First Silesian War

The First Silesian War was the opening war of the three Silesian Wars between Prussia and the Habsburg monarchy, fought from December 1740 to June 1742 over the rich province of Silesia. Frederick II of Prussia took advantage of the contested succession of Maria Theresa to Habsburg lands and marched an army across the frontier without declaring war, occupying nearly all of Silesia within weeks. The Austrian relief effort was checked at the Battle of Mollwitz in April 1741, and a later Prussian advance into Moravia and Bohemia ended in the narrow Prussian victory at Chotusitz in May 1742. Under British pressure Maria Theresa made peace in the Treaty of Breslau of 11 June 1742, confirmed at Berlin that July, ceding most of Silesia and the County of Glatz to Prussia. The war formed one theatre of the wider War of the Austrian Succession, left Prussia a rising power, and began a rivalry with Austria that shaped German politics for more than a century.