Frederick the Great

Don’t forget your great guns, which are the most respectable arguments of the rights of kings.

Frederick II was King of Prussia from 1740-1786. Prussia at the time consisted of a few scattered territories across central Europe, and in some respect was in a rut. Frederick’s father though left his son a well disciplined and ferocious military and lots of money to spare. At the time Prussia had only one significant ally, who was Great Britain and though a significant power, he intended to take Prussia to new levels of glory. He invaded Austria unprovoked and annexed a region known as Silesia causing the conflict known as the War of Austrian Succession. Now of course he did not blindly invade, but he was merely opportunistic seeing turmoil in Austria. The war after many defeats by the Austrians ended with a treaty ceding the land to Prussia. After the conflict Frederick focused on domestic policies. He was very attuned to the ideas circulating at this age of the Enlightenment and many of these policies followed suit for example he began to create a uniform justice system and a ban on torture. He also gave more freedom to the press and granted a certain level of religious tolerance. Economically, he worked to unify the country with the promotion of trade by infrastructure expansion such as canals and lower duties internally.

Additionally, he revived the Berlin Academy’s scientific work and fashioned Berlin into a cultural center once more. Just at the start of the Seven Years War seeing the alliances tangled Frederick preemptively attacked Savoy. During the course of this conflict Prussia fought battles on multiple fronts winning many tactical victories, but slowly their forces began to experience attrition. The conflict ended in more of a stalemate fashion for Prussia when Russia withdrew in 1762. Once the war ended, Frederick could continue his reform of domestic policy. He created ministries to do micromanagement, called for colonialism of Prussia’s new lands, and he introduced potatoes and turnips as new major food crops in the economy.

Frederick the Great is still till this day considered a brilliant military leader. He set the precedent of great military strength. In fact, Napoleon visited his tome in 1806 after defeating the Prussian army; he has definitely had many admirers including Hitler who hid Frederick’s body in a mine when the allies were pressing on to Berlin. He also had artistic and intellectual aspirations, which are why even more it seems he had many works of art, bought and revamped the rationality and cultural centers of Prussia. Ironically, he wrote a philosophical dissertation on why Machiavelli exposition was wrong before becoming king only to become that very devious refined, autocrat described in Machiavelli’s work. Frederick the Great made Prussia great and powerful.