ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an alternative perspective on the evolution of the Prussian army from Hubertusberg to Auersadt, a perspective integrating military developments with policy-making. The Prussian army in the years 1763–1806 has generally been depicted as an institution in decline. From the beginning Prussian policy was based on limited commitment to the anti—French coalition. The Seven Years War cast a long shadow. Frederick William was determined to avoid his predecessor's fate of fighting a war for Prussia's existence without reliable allies. Prussia proposed to take as much or as little of this war as it willed—a position facilitated both by relative geographic remoteness from the French threat and by the restricted appeal of revolutionary ideology in Prussian lands. The new lands also significantly improved the links between the monarchy's eastern and western halves. They seemed as well to prove the continued wisdom of Frederick William's foreign policy.
