Frederick the Great

Frederick II of Prussia, known as Frederick the Great, was born on 24 January 1712 in Berlin and ruled as King of Prussia from 31 May 1740 until his death, transforming a modest state into a major European power through a combination of military command and battlefield theory drawn from his own extensive campaign experience. His defining military achievement was the conquest of Silesia, seized from Austria in the First Silesian War of 1740 to 1742, a gain that nearly doubled Prussia's population and increased its territory by a third and helped make Prussia the fifth and smallest of Europe's great powers. He fought two further wars against Austria over the same territory, and from 1756 to 1763 led Prussia through the Seven Years' War against a coalition of Austria, Russia and France, a conflict in which Prussia's survival against much larger combined forces became a defining episode of his military reputation. In 1772 he took part in the First Partition of Poland, annexing territory that let him drop the qualified title King in Prussia for King of Prussia outright. He died on 17 August 1786 in Potsdam.