Episode 1133
First Silesian War
Thu, 2020-Jun-11 01:03 UTC
Length - 2:39
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Thursday, 11 June 2020 is First Silesian War.
The First Silesian War (German: Erster Schlesischer Krieg) was a conflict between Prussia and Austria that lasted from 1740 to 1742 and resulted in Prussia's seizure from Austria of most of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland). 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.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:03 UTC on Thursday, 11 June 2020.
For the full current version of the article, see First Silesian War on Wikipedia.
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