Frederick Invades Silesia

December 16, 1740

Without declaration, Prussian columns crossed the Silesian border in December snow. The province was rich, Protestant, and weakly garrisoned; Frederick took it in six weeks. The young king had announced himself by theft. The age of brazen, lightning, aggressive war had arrived on the European stage. Maria Theresa, the young Habsburg queen who inherited the province, never forgave him and spent two decades trying to get it back.