He is buried in Potsdam, where, in , Napoleon pays him homage. In the late s Frederick began building an extravagant summer palace in Potsdam, near Berlin. Intellectuals traveled from all over Europe to Sanssouci, among them mathematician Pierre-Louis Maupertuis, whom Frederick summoned to head the Berlin Academy.
In the s, he had proven that the world was flattened at the poles, just as Isaac Newton had predicted. By the time Frederick was building Sanssouci, Voltaire was the most famous intellectual in Europe, loved and hated for his stinging attacks on power and his rallying cry for religious freedom and rational thought.
Frederick and his international coterie often dined together, talking late into the night. The atmosphere that he cultivated at Sanssouci reflected his fondness for men and his distaste for women. In a word, Frederick lived without religion, without a council, and without a court.
They took coffee. He to whom the handkerchief was thrown stayed another quarter of an hour in privacy. Enraged, Frederick ordered him put under house arrest in Frankfurt before Voltaire finally made it to safety in Geneva. Following the flight of his most valued philosopher, Frederick threw himself back into military pursuits. At first Frederick won resounding victories, defeating France and Austria at Rossbach in Later that year, at Leuthen, he overcame difficult conditions to beat the Austrian army.
The war later turned against the Prussian sovereign, when Russia occupied Berlin. His army battered, and his state coffers severely depleted, Frederick nevertheless battled back to retake lost territory, creating the impressive reputation for Prussian military resilience.
Having proved his leadership, Frederick kept faith with his Enlightenment ideals until the end of his reign. Frederick the Great.
Peter Paret trans. Dennis E. The Wars of Frederick the Great. London: Longman, Richard M. New York: Holt, Podcast Mount Vernon Everywhere! Jamie Slaughter University of Wolverhampton Notes: 1. Ibid, Federick the Great. The War of the Austrian Succession — escalated and eventually involved most of the powers of Europe.
France and Prussia were allied with the Electorate of Bavaria. Frederick occupied Silesia except for three fortresses at Glogau, Brieg and Breslau.
With Prague under threat, the Austrians pulled their army out of Silesia to defend Bohemia. When Frederick pursued them into Bohemia and blocked their path to Prague, the Austrians attacked him in May The Prussian Cavalry proved to be a powerful force and ultimately Prussia claimed victory.
Frederick forced the Austrians to seek peace with him in the First Silesian War — On June 4, , Frederick trapped a joint force of Saxons and Austrians that had crossed the mountains to invade Silesia. After allowing them to cross the mountains, Frederick then pinned the enemy force down and defeated them at the Battle of Hohenfriedberg.
Frederick strongly suspected that the Austrians who had subdued Bavaria but were still at war with France would resume war with Prussia in an attempt to recover Silesia. Accordingly, he renewed his alliance with the French and preemptively invaded Bohemia in Thus the Second Silesian War — began. Under the terms of the Treaty of Dresden, signed in December , Austria was forced to adhere to the terms of the Treaty of Breslau giving Silesia to Prussia.
Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Enlightened Despots. Search for:. Frederick the Great and Prussia. Learning Objectives Explain who the Hohenzollerns were and the progression of their relationship with and status within the Holy Roman Empire. The family arose in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century.
The family split into two branches, the Catholic Swabian branch and the Protestant Franconian branch, which later became the Brandenburg-Prussian branch. It played a pivotal role in the history of Germany and Central Europe. The electors of Brandenburg spent the next two centuries attempting to gain lands to unite their separate territories and form one geographically contiguous domain.
Prussia, unlike Brandenburg, lay outside the Holy Roman Empire. It became part of the German Empire in during the Prussian-led unification of Germany. The fees were often lands or revenue-producing real property held in feudal land tenure.
It differs from a federation in that each constituent state has an independent government, whereas a unitary state is united by a central government. Its ruler does not need to be a hereditary monarch. Frederick the Great In his youth, Frederick the Great was a sensitive man with great appreciation for intellectual development, arts, and education. He was brought up by Huguenot governesses and tutors and learned French and German simultaneously. Frederick found an ally in his sister, Wilhelmine, with whom he remained close for life.
When he was 18, Frederick plotted to flee to England with his close friend Hans Hermann von Katte and other junior army officers. The king forced Frederick to watch the decapitation of Katte. He had little in common with his bride and resented the political marriage. His goal was to modernize and unite his vulnerably disconnected lands, which he largely succeeded at through aggressive military and foreign policies.
Key Terms enlightened absolutism : Also known as enlightened despotism or benevolent absolutism, a form of absolute monarchy or despotism inspired by the Enlightenment. The monarchs who embraced it followed the participles of rationality. Some of them fostered education and allowed religious tolerance, freedom of speech, and the right to hold private property. They held that royal power emanated not from divine right but from a social contract whereby a despot was entrusted with the power to govern in lieu of any other governments.
His own views reflect a largely Enlightenment ideal of rational and benevolent statesmanship: the king, Frederick contends, is charged with maintaining the health and prosperity of his subjects. Although the work advises princes how to tyrannize, Machiavelli is generally thought to have preferred some form of free republic.
Frederick as Crown Prince by Antoine Pesne, Prussia Under Frederick the Great Frederick the Great significantly modernized Prussian economy, administration, judicial system, education, finance, and agriculture, but never attempted to change the social order based on the dominance of the landed nobility.
Key Takeaways Key Points Frederick the Great helped transform Prussia from a European backwater to an economically strong and politically reformed state. Frederick organized a system of indirect taxation, which provided the state with more revenue than direct taxation.
Frederick gave his state a modern bureaucracy, reformed the judicial system, and made it possible for men not of noble stock to become judges and senior bureaucrats.
Frederick II took the throne on May 31, , and immediately launched an unprovoked attack on the Austrian region of Silesia in what is now southwestern Poland , triggering the eight-year War of Austrian Succession. With an army drilled to perfection by his late father, Frederick annexed and held Silesia and invaded Bohemia with an army of , He was driven back in Bohemia, but a series of quick Austrian defeats in led to treaty negotiations.
He liberalized control of the press and supported a moderate level of religious freedom. He worked to economically consolidate Prussia, lowering internal duties, building canals to encourage trade and enacting protective tariffs. Frederick built up Berlin as a cultural capital with grand buildings and rejuvenated the scientific work of the Berlin Academy. In the years of war that followed, Frederick racked up daring tactical victories, but often at great cost to the dwindling Prussian forces.
He ordered the development and colonization of unused land in his expanded kingdom, and introduced the turnip and potato as major food crops. As Frederick aged his Enlightenment values increasingly mixed with cynicism and suspicion.
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