects, to
replace amateurs in government service with professional civil servants, to
better solve economic problems and so that the law might function better. And
for the sake of efficient policing, she maintained the practice of torture.
Maria Theresa was devoted to the welfare of all her law-abiding subjects - in
addition to being a devoted mother to her sixteen children. And her subjects
returned that devotion. She welcomed the new public health service which was
associated with the University of Vienna. She was a devout Catholic, but sought
to limit the Papal political influence in her realm, and she moved to bring the
Church under an increasing government control, while the Church held onto its
lands and the serfs upon those lands. The Church continued to do those things
that Maria Theresa believed in: organizing relief for the poor and other welfare
services, running the hospitals and the judiciary. The Church continued to run
the schools, including universities, and to dominate intellectual life through
censorship and its ownership of newspapers.
Maria Theresa approved of an elementary and intermediate education for
unexceptional common people that did not subvert traditional values. She wished
simple people to be left with their simple faith. One of her ministers described
the only purpose in schooling common children as giving them a horror of theft,
lying, drunkenness, ingratitude and other vices.
Maria Theresa's husband, Francis Stephen died in 1765, when she was forty-eight.
She cut her hair and grieved for years, while sharing power with first her son,
Joseph, who as Joseph II succeeded her husband as titular head of the Holy Roman
Empire. In 1780 Maria Theresa died, and Joseph II began liberalizing his
government. He allowed faiths other than Roman Catholic to construct churches
and schools. He abolished the death penalty and torture for extracting
confessions. He allowed marriage by purely civil contract. He freed peasants
from feudal dues, allowed them to marry whom they pleased and to buy land from
their former lords at modest fee. Concerned about doing good he built
orphanages, hospitals and parks. His reforms were resisted in Hungary and the
Austrian Netherlands. And after he died in 1890 he successor, and brother,
Leopold II, began to water down and sometimes cancel his reforms.
Catherine II, Poland and the Crimea
In 1745, a German princess named Sophie Augusta Fredrika, from Anhalt-Zerbst,
married the 17-year-old grandson of Peter the Great, who, seventeen years later,
during the Seven Years' War, became Peter III. In those seventeen years, Sophie
had converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, endured the philandering of and
alienation from her husband and endured isolation and her abject subordination
to her husband's mother - Elizabeth I. Sophie read many books, and she had love
affairs of her own. And a few months after her husband inherited the throne, she
joined a revolt against him, led by one of her lovers. Peter III conveniently
died in prison in mid-July, 1662, and, in November, Sophie was crowned in an
elaborate ceremony in Moscow and became Catherine II.
Catherine II considered herself enlightened. She corresponded with learned men,
including Voltaire. She wished to be a "defender of oppressed innocence," to
spread education and to otherwise reform Russia. She exercised her authority
over the Eastern Orthodox Church - which owned one-third of Russia's
agricultural land and one-third of its serfs. Catherine confiscated much of its
lands and left the church's clergy as state paid functionaries.
Catherine gave up wanting to create an "enlightened" constitution and political
reforms. Wanting to keep all of her power, she joined others in believing that
absolute monarchy was the best form of government - best, she believed, when
done properly. Russian society appeared to her too chaotic for any sharing of
power. But she knew that to rule she had to have the support of a segment of
society that had a collective power of sorts, and to this end she tried to
please the nobility. She released them from the obligation to serve the state
that had been imposed on the nobility by Ivan the Terrible. She extended the
nobility's power over the people living on and working their lands. Under her
rule, serfdom was extended to over a million people who had previously been
freed.
Failing at reform that benefited common people, Catherine sought distraction for
her subjects in the grandeur of imperial expansion. She sought to expand Russian
rule to the Black Sea and to Constantinople, to return Christianity there, and
to free Moldavia and Walachia from the Ottomans. Already she had expanded her
influence in Poland, with the support of her new ally, Frederick the Great.
After Augustus III of Saxony and Poland had died (in 1763), she installed as
king of Poland one of her lovers, Stanislaus Poniatovski, who became Stanislaus
II, Catherine believing that his lack of qualifications for that honor would
make him all the more grateful for his appointment, and therefore more
subservient.
In 1768, Catherine's army pushed southwest from the Dnieper River into the
Balkans, scoring victories and calling on Christians to join them against the
Ottomans. Another Russian force invaded and captured the Crimea. A Russian fleet
sailed from the Baltic Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar and into Ottoman
waters in the Aegean Sea, where, on July 6, 1770, near the island of Chios, they
sank the Turkish navy.
The Russian fleet was unable to do more for the Russian effort following this
victory. The war on land was bogged down, and the Christians in Ottoman lands
had failed to join the Russians. Austria was concerned about Russian expansion
into the Balkans. To allay the hostility of the Habsburgs, Frederick, who was
allied with the Russians, organized an agreement with Russia and Joseph II of
Austria. The three of them were to take lands from Poland. Maria Theresa had
always gone to war for territory that she believed was hers - namely Silesia -
and she objected to her son taking land that did not belong by tradition to the
Habsburgs. But her son, Joseph, had no such objection. In what became known as
the First Partition of Poland, in 1772, the Habsburgs extended their rule into
Galacia, Brandenburg-Prussia received land between Pomerania with East Prussia -
except for the port city of Danzig, and Russia expanded to the W. Dvina River
(near the port city of Riga) and to the Dnieper River, halfway to the city of
Minsk, adding 1.3 million subjects to Catherine's rule.
After the death of the Ottoman Sultan, Mustafa, in July
1774, Ottoman resistance
to the Russians weakened, and the Ottomans were ready to settle with the
Russians. Catherine was facing a peasant uprising that had begun among Cossacks
in the Ural River region, led by Emelian Pugachev. The rising spread to serfs,
miners in the Urals, factory workers, Bashkirs, Tatars and other minorities
within Russia, and to those Christians called Old Believers, and the revolt was
threatening Moscow. Catherine settled with the Ottomans. By the Treaty of Kuchuk
Kainarji, Russia received full possession of Azov and land south to the Kuban
River; Russia's border at the Dniester River shifted westward to the Dnieper
River; Russia acquired land on the coast of the Black Sea: and it acquired a
right of passage through the straits by Constantinople into the Medietranean.
The treaty proclaimed the Tatars of the Crimea autonomous within the Ottoman
Empire. And Moldavia and Walachia remained within the Ottoman Empire.
Catherine sent troops released from the war against the peasant revolt,
Landlords, government officials and army officers eagerly supported Catherine,
and Catherine's army easily defeated the uncoordinated rebel armies. Pugachev
was brought to Moscow in chains and executed in public in an especially cruel
fashion.
In 1783 - three years after Maria Theresa's death at the age of sixty-three -
Catherine annexed the Crimea, and many of the Crimea's Tatars fled to Ottoman
territory. That year, Irakli II of Georgia allied his multi-national state with
Russia, Irakli acknowledging Russian suzerainty and Russia guaranteeing Georgian
independence.
In 1786 - the year that Frederick died - Mozart's comic opera about oppression,
The Marriage of Figaro, appeared. Three years later came the French Revolution.
And two years after that, in the year of his death, at age thirty-five, came
Mozart's other comic opera about oppression: The Magic Flute.
The revolution that swept France frightened Catherine, and she turned against
intellectuals in Russia who sympathized with the revolution. After the
executions of Louis XVI and his wife, Mari Antoinette (daughter of Maria
Theresa) in 1793, Catherine broke off relations with France, proclaimed six
weeks of mourning and welcomed refugees from France.
Also in 1793, Catherine, Joseph of Austria, and Frederick's nephew - Frederick
William II - took advantage of the turmoil in France to confiscate more Polish
lands, in what was called the Second Partition of Poland. In 1794 a national
uprising by the Poles was crushed by the Russians, and, in 1795, Russia, Austria
and Brandenburg-Prussia participated in what was to be known as the Third
Partition of Poland. Brandenburg-Prussia took Warsaw, the Habsburgs took Krakow
and expanded northward along the banks of the Bug River, and Catherine took
Courland, Brest-Litovsk and what was left of Poland.
Catherine was opposed to educating common people, believing that if the
uneducated were educated they would stop obeying.
Catherine died in 1796, at the age of 67, of what was called apoplexy.
