ABSTRACT

On 16 December 1740 Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded Austrian Silesia and began a new era of Ger man history. It is common to wr ite 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 Ger many” of lesser states. Cer tainly these ter r itor ies we re 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 Austr ia and Prussia increasingly disregarded the interests of the others, they did not themselves lose interest in the Reich. Austr ia 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 inter national isolation. Foreign powers also remained concer ned with the traditional structure, with both France and Russia seeing it as important to their wider secur ity.