Holy cow, I hadn't realized that Maria Theresia's ascension, er, took quite so long
Oops, we may not have told you that the war Fritz started when he invaded Silesia was called the War of the Austrian Succession and lasted 8 years. Haha. So here's how it goes. Dates are included where relevant to characterization.
May 31, 1740: FW dies, Fritz inherits giant treasury and efficient army.
September 1740: Fritz publishes the Anti-Machiavel, aka "You should totally not break treaties and invade other people's territories just because you can." (Voltaire: "Woohoo!")
October 20, 1740: Maria Theresia's dad dies, leaving her no training, no treasury, and a wobbly army.
October 21, 1740: "Pragmatic Sanction? What pragmatic sanction, that's a WOMAN on the throne, hahaha" #Europe
November 8, 1740: Fritz silently mobilizes Dad's his army without telling anyone what he's up to. (This is the context for the "Can you keep a secret?" "Yes, Your Majesty!" "Well, so can I!" anecdote.)
December 11, 1740: Fritz sends a message to MT demanding she hand him her richest province, Silesia.
December 16, 1740: Fritz invades Silesia without waiting for an answer from MT, without declaring war, without any legal pretext whatsoever other than this.
Sometime later, while he's occupying the province: Fritz tells his people to come up with a legal pretext giving him a historical claim to Silesia. They find one. He says, "Good job!" (Voltaire: "OMGWTFBBQ!!!")
June-July 1742: MT reluctantly says, "Fine, you can keep most of it," thus ending the First Silesian War.
1744-1745: MT and Fritz fight the Second Silesian War, because she's not actually giving up that easily.
1745: MT reluctantly says, "Fine, you can keep it. Asshole." MT still trying to get the Pragmatic Sanction recognized.
1745: Having gotten what he wants, Machiavelli Fritz totally ditches his ally France and leaves France to fight the rest of the war on its own. "See you, suckers!"
1748: MT FINALLY gets the Pragmatic Sanction recognized by Europe, ending the War of the Austrian Succession, but has to acknowledge for the third time that Fritz has Silesia. "For now." *cue ominous music*
June 1756: MT is determined to start the Third Silesian War. She's prepared this time! She's also assisted by the fact that, as described elsewhere, every major neighboring European power is now pissed off at Fritz, for various reasons, e.g. France at being ditched in the last war. Everyone gets sucked into what is going to develop into the Seven Years' War.
The only reason England doesn't also gang up on him is that political considerations take precedence over the King of Prussia being an over-the-top asshole interpersonal relations, and they're kind of already at war with France, etc, etc.
August 1756: Fritz realizes he just got himself into a 3 1/2 front war. What does he do? Invade Saxony before any of his enemies have a chance to realize they've lost the initiative. "Dammit, Fritz!"
September 1756: Fritz tells his people occupying Saxony to seize the state archives and find a legal justification for the invasion.
7 years, some Russian fanboy shenanigans, and numerous near-defeats later...
1763: Fritz gets to keep Silesia.
1772: "That was fun!* Can we divvy up Poland too? Come on, MT, it'll be fun. You, me, and Catherine. What's not to like?"
* He didn't actually say "That was fun," he said, "That war was the worst thing ever, I'd rather have been composing symphonies at home, but I am totally INNOCENT of that war and my enemies forced it on me *cough* and I had responsibilities to the state of Prussia, and maybe this time I can meet some of those expansionist responsibilities with less bloodshed, whaddaya say, Austria and Russia?" TL;DR: "That was fun, would invade an innocent country again!"
No, Fritz wasn't a Nazi, he was one of the most liberal European rulers going at the time, but he diiiid have a very high death toll in his unprovoked expansionist wars at the time, plus he set a two-hundred year very bad Prussian/German precedent for "Invaders keepers!"
Ambivalent legacy is ambivalent.
Oh, hilarious mini-anecdote about liberal Fritz: in 1773, the Pope decided the unpopular Jesuits (an extreme brand of Catholicism) were banned. The response in Catholic countries ranged from "Woohoo!" to "I guess we have to do what the Pope says?" The response of more liberal rulers (Fritz in Prussia, Catherine in Russia, the US) was "Religious tolerance FTW! Come here, Jesuits!"
The response of Old Fritz, now elder statesman of Europe: "I have my realpolitik reasons as well as my Enlightenment reasons (cause I'm Fritz the Great and I can juggle the two like no one's business), but seriously, look at the atheist monarch providing the Catholics a haven from the other Catholics in a Protestant country, THE IRONY, look at how awesome I am, LOL FOREVER *dies laughing*"
ETA: This was one of the anecdotes that made 15-yo me fall in love with Frederick the Great, with the tolerance and the snark being equally important. I had juuust discovered the importance of freedom of speech and freedom of religion (had not yet discovered expansionism was bad, haha), and this was total catnip (along with, as I mentioned, the supposed magnificent bastardy of lulling everyone with Anti-Machiavel and immediately invading Silesia, um, yeah, lol, whoops).
War of the Austrian Succession
Oops, we may not have told you that the war Fritz started when he invaded Silesia was called the War of the Austrian Succession and lasted 8 years. Haha. So here's how it goes. Dates are included where relevant to characterization.
May 31, 1740: FW dies, Fritz inherits giant treasury and efficient army.
September 1740: Fritz publishes the Anti-Machiavel, aka "You should totally not break treaties and invade other people's territories just because you can." (Voltaire: "Woohoo!")
October 20, 1740: Maria Theresia's dad dies, leaving her no training, no treasury, and a wobbly army.
October 21, 1740: "Pragmatic Sanction? What pragmatic sanction, that's a WOMAN on the throne, hahaha" #Europe
November 8, 1740: Fritz silently mobilizes
Dad'shis army without telling anyone what he's up to. (This is the context for the "Can you keep a secret?" "Yes, Your Majesty!" "Well, so can I!" anecdote.)December 11, 1740: Fritz sends a message to MT demanding she hand him her richest province, Silesia.
December 16, 1740: Fritz invades Silesia without waiting for an answer from MT, without declaring war, without any legal pretext whatsoever other than this.
Sometime later, while he's occupying the province: Fritz tells his people to come up with a legal pretext giving him a historical claim to Silesia. They find one. He says, "Good job!" (Voltaire: "OMGWTFBBQ!!!")
June-July 1742: MT reluctantly says, "Fine, you can keep most of it," thus ending the First Silesian War.
1744-1745: MT and Fritz fight the Second Silesian War, because she's not actually giving up that easily.
1745: MT reluctantly says, "Fine, you can keep it. Asshole." MT still trying to get the Pragmatic Sanction recognized.
1745: Having gotten what he wants,
MachiavelliFritz totally ditches his ally France and leaves France to fight the rest of the war on its own. "See you, suckers!"1748: MT FINALLY gets the Pragmatic Sanction recognized by Europe, ending the War of the Austrian Succession, but has to acknowledge for the third time that Fritz has Silesia. "For now." *cue ominous music*
June 1756: MT is determined to start the Third Silesian War. She's prepared this time! She's also assisted by the fact that, as described elsewhere, every major neighboring European power is now pissed off at Fritz, for various reasons, e.g. France at being ditched in the last war. Everyone gets sucked into what is going to develop into the Seven Years' War.
The only reason England doesn't also gang up on him is that political considerations take precedence over
the King of Prussia being an over-the-top assholeinterpersonal relations, and they're kind of already at war with France, etc, etc.August 1756: Fritz realizes he just got himself into a 3 1/2 front war. What does he do? Invade Saxony before any of his enemies have a chance to realize they've lost the initiative. "Dammit, Fritz!"
September 1756: Fritz tells his people occupying Saxony to seize the state archives and find a legal justification for the invasion.
7 years, some Russian fanboy shenanigans, and numerous near-defeats later...
1763: Fritz gets to keep Silesia.
1772: "That was fun!* Can we divvy up Poland too? Come on, MT, it'll be fun. You, me, and Catherine. What's not to like?"
* He didn't actually say "That was fun," he said, "That war was the worst thing ever, I'd rather have been composing symphonies at home, but I am totally INNOCENT of that war and my enemies forced it on me *cough* and I had responsibilities to the state of Prussia, and maybe this time I can meet some of those expansionist responsibilities with less bloodshed, whaddaya say, Austria and Russia?" TL;DR: "That was fun, would invade an innocent country again!"
No, Fritz wasn't a Nazi, he was one of the most liberal European rulers going at the time, but he diiiid have a very high death toll in his unprovoked expansionist wars at the time, plus he set a two-hundred year very bad Prussian/German precedent for "Invaders keepers!"
Ambivalent legacy is ambivalent.
Oh, hilarious mini-anecdote about liberal Fritz: in 1773, the Pope decided the unpopular Jesuits (an extreme brand of Catholicism) were banned. The response in Catholic countries ranged from "Woohoo!" to "I guess we have to do what the Pope says?" The response of more liberal rulers (Fritz in Prussia, Catherine in Russia, the US) was "Religious tolerance FTW! Come here, Jesuits!"
The response of Old Fritz, now elder statesman of Europe: "I have my realpolitik reasons as well as my Enlightenment reasons (cause I'm Fritz the Great and I can juggle the two like no one's business), but seriously, look at the atheist monarch providing the Catholics a haven from the other Catholics in a Protestant country, THE IRONY, look at how awesome I am, LOL FOREVER *dies laughing*"
ETA: This was one of the anecdotes that made 15-yo me fall in love with Frederick the Great, with the tolerance and the snark being equally important. I had juuust discovered the importance of freedom of speech and freedom of religion (had not yet discovered expansionism was bad, haha), and this was total catnip (along with, as I mentioned, the supposed magnificent bastardy of lulling everyone with Anti-Machiavel and immediately invading Silesia, um, yeah, lol, whoops).