How Did Frederick The Great Influence Prussia

Frederick the Great and his Impact on Prussia Although Germany has had several interesting rulers, possibly the one man who led it on the path to greatness was Frederick II, who ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786, He was primarily known as a military and tactical genius, although he was a patron of the arts and Enlightenment ideals as well. Due to his military acumen, his modern Enlightenment-esque ideas, and his unprecedented (at the time) reforms, Frederick the Great was the man who turned Prussia into a great power. Frederick was born on January 24th, 1712. His father, King Frederick William I, was a violent and militaristic man who would frequently be abusive toward his son ; however, the younger Frederick’s mother was charming and well-educated.
Even his father was amazed by his new ‘enthusiasm’ for the duties of a soldier. He had always been and would always be a patron of the arts, but this added a new angle to his character; military brilliance. After Frederick II’s father died, Frederick II became king, and he aimed to get Austria’s Silesia, a very good province. Austria refused, and so he brought his troops in there in 1740 and ended up causing what came to be known as the First and Second Silesian Wars - which made up the War of Austrian Succession. In the second Silesian War, Austria tried to get it back, but Frederick won again and this time, he kept Silesia. He managed to win a province wealthy with resources when an entire country was against him, and won twice. After the Truce of Klein Schnelledorf, Prussia fully controlled Silesia. Some years later, with the help of France and Russia, Austria tried again to get Silesia back. Frederick plunged headfirst into the Seven Years’ War in order to defend his province, and while he had a pattern of loss and gain in terms of territory, he showed his brilliance in tactics by using the inherent disunity of his enemies to his advantage, and his army’s discipline led to the use of more brilliant tactics such as marching in different directions and uniting at the beginning of a battle, and