ABSTRACT
The continental conflict Frederick II of Prussia initiated with a preventative war that he imagined would be of short duration and reap Prussia some of the territorial benefits he had secretly dreamed about led to a conflagration that lasted far longer and was far more expensive than any of the belligerents thought likely or even possible in 1756. The war was essentially a continuation of the previous War of the Austrian Succession, and the issues at stake - more bitterly contested than ever before - remained the same as they had been in the 1740s. On the one hand there was the Anglo-French contest for global power and on the other the question remained whether Frederick of Prussia's 1740 grasp for great power status would succeed. The two conflicts overlapped in the continental dimensions of the Anglo-French confrontation, which not only diverted French resources from the colonial conflict, but also protected Prussia from any serious threat to the core provinces of the kingdom coming from the west. On the surface the war on the continent appeared to be a one-sided affair with an imposing coalition virtually surrounding the much smaller Prussian state, but the balance of actual military and financial might was not as disproportionate as a glance at the map might suggest.
