"Frederick the Great as an "Ally"" Topic

After Kolin he wrote to Catt that if he had won, and driven off the Austrians, he would've attacked the French (his supposed allies in Bohemia and against Austria), and crossed the Rhine to attack France itself.

I'm really not sure exactly what his end game was. Weaken everybody to ensure Prussian dominance in Germany? Weaken Bavaria's ally? Drive all of the major powers out of his sphere of influence? Pick off Saxony, Bohemia and Bavaria at his leisure (with Silesia and Moravia as added benefits)? Have himself elected Emperor?

In the SYW hadn't Prussia's treaty with Britain already alienated France and driven them into the Austrian alliance by the war's outbreak? Are you thinking of the French-Prussian alliance in the War of Austrian succession?

Oops, reading about two wars at the same time confuses me.

I should probably put the WAS articles away while I'm reading the SYW books.

Doh!

Fredericks game was simple.

In the War of the Austrian Succession, He wanted to snatch a nice big juicy piece of Austria when the Emperor died and his big boobed blue-eyed blonde bimbo daughter took over. His aim was pretty much the same as everyone except England, who wanted to preserve Austria as a counterweight to Russia, France, and of course Prussia. His allies proved totally inept and he kept dropping in and out as he found out how incompetent they were and the Big Boobed Blue Eyed daughter was no Bimbo.

In the Seven Years War his aim was to stay alive and if he could hold on to some part of Silesia. The Bimbo on the Danube, and the Russian Empress, and Madame Pompadour who ruled Louis XIV who ruled France, had all ganged up on him because the snide insults and satires he said about them had reached their ears.

Pissed of three women? Great maybe but not Smart…

Madame de Pompadour was the mistress of Louis XV (died 1774).

Nations have no friends, just interests…

Did ANYBODY have the same ally in the SYW that they did in the WAS?
Why blame Fritz for inconsistency?

Well, it's called the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, or the Reversal of Alliances, for a reason.

Essentially, the War of Austrian Succession had shown to Britain that Austria was no longer powerful enough to protect Hanover, while its outcome had freed France from the centuries-old fear of encirclement by Habsburg rulers. So Britain made overtures to Frederick's Prussia, which given the colonial rivalry drove France towards an alliance with Austria, emboldening the latter to try and reclaim Silesia.

- So, the Seven Years War could be said to have much less to do with Frederick the Great than many wargamers would like, and much more with young Mr. Washington at Fort Necessity…

"In order that he might rob a neighbour whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel and red men scalped each other by the great lakes of North America."

We can get away with saying slander against Fritz that we cannot with Lee or Napoleon.

Err… Was that Carlyle, Voltaire or Macaulay who said that?

The principle cause of the Seven Years War was the alliance formed against Prussia by Austria, Russia and France. Kaunitz turned Austria's foreign policy on its head to back Frederick into a corner which resulted in his pre emptive invasion of Saxony.
Frederick's end game was to make his state strong and protect it from predatory neighbours, well according to him anyway…

Carlyle, John the OFM.

@ John the OFM;

Methinks the redmen, anyway; would still have been scalping each other by the Great Lakes. In fact the SYW started here before it started in Europe!