Frederick II of Prussia, a brilliant strategist and enlightened despot, vaulted a middling German state to the level of a major eighteenth-century European military and trading power. (Library of Congress)
Frederick II of Prussia’s brilliant strategy and enlightened despotism vaulted a middling German state to the level of a major eighteenth-century European power.
Frederick II became king in 1740 following the death of his father, Frederick William I. He rapidly increased the size of the Prussian military and expanded his nation’s borders. The new king took advantage of the War of Austrian Succession when the Austrian king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI died, leaving his daughter Maria Theresa to inherit the Hapsburg holdings. While Maria Theresa fought off various claimants to the Hapsburg lands, including Philip V of Spain, Frederick quickly invaded and then captured Silesia in a mere seven weeks. The War of Austrian Succession ended with the election of Maria Theresa’s husband, Francis, as the Holy Roman emperor and then king of Austria, while Frederick retained control of Silesia. Frederick again used the element of surprise, quickly attacking and adding portions of Saxony to his kingdom. The Prussian king later fought Russia under Catherine the Great and Peter III without winning any great victories, but by maintaining his borders against Russia’s colossal armies he established himself as a great military leader of the eighteenth century.
Frederick II of Prussia, a brilliant strategist and enlightened despot, vaulted a middling German state to the level of a major eighteenth-century European military and trading power. (Library of Congress)
Frederick was the essential enlightened despot. As a young prince, he respected everything French and adopted French mannerisms, including a healthy respect for its monarchy and military, shaping his own after the Gaelic model, after ascending the throne. Frederick befriended the greatest philosopher of the age, Voltaire, who tutored the young prince in philosophy and gave him the moniker Frederick the Great for abolishing torture and reopening the academies his father had closed in his quest for frugality.
Frederick wrote essays attacking the Germany of Frederick William I as fatally divided into small independent states. In these essays, many of which were written before he ascended the throne, he declared that Austria was dangerous to the hegemony of Prussia, but provided both a necessary barrier against the militant Turks and a neighbor friendly to trade.
Frederick built a healthy Prussian economy based on military might. He believed that people became exceedingly lazy and prone to decadence in time of peace and stated that a policy of war provided gainful employment for those who would otherwise burden the state. When not involved in large-scale war, Frederick fueled the economy with massive building projects, including elaborate road and canal systems. When the combined might of the Austrian and Russian armies defeated Prussia in the Seven Years’ War, Frederick returned to his homeland defeated, but with his empire intact. Because of Frederick’s leadership and economic planning, Prussia emerged the best equipped of all continental European countries to rebuild. Frederick began a public assistance program to rebuild Prussia and ushered in an era of industrialization. Frederick II is remembered by the world as a military genius and by his own people as a caring sovereign and a hero of the poor.
Michael J. Alberts
See also: Wars for Empire.
Van Cleve, Thomas Curtis. The Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, Immutator Mundi. Oxford: Clarendon, 1972.