Frederick the Great

Frederick II succeeded his father, Frederick William I, in 1740. He wanted to make Prussia a major power. Taking advantage of the crisis created when Maria Theresa's succession to the Hapsburg throne was disputed, Frederick seized the Austrian province of Silesia. This action touched off the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48). In the end, Frederick kept Silesia.

Recognizing Prussia as a dangerous rival, Austria formed an alliance with France, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony. Frederick signed a treaty with Great Britain and in 1756 invaded Saxony, launching the Seven Years' War (1756-63). Prussia was facing defeat when Russia suddenly pulled out of the war, allowing Frederick to negotiate a peace settlement in which he neither gained nor lost any territory. In 1772 he joined Russia and Austria in the first partition of Poland, gaining a strip of territory along the Baltic that geographically united the two parts of Prussia.

While Austria and Prussia had been increasing their dominions, western Germany had been splintering into ever smaller political units. By the late 1700's there were more than 300 states and almost 1,500 princely estates—a total of nearly 1,800 independent sovereign territories.