ABSTRACT
On 16 December 1740 Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded Austrian Silesia and began a new era of German history. It is common to write of the events that followed until the end of the old Reich exclusively from the perspective of Austro-Prussian rivalry or “Dualism” squeezing out the “third Germany” of lesser states. Certainly these terr itor ies were politically and militar ily marginalized, but they did not retreat into helpless passivity or turn their backs on the Reich. On the contrary, enthusiasm for the traditional structure grew as Austro-Prussian preponderance increased. Moreover, while Austria and Prussia increasingly disregarded the interests of the others, they did not themselves lose interest in the Reich. Austria saw it as a device to mobilize resources for its particularist intentions, especially to recover Silesia from Prussia and, when this failed, to find alternative compensation elsewhere. Prussia meanwhile came to regard the Reich as a bulwark against Austrian revanchism and as a substitute for international isolation. Foreign powers also remained concerned with the traditional structure, with both France and Russia seeing it as important to their wider security.
