Before the Seven Years War, the alliance system had a vast change. France and Austria had formed a defensive alliance, which later was joined by Russia and Sweden, against Prussia and England. Through the signing of the Treaty of Westminster on January 16, 1756, an Anglo-Prussian alliance was also established. Though the anti-Prussian alliance had secretly planned on attacking Prussia, no official document was signed, hence there was no evidence of this declaration of war. Yet afraid of being attacked, Frederick the Great, the king of Prussia, took the initiative and invaded Saxony on August 29, 1756, turning the defensive anti-Prussian alliance into an operative offensive alliance. This marked the start of the Seven Years War. For Prussia, …show more content…
The oblique order is when the military commander concentrates most of the troops to attack one flank of the opposing army so that he or she would have an area of population advantage in order to defeat the opponent headstrong and slowly defeat other parts of the opponent later. The concept of this strategy is that even if Frederick the Great failed to defeat the enemy state at the edge of the border, he would be able to prevent the enemy from merging with another enemy state and, therefore, would be able to eliminate a greater military encounter with united troops. Frederick secretly concentrated most of his military power in the right wing while he kept the rest of the army in the left wing, and then he sent misleading messages to the French and lured them to attack the left flank of the Prussian army. After French troops made their move and attacked the left flank into the trap set by the Prussians, the Allied army walked into the plain between the hidden Prussian army and the Saar river. This allowed Frederick to order the army to surround the Allies and ended the battle with a great victory. According to Duffy: “The Prussians had suffered a total of 548 casualties in la bataille amusante, but the allies lost 5,000 dead or wounded in the battle, and a further 5,000 who were captured afterward or delivered up by …show more content…
Not satisfied with the outcome from the Battle of Rossbach, particularly because there was no territorial change, Frederick launched another battle against the Austrian army in the town named Leuthen. Frederick used again the oblique order to shorten the military power in his left wing and secretly ordered troops to surround Austrian troops. This operational decision brought Prussians another military success as well as territorial expansion. The outcome of this battle was critical. Austria surrendered about seventeen thousand troops as prisoners to Prussia and left the battlefield with sixty-three hundred wounded soldiers and a total loss of twenty-two thousand troops. Prussia regained Silesia from Austria and reestablished her military status in the European continent. The Battle of Rossbach and the Battle of Leuthen together marked the turning point for Frederick the Great and Prussia. The regain of Silesia pushed Austrian force back to Bohemia and made the situation better for Frederick and encouraged him to fight harder. His operational skills and innovative ways of attack shown in both battlefields were essential to Prussia’s overall survival in the Seven Years
The focus of this study is the effect that Otto Von Bismarck's leadership and politics had on Pre-World War One tensions in Europe. This study investigates to what extent the actions of Otto Von Bismarck led to World War One. The focus of this study is the period between Bismarck's appointment to Minister President of Prussia on September 23, 1862 and the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Bismarck's earlier career is discussed briefly but only as a method to understand his political attitudes. And similarly, as Bismarck was removed from office in 1890, the only events discussed between 1890 and 1914 will be based off of policies instilled by Bismarck, not those of Wilhelm II.
Before Frederick took charge Prussia was not a country. It was broken into separate territories. France and England had become very powerful in the 1600's and Prussia felt endangered. Frederick's father Frederick the I was the elector of Prussia. When Frederick came to power his goal was to make Prussia a country. He believed that good government was rational but also authoritarian. Frederick was the first modern organizer. He put most of the country's wealth intro the military. He believed that the key to a country's wealth was through its military. 80% of Prussia's income went to the military. Prussia selected people for the military through the draft. Eventually Frederick died and left the kingdom to his son. Frederick the great was left with a 72,000 person military. This was a great deal of people for such a little country. Prussia only had 2,000,000 people.
The Seven Years War was best known to those in American history as the French and Indian war. In reality, the war was much larger in scope and devastation in relation to the simple name given to it. Lasting from 1756-1763, the Seven Years War involved much of the imperial powers of that time: Prussia, England, and Portugal on one side with France, Spain, and Austria on the other. Spurred by competition for land and territory, the war implicated the two world powers, Britain and France, in a fateful battle for dominance. The period also saw the rise of important figures such as George Washington and Benedict Arnold that would later be instrumental in the American Revolution.
Frederick II, the Great was the King of Prussia from 1740-1786, he was the successor of his father Frederick William I (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Catherine the Great was married to Peter III and the Empress of Russia during the years of 1762-1796 (Kishlansky, Geary and O'Brien). Even though they were both leaders that made lasting changes for their countries they had different methods of ruling, making different contributions along with mistakes. The following paragraphs will give more detail about the accomplishments and failures of both leaders.
Frederick the Great of Prussia and Joseph II of Austria adopted the newfound ideas of the Enlightenment to different extents with Frederick the Great advancing the ideas by implementing religious toleration, freedom of speech and press, and setting a single code of laws for all of his subjects and not advancing them by not abolishing serfdom for fear of upsetting the “Junkers”, or Prussian nobility; Joseph II advanced the ideas of the Enlightenment eagerly by completely abolishing serfdom paying no heed to what it could cause socially and politically and he didn’t advance these ideas in the end because his many reforms caused alienation of the church and nobility and radical changes in social hierarchy.
Britain obtained Prussia as her ally, but you might ask, why? Surely you can’t fuel Frederick’s massive army any more? Pitt the Elder argued though that while true...
The war was the result of a succession dispute over the Spanish crown. What was seemingly a Prussian-Spanish alliance made the French feel encircled. Bismarck was able to entice Napoleon III into quick, aggressive action through the manipulation of Ems Telegram. This prompt action from Napoleon III led to growing anti-French and pro-German sentiment and led to the southern German states aiding the Prussian cause. William Carr has argued that South Germany’s involvement in Prussia’s cause meant that they had to come to terms with the new political situation. Although numerous southern states were reluctant to join the German Confederation, Bismarck therefore had to make numerous concessions. None the less the German Empire was born on the 18th January 1871. Harry Hearder argues that the North German Confederation already signified a unified German State. The declaration of the German Empire in 1871 re-emphasized the creation of a unified Germany and included the southern states. This would suggest that the Seven Weeks War with Austria had more significance in the eventual unification of
Frederick II, later known as Frederick the Great, was born on January 24, 1712. He was born to the powerful Prussian monarch King Frederick William I and his wife Princess Dorothea of Hanover. Frederick II, was born destined to become a powerful military leader. In his early childhood, Frederick II hated the life of a soldier. His father was very strict in all aspects of Frederick's life. He insisted in a strict military education for his son. Frederick was simply not interested in a military lifestyle as a child. He was more interested in the arts, literature and music. These obsessions bothered King Frederick. He forbade Frederick's tutors from teaching the young Prince Latin, but Frederick took it upon himself to study the classics and Latin on his own in secret.
After the American defeat at Brandywine, George Washington was determined to win a battle. Major General William Howe had set up camp at Germantown, Pennsylvania, with Major General Lord Cornwallis not far behind in Philadelphia. Washington and his staff created a rather skillful and thorough plan that was challenging to carry out with an untrained army. The plan was this: to surround the British camp in a double envelopment, which is a military tactic, where the flanks of the opposing army are attacked simultaneously in a pinching motion. After the opposing army has moved forward, two more units move in to stop any attempts of reinforcements reaching the targeted unit. Unfortunately, this battle was doomed from the start. There was an extreme blanket of fog on the morning of October 4th, 1777, and gun smoke in the air did not make it any easier. The battle of Germantown was one that was ill-fated from the beginning and continued to be so until the end (Purcell 1) (Lancaster 1).
While the alliances were being formed Britain decided to stay a neutral country and not take sides or interfere with the war. Germany, although, got them to change their minds. The German army created a plan that was believed to be able to take down Russia and France in one battle. This plan was called the Schlieffen Plan, named after the general who created it, General Alfred von Schlieffen. The plan was to first move toward the French army since Russia's army mobilizes quite slowly then to quickly turn around and move towards the Russian army. In order to follow this plan through, the German army had to pass through Belgium. However Belgium had signed a treaty guaranteeing neutrality.
Armies of the day aligned their forces in long linear formations that once in place, where very difficult to control. The oblique order was a version of a flank attack in which Frederick II would fix one end of the enemy formation and then flank an assaulting force around with deadly effect.
There are many reasons why World War One occurred in 1914, many are complex and remain controversial which is why the matter has been disputed to this day by historians all over the world. My theory is that a lot of those reasons and the trigger factor all links to one thing; the alliance system. The alliance system is what made countries oppose each other and become rivals making it the most significant factor. It had an impact on who supported who when Duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. This was only the spark that started war in Europe; there were long term causes that contributed to the war and were the origins. This answer will explain the causes focusing on how they contributed to World War One and what the important links are between them.
The alliance system ideated by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck kept peace in Europe but its main aim was, however, to forestall the possibility that, in the event of war, Germany would have to fight it on two fronts (basically France and Russia). This was achieved by diplomatically isolating France so that its dream of recapturing its lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine couldn't be fulfilled. This was done by, firstly, the creation of the League of the Three Emperors or Dreikaiserbund. It was first projected as a meeting of the monarchs of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia in 1872 and confirmed the following year, the 22nd of October 1873. Here, the very general and formless agreement was given a more solid form by military agreements promising to help any country attacked by a fourth party. And all this even though that there was mutual rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary in the Balkans. This proved to be a concrete way to isolate France for as E. Eyck mentions, "the League ensured that neither Austria-Hungary nor Russia was available as an ally for France". At this point, Bismarck didn't consider Britain as a potential French ally as they had a long history of rivalry. Secondly, in 1887 the Reinsurance Treaty was signed with Russia in which it promised to support Russia's claims to the strait and to remain neutral in the event of war unless it attacked Austria-Hungary, the same with Russia, who promised to remain neutral unless it attacked France.
In his essay The Shadow Scholar, Ed Dante peels back a layer of the onion that organized academic fraud has become. His aim, he says, is to “initiate a conversation” (p.474) about why cheating is as prevalent and lucrative as he claims it to be. Citing a New York Times article, he says that up to 61 percent of undergraduate students have admitted to committing some sort of academic fraud (cheating) on required coursework, and if that is the case, it’s a conversation that should be entertained by everyone who has a stake in education, from elementary school students and teachers all the way up to the presidents and deans and provosts of the nation’s colleges and universities.
Bismarck's Foreign Policy „Versuche zu Dreien zu sein, solange die Welt durch das un sunny“ Gleichweighed the five Großmächten bestimmt! “ This was the general formula of Bismarck’s foreign policies meaning “When there are. five great powers be one of three. “ The five great powers at that time. were France, England, Russia, Austria-Hungary and the new United States.