The Eclipse of France
Key words Notes
Bourbon hapburg competiton for the leadership of Euopr. It had
a lot ot do with Kauntiz.
He recognized the needless posotion of the Austrian
neatherlands. Ti as too costly, too expensive and above all
something wanted by the French. And when we offer it to the
French we gain a free hand and we eliminate the aliiance
between France and Prussia and we can regain Silesia.
It ws the british search for security for hanover that clinched the
And it was this deal that outreagous Louis and this caused him to
sign a defensive alliance between the two countries – france and
Austrai. It was this that put Fredrick in the hottest spot above all
Fredrick knew that there would be a war, but he didn’t want to
be caught between them.
Fredirck was fully aware of the implications of the alliance
between France and Austrian. He was also aware that Austrai
woul try to gian Sileiseia.
Time again the Prussians diplomat asked the
First of all h could not comprehend that maria could sit back abd
niot fight for their richesty state.
Secondly he was receiving intelegence informationa that eh
Austraian and france are a foot. Something is up.
Likewise, eh recived some inofrmationa from Saxony. By 1757 all
three are prearing to go to war agasint Prussia.
That thesee three states will eventually go to war
Fredrick is stweeing in his own making. He could not go back to
the French and he was clearly reciving information that these
three states were preparing for war.
He calculated that the longer he waits for a sign fmor France,
Ausrria or Saxony, the more time he was giving the anti-coaltion
tiem to prepare for the war.
Sitting back was impossible for him. Feeling the diplomatic
prrassure eventually forced him to resort to taking matters into
his own hands.
He went back and build his army and by 1756 he sat down
A preemptive strike to preserve the advatages that he had. And
that was a fully mobilized army. This budding anti-purssian
coalition was not prepared. As Fredrick reconked that the faster
he striked he might be able to fight them one by one.
The minutue he came up with this decisions.
He attacks Saxony frst
- Geographic location: berline was only 50 kilometers form the
boarder of Saxony.
- Attacking the habpsburg empire would require him to go through Siliesia and he coulc get trapped there. And therefore
- Also hoped to find evidence of this budding anti-prussian
coalition. He wanted to find eveindece for this anti-pursssian
coalition
-
1756 caught Saxony off guard. In many ways many similar things
happened. By attacking …? He not intitioed a small region of war,
but he intitiated a world wide conflict. Bringing in almost every
state of Europe in a major conflict. So the war was not only for
Austrian, or Prussian survivial. It was also for the survival for the
british an dfrench superiroty on the contitient.
Prussa was fragmented. The main body of Prussia. And the
fragmeneted littler princepalities.
Given the fragmented situation of Prussia meant that it was
always at the mercy of its enemy.
- either to gian more territory
- or.?
Caughint ght esaxons had no military. Hand.
Within five weeks Saxony was run over. It was compelled to
become part of the Prussian army.
And finally the Saxony economy was completely turned over to
foot the bill of the war and the serve the interst of Prussia.
Therefore, from the Prussian point of view it wasn’t soo bad. It
made Prussia far from secure. Even though the attack agasint
Saxony was a successful military campaign, it was terrible
diplomatically.
By attacking Saxony Fredrick created what he wanted to avoid.
An ant-prussian collation. It resulted in to of tehgreated changes.
In St. Petersburg and in Prais
Russia.
- an imperisal council
- a Prussian
- wanted to destroy Prussia. He wanted to do that will British
help. But the British betrayed them.
- Elizabeth dumped the chancouiler, and appointed another
guy who was anti-Prussian and pro-French. Voroonstove
- And this meant that for the first time France and Russia were
on good terms.
Paris:
- Louis dumped Fredrick and signed the trearty of Versailler.
- With the attack against Saxony.
- What louis did was offer Austria support until Silesia was in
their hand.
- He offered no less hten 1 million livre to finance the Austria
war effort. - Offered 100, 000 troops till Prussia was defeated.
Austria
- Kauntiz offered nothing in return
- .
Tremendous mistake on Louis’s part. His main conflict was with
British and not Prussia. Instead of protecting the his colonies and
terriotoes. November 5, 2012
The Eclipse of France Part One:
Key words notes
In the period after the 7 year of war there appeared to be a shift
of power of stragetic gravity towards the eastern part of Europe.
Post 1763 seemed to indicated that the real power of balance had
been shifted to Russia, Prussia and Austria.
External events showed that it were these monathcyes that called
the shots and determined the map and the hierarchy of the
system. For example, the fate of Poland, an independent medium
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