France's war with England in Europe (part of the Seven Years' War) began with a French expedition against the island of Minorca, which belonged to the British; Richelieu was appointed commander of the expedition, because King Louis XV was pleased to elevate this most trusted servant of his, and the Marquise pompadour it was a pleasure to remove a person dangerous to her from Paris. Richelieu received a command with unusually extensive powers. The British were deceived by false equipment for an expedition to the North Sea and by threats of landings in England. But with the depravity of the French court, even a military expedition was considered simply entertainment and fun: with Richelieu, a lot of nobles and hundreds of seven or eight women went to travel at public expense (in April 1756).

The English garrison on Minorca was very weak and could not defend the island without reinforcements, and the London Admiralty was late in sending the fleet, so bing, the commander of this fleet, no longer had time to prevent the landing of the French. Moreover, Byng's fleet consisted of only ten ships, very bad and poorly armed. The English garrison defended with glory for two months, but was forced to surrender, because Byng, having met the French fleet at Minorca, did not dare to give battle, preferring caution to boldness, against the principle of the English sailors. Thanks to this, the French began the Seven Years' War with a victory: they captured Minorca and, in addition, they could boast that the British for the first time avoided a naval battle with a fleet that slightly exceeded their fleet in the number of ships. The English nation was irritated by the loss of Minorca and the admiral's course of action. The Ministry donated Byng; it brought him to court-martial, received a death sentence against him, and hanged the admiral. The French, on the other hand, rejoiced; Voltaire and other writers extolled the heroism of Richelieu, who, on this expedition, was just as shamefully squandering state money and abusing power as before in Genoa.

From Minorca, he returned to Paris to beg for himself the main command over the army appointed in Germany, but he was too late: d "Estre has already been promoted to commander-in-chief. However, the army itself, for which the commander was already ready, had not yet been assembled - a rather original fact. The Austrians were also not yet ready to start the fight. It is true that before the start of the Seven Years' War they fielded two armies in Bohemia, but these armies did not yet have either cavalry or artillery, or the most necessary military supplies. Therefore, the powers that had entered into an alliance against Prussia would probably have spent much more time in mere preparations for war. But the Prussian king, having learned that he was being prepared against him, secretly prepared his army for the campaign and on August 29, 1756 suddenly invaded Saxony from three sides. Thus began the Seven Years' War on the Continent.

Frederick II the Great of Prussia - protagonist of the Seven Years' War

When Frederick invaded Saxony, the first minister of this state, Brühl, withdrew his army to Pirne, on the Bohemian border. The Saxon army was so reduced by Brühl that it had only 7,000 men; in Pirna she took a strong position, but suffered a lack in everything. The entire Saxon court, except for the queen and princesses, also moved to Pirna. September 9, the Prussians entered Dresden. They immediately broke down the doors of the secret archive, despite the personal resistance of the queen, and took the original documents there, copies of which were delivered to Friedrich Menzel. These papers did not at all prove that alliance of Saxony with other powers for the destruction of Prussia, about which Frederick spoke; therefore they could not justify his attacks on Saxony; but it was justified by the need to defend himself, in which Frederick was really placed.

At the news of the beginning of the Seven Years' War and the Prussian invasion of Saxony, the Austrian commander Broun hurried to Pirna with the strongest of the two armies assembled by the Habsburgs in Bohemia. He wanted to rescue the Saxons locked up in Pirna. Friedrich went out to meet him, and on October 1, 1756, under Lobozitz there was a battle; it was unfavorable for the Austrians, and they retreated. Frederick established himself in Saxony. The Saxons remained shut up in Pirn, suffered a shortage of provisions, and therefore could not wait for the Austrians to come to their rescue again; they surrendered. The most difficult condition for them was that Frederick forced them to enter the Prussian service. With Saxony, Friedrich acted very harshly throughout the Seven Years' War. He constantly took heavy indemnities from its inhabitants; for example, the city of Leipzig paid 500,000 thalers in 1756, and another 900,000 thalers in the first three months of the following year. Young Saxon settlers were forced to serve against their sovereign, and if any of them fled from this compulsion, his relatives were punished for him with a fine. The Elector with Count Brühl fled to his Polish kingdom. Frederick did not find it convenient to transfer the war to Bohemia, because winter was already approaching. Another Prussian army, under the command Schwerin, which entered Bohemia from Silesia, also retreated.

Seven Years' War in 1757

Brown could take advantage of the winter to finish equipping his army, while another Austrian commander, Daun, meanwhile was gathering new troops. Thus, in the spring of 1757, Austria could put up very large forces against the Prussians. But fortunately for Frederick, Broun, a good general, was subordinate to Prince Charles of Lorraine, although the prince had already sufficiently proved his ineptitude in the War of the Austrian Succession.

The French and Russians also equipped their troops for the continuation of the Seven Years' War. The French promised subsidies to the Swedish oligarchs, and Sweden announced that, as one of the powers that guaranteed the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, it should stand up for Saxony and avenge Frederick with an armed hand. But it was a long time before Sweden took part in the Seven Years' War: the Swedish oligarchs spent the money they received on the war from the French, not on the war at all. The first French army under the command of d "Estre crossed the Rhine at Düsseldorf on April 4, 1757. The second army gathered in Alsace under the command of Richelieu. The third was commanded by Prince de Subise, also one of Louis and Pompadour's close associates; he was supposed to join the German imperial army when the imperial Sejm of Regensburg declares the King of Prussia guilty of violating the imperial peace and beginning Seven Years' War.

Seven Years' War. Map

Imperial Diet This time he made the decision faster than usual. Saxony appealed to the emperor and the empire with a complaint against Prussia in September 1756, and three months later the matter was already decided. The Diet did not declare Frederick an enemy of the empire, as his opponents demanded: the Protestant members of the empire did not agree to this; but the empire promised the emperor armed assistance to restore the exiled elector of Saxony and to protect the Austrian empress, whose Bohemian possessions were attacked (January 17, 1757). The Prussian envoy to the Sejm allowed himself to be treated like a street tramp by a notary who announced to him the decision of the Sejm. North Germany protested against this decision; the princes and dukes of Lippe, Waldeck, Hesse-Kassel, Brunswick, Gotha and the Elector of Hanover found it more profitable to take money from England and join their troops with the English army sent to Westphalia than to pay a tax for the maintenance of the imperial army and send their own contingents to it. The German Empire and its sovereigns generally played a sad and shameful role during the Seven Years' War. Most of the German sovereigns were on the payroll of France.

This is proved in the most detailed and irrefutable way by the official list of secret expenses of the French government under Louis XV, or the so-called Red Book, promulgated during the revolution of 1789-1794. It shows, for example, that the Duke of Württemberg received 1,500,000 livres before the Seven Years' War, and 7,500,000 livres during the war; Elector of the Palatinate - before the war 5,500,000, during the Seven Years' War more than 11,000,000 livres; Bavaria was given up to 1768 about 9,000,000, and the same amount to Saxony up to 1763; the rulers of Lüttich, Mecklenburg and Nassau-Saarbrücken received, all together, about 3,000,000; Austria was paid 82,500,000 livres from 1767 to 1769. Even the Duke of Brunswick received from France in 1751-1756. 2,000,000, although he was in close alliance with England and, at every opportunity, profited at the expense of the British. We see that even Protestant sovereigns could not resist the temptation of French money: this is a very characteristic feature of those times, especially since the pope publicly said that he considered the war with Prussia a religious war. He proved the sincerity of his words, firstly, by openly giving the Catholic states permission to impose taxes on the clergy for the war with Prussia, and secondly, by sending a consecrated hat and a consecrated sword to the Austrian general Daun, who defeated the Prussians near Gochkirch, in 1758.

Until the summer of 1758, the British did nothing for Frederick, although he defended the cause of freedom and Protestantism. There were many changes in their ministry after they left it (in November 1755) Pitt Senior and Ledge. The reasons for this were the failures in Minorca and North America, as well as the fact that Pitt and Ledge defended in Parliament principles contrary to the interests of the king and his son, the Duke of Cumberland, who was expected to be the commander of the army assigned to Germany: Pitt and Ledge rebelled against the increase in the national debt and the continental policy of the ministry; only in July 1757 was a ministry formed that could hold firm. Pitt was its head, with whom Ledge entered the ministry; their companions were the Duke of Newcastle and Charles Fox who later received the title of lord Holland. In his plans for conquest in North America and the East Indies, Pitt saw fit to enter into a close alliance with Prussia; this finally ended the strife of the English parties on matters of foreign policy. But even here Frederick had not yet received energetic help from the British; they only began helping him the following year. In 1757, almost alone, he had to fight against all his many opponents in the Seven Years' War.

In the spring of 1757 he invaded Bohemia; the Austrians themselves gave him the upper hand, laying down the defensive system in the Seven Years' War, despite the objections of the experienced and intelligent Brown; they were forced to retreat at all points, and Frederick took possession of their rich shops. They decided to join the battle only when he began to seriously threaten Prague. Then under Prague there was a bloody battle on May 6, 1757; the loss on both sides is said to have amounted to 20,000 men. The battle ended in the defeat of the Austrians; 12,000 of their troops were captured. Another important misfortune for them was that Brown received a mortal wound here. But the victory cost Friedrich dearly, because he lost Schwerin, whose noble self-sacrifice decided victory. After this defeat, 40,000 Austrians were locked up in Prague. They seemed to face the fate that the Saxons suffered at Pirna, because they also had neither provisions nor heavy artillery. But fortunately for them, the entire right wing of their reserve army escaped and managed to link up with the main army, which was commanded by Daun. Friedrich went to meet Daun in order to throw him back and then to force Prague to surrender without hindrance. But he found the enemy occupying a very strong by nature and well-fortified position at Colline; daring to storm, he was repulsed with great damage (June 18, 1757).

Seven Years' War. The Life Guards Battalion at the Battle of Collin, 1757. Artist R. Knötel

This failure forced Frederick not only to lift the siege of Prague, but even to step out of Bohemia. During the retreat, he suffered heavy losses and would have suffered even more serious damage if the Austrian generals had not been afraid to pursue him. He himself acted masterfully during the retreat; but his brother was not so happy, August Wilhelm, who was instructed to withdraw one Prussian corps to Lusatia. Frederick did not distinguish between a prince and a soldier when necessary, and publicly reprimanded his brother severely. This upset the prince so much that, they say, he died of sadness (in June of the following year). Fortunately for Frederick, the Austrians left the French and the imperial army with the task of liberating Saxony, while they themselves went to Silesia and sent only a flying detachment Gaddika to Berlin. Haddik managed to enter the capital of Prussia, took indemnity from it, but was soon forced to retreat.

Part of the French troops that entered the Seven Years' War under the command of d'Estre had already crossed the Rhine; the bribed Electors of Cologne and the Palatinate accepted the French with open arms. This army was supposed to occupy Westphalia and Hanover. But the French troops were completely demoralized. they left the army in droves to spend the winter in Paris. They had with them many servants, carried with them many things for comfort and entertainment; therefore the baggage of the army was huge and slowed down its movement. French soldiers suffered a shortage during the Seven Years' War; hospitals were so bad that more people died in them than in battles. Noble officers did not observe any subordination; relying on their rank and connections, they often acted even even if the army had a good commander-in-chief, then in such a position it would be impossible for it to unite in actions; in vain were also militancy and courage, in which the French even then had no shortage.

Entering the Seven Years' War, d "Estre marched through Westphalia very slowly; the Duke of Cumberland stood against him, with the Hanoverian army, reinforced by the Brunswick, Prussian, Hessian, Gothic and Bückeburg detachments. This combined army retreated before the French and took a strong position at Hameln. d" Estre slowly followed the enemy. Subise, who at first commanded the vanguard of d'Estre, and then, by the favor of the court, received a separate army, did not at all think of thinking about his movements with the actions of the main army. Richelieu, who crossed the Rhine with the third army in July 1757, intrigued in every possible way to overthrow d'Estre and take his place himself. At the end of July, d "Estre saw that Richelieu was succeeding in his intrigues and would soon be appointed commander in chief in his place. Then he decided to give the Duke of Cumberland a battle before he was deprived of his chief command. The battle took place on July 26, 1757 under Hamelny and ended in favor of the French. Both the Duke of Cumberland and d'Estre are reproached for making big mistakes. The chief of the general staff of the French army, Mailbois, also performed his duty poorly: he wanted no battle to break out before Richelieu's arrival.

Frederick indignantly withdrew his troops from the army of the Duke of Cumberland, who hastily retreated to Bremerwerda. The duke was subordinate to the aristocrats who made up the Hanoverian ministry, and in the Seven Years' War they thought only of their own interests, that is, of their estates. Frederick II contemptuously mentions this, saying that military affairs were completely incomprehensible to the limited circle of bureaucratic thoughts and that, due to their incredulous obstinacy, they could not be taught anything. These noble gentlemen sacrificed their homeland and honor to the enemy. They made a capitulation with Richelieu, who came to the French army shortly after the Battle of Hamelin; Under the terms of the surrender, all of Hanover was given over to the French. A month later (September 8, 1757) and the Duke of Cumberland concluded with Richelieu, through Danish mediation, a shameful Kloster-Tsevenskaya convention. It resolved issues that can only be decided by governments, and not by generals. She also completely handed over the Electorate of Hanover to the power of the French, without even defining any conditions on who and how would manage it. The only favorable condition for England and Prussia was that all the troops of the Duke of Cumberland, except for the Hanoverians, received permission to return to their homeland, and the Hanoverians could, without relying on weapons, settle down near Stade. Indirectly, this convention brought Pitt a very big benefit. George recalled his son in annoyance. Pitt got rid of the Duke of Cumberland forever and could take a Prussian general from Frederick to command the Hanoverian army. Friedrich chose for this prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, who was in his service (it was the brother of Anton Ulrich, husband of the short-term Russian Empress Anna Leopoldovna). Pitt did not approve the Kloster-Zeven convention and entered into a close alliance with Frederick, whom he needed to support in order to more easily fulfill the plans that he intended to carry out during the Seven Years' War in the East Indies and North America. The French government also rejected the Ceven convention. The court of Paris was very dissatisfied with the Duke of Richelieu because he did not destroy the army of the Duke of Cumberland, or at least did not force it to shut itself up in some fortress. The military exploits of Richelieu were lampooned. It was even said that he was bribed by the British and Prussians. This is a very possible thing on the part of a man who had no rules, no shame, no conscience. But Richelieu had other reasons for sparing the King of Prussia; he did not approve of Pompadour's policy and, hoping for his strength with the king, thought to persuade Louis to another system. With the unfortunate Hanover, he acted horribly. He allowed his soldiers all sorts of rampages, and plundered the country for his luxurious revelry.

While d'Estre and Richelieu were taking over Hanover, Soubise joined his army with the imperial army. Much time was lost on equipping this army, but finally it formed. It consisted of a motley crowd of infantrymen; the contingent of another prelate or imperial count consisted of only 10 or 12 people; Maria Theresa supplied this army with cavalry. The mediocre Prince Guy was appointed imperial commander-in-chief Soubise entered Saxony, uniting with him, Friedrich moved against the allies in early November, he had only 25,000 troops, the allies had twice as many, on November 5, 1757, he attacked the German-French army near the village Rosbach and without difficulty won a complete victory, it was simply the result of the arrogance and imprudence of the enemy and the panic fear that suddenly took possession of him. The defeat and flight of the beaten army was an amazing episode of the Seven Years' War; she fled, although only one wing of the Prussians had time to join the battle; the French and imperial troops lost all their artillery and baggage, and fled to such an extent that the imperial troops came to their senses only in Franconia, and the French in Kassel.

From the field of Rosbach, Frederick hurriedly went to continue the Seven Years' War in Silesia, where his troops retreated before the Austrians, who outnumbered them three times, and where, shortly before his arrival, Schweidnitz and Breslau were surrendered to the enemy. The Austrians were sure that they would finally take control of Silesia, and they swore the inhabitants to the empress. Therefore, Frederick had to give a decisive battle as soon as he met with the enemy. He needed to hurry to save this province and with it the glory and magical power of his name. For the same reasons, the Austrians had to evade the battle. So thought Down; but Prince Charles of Lorraine was of a different opinion, and the rank gave him an advantage in the military council. The battle was given on December 5, 1757 under Leiten. The Austrians were completely defeated and had to retreat to Bohemia. On December 20, 1757, the 20,000-strong garrison that they left in Breslau surrendered.

Seven Years' War. Attack of the Prussian infantry at the Battle of Leuthen, 1757. Artist Karl Röchling

Europe was amazed at the exploits that Frederick accomplished in the Seven Years' War in the last months of 1757. In Austria, the defeat of Leuthen and the loss of Silesia made such a strong impression that public opinion dared to blame the generals and the court - an unprecedented case in Austria; the government was forced for the second time to remove from the team of Prince Charles, the culprit of all the troubles. In vain did Emperor Franz cover his brother with his purple; in vain, a few days before Charles's return to Vienna, the police published a strange order that no one dared to blame the prince for the battle of Lieutenant, because he only carried out the orders of the empress; in vain did Empress Maria Theresa herself insistently say that one should not yield to public opinion. It turned out to be so strong that Prince Charles considered it dangerous to retain the title of commander in chief and left for Brussels.

Happiness favored Frederick in 1757: he surprisingly managed to defend Silesia from the Austrians, and the state of affairs at the St. Petersburg court paralyzed the actions of the Russian army that year, which was very numerous. Apraksin And Fermor, who commanded it, entered the province of Prussia and began to devastate the country so ferociously that the commander of the Saxon corps, who joined the Russians, was outraged by their cruelties and indignantly resigned his command. On August 30, 1757, the old Field Marshal Lewald, who commanded the troops of Frederick in the province of Prussia, had the imprudence to attack at Gross-Jägersdorf with his 30,000 army against the Russian army, which was much more numerous. It was defeated, and the Russians could now go on to continue the Seven Years' War for the Oder. But instead they retreated to the Russian border, and their retreat was so hasty that it looked like a hasty flight.

This yet another strange episode of the Seven Years' War happened from the following circumstances. The Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna fell dangerously ill. Chancellor Bestuzhev-Ryumin made a plan after her death to remove the heir to the throne Peter from the throne and proclaim his son emperor; Peter's wife, Catherine, most likely participated in this plan. For its execution, Bestuzhev needed an army located in Prussia, and he won over Apraksin to his side. Shortly before the Grand Jaegersdorf battle, Apraksin was informed that the life of the Empress was in danger, and therefore hurried to the Russian border. But the empress did not die, but quickly recovered, as soon as Apraksin managed to make this imprudence. Having learned from Peter about the intrigue, she became extremely angry and sent Bestuzhev into exile, from which Catherine returned him in 1764; and the Empress did not want to see the Grand Duchess Catherine for several months. Apraksin escaped punishment only by the fact that he died (August 30, 1758). In January 1758, the Russian army returned to continue the Seven Years' War in the province of Prussia and occupied the whole country up to the Oder; this was all the easier since all the Prussian troops were withdrawn from there to Pomerania to fight the Swedes.

Stepan Apraksin, one of the four Russian commanders-in-chief in the Seven Years' War

The Swedish Council of State in the autumn of 1757 decided to enter the Seven Years' War on the side of the enemies of Prussia, without listening to the public protest of the king and without convening a diet. For the Swedes, the motive for war was only that France offered subsidies, which went into the hands of the ruling aristocrats and were necessary for them for pomp and extravagance. These gentlemen left the soldiers without pay, did not prepare any food or military supplies. There was no discipline in the army. The generals and officers were nobles, necessary and terrible for the state council, so they were not afraid of punishment for misconduct. Under such circumstances, the Swedish army could not do anything important, and almost all of its participation in the Seven Years' War was limited to some movements in Pomerania.

Seven Years' War in 1758

The year 1758 opened up an excellent prospect for new successes in the Seven Years' War of Frederick, whom both friends and enemies recognized as a victorious hero, and the French considered almost their own person, whom they should be proud of. Pitt called him a Protestant hero in Parliament and made a grant agreement with him for a year; this treaty was then renewed annually until his death GeorgeII. Prussia and England undertook to conclude peace only together; England gave the King of Prussia 4,000,000 thalers a year: in addition, she assumed all the costs of maintaining the so-called allied army and promised to strengthen it with a significant number of English troops. But even with the aid of England, Frederick could hold out against the enormous forces of his numerous enemies only by desperate means. 4,000,000 thalers received from England, he minted into 10,000,000. He squeezed Saxony like a sponge; he so terribly oppressed Mecklenburg, whose government recklessly joined the enemy, that during the Seven Years' War he took more than 17,000,000 thalers from the inhabitants of this small state. With Saxony, the Prussians acted completely Turkish. For example, once, in order to extort money from the city of Leipzig, they locked the entire Leipzig magistrate in the Pleissenburg fortress, where the first Leipzig merchants sat for several weeks without candles, without chairs, without beds, even without straw. Seventy merchants fled, fearing a similar fate, and the Prussians confiscated their property. Frederick even took utensils from churches. In his writings, he justifies these harshnesses by explaining that the occupation of his Westphalian possessions by the enemy took away from him 4,500,000 thalers of income, and that the whole province of Prussia was occupied by the Russians, and therefore he could not do otherwise. However, his opponents did no better during the Seven Years' War, and sometimes worse. Russian troops raged in the province of Prussia, then in the Margraviate of Brandenburg, like wild hordes. The French army under Soubise committed outrageous ferocities against its allies, the Thuringians and Saxons, and under Richelieu allowed itself unheard of robberies in Westphalia and Hanover.

Ferdinand of Brunswick, with an allied army, began a campaign in the winter, as early as 1757, and by the spring of 1758 he had already achieved many successes. In March, the French were completely pushed back across the Elbe. We cannot describe in detail all the actions of Ferdinand and will only report the most important facts. By the beginning of February, Richelieu had already so clearly shown his mediocrity and done so many nasty things that the French court was forced to recall him from the theater of the Seven Years' War. But in his place came another accomplice of the king's orgies, the prince of the blood, Count of Clermont, and showed the same mediocrity, the same extravagance, as Richelieu. He retreated without a fight as far as the Rhine, and his retreat was like a hasty flight after a complete defeat. It is also true that Richelieu left him the army in the most miserable state: the soldiers suffered the greatest shortage, while the commissaries, suppliers and the like were enriched; discipline was in such decline that once the king had to demote 52 officers at a time. In June 1758 Ferdinand crossed the Rhine without the enemy noticing. Having made this crossing, Ferdinand defeated Clermont at Krefeld. Then Clermont was recalled, and his successor, Marshal de Contad, managed to push Ferdinand across the Rhine. Soon after, Ferdinand's army was reinforced by 12,000 English corps. In September 1758, Kontad passed through Westphalia as far as Lippe. Soubize, who received reinforcements, and one of the generals of Soubise, had to go there, Broglie, defeated a detachment of the allied army near Kassel. After a while another corps of this army was utterly defeated by Soubise near Minden; the count's negligence and inability were to blame for the defeat Oberga who commanded this corps. During the winter, the French did not act, because their officers were still irresistibly rushing to Paris. Finally, the court became convinced that Soubise was unable to manage the large operations of the Seven Years' War and appointed Contade commander-in-chief of both Rhine armies.

In other parts of Germany, the campaign of 1758 was just as poor in decisive action and just as rich in devastation, as in Westphalia and on the Rhine. But the Russians treated the province of Prussia very condescendingly, because they already considered it a Russian region. But the provinces of Pomerania and Brandenburg suffered the more when the Russians entered them. Frederick took Schweidnitz, then invaded not Bohemia, as before, but Moravia, and laid siege to Olmutz. This unsuccessful siege occupied him for two months and gave Down time and opportunity to improve his army, whose soldiers were poorly armed and ill-trained. June 28, 1758 Austrian general Loudon captured a large convoy going to the army of Frederick, and thus laid the foundation for his glory. This loss and the successes of the Russian troops forced Frederick to lift the siege of Olmutz. In July, he made his famous retreat to Silesia, and, however, no less than his skill, was due to the methodical slowness of the Austrians, which allowed him, after a successful retreat, to undertake a campaign against the Russians.

The Russians besieged the fortress of Kustrin. The Swedes moved forward. Daun was to support the operations of both with a campaign in Saxony. But he delayed so much time that Friedrich went ahead of him with a forced march and on August 25, 1758 could give the Russian army a very famous in the history of the Seven Years' War Battle of Zorndorf. Both sides boasted of their victory; but Frederick did not need to give another battle to drive the Russians out of Pomerania and Brandenburg, which they devastated: they themselves retreated to rest in the province of Prussia and Poland.

Seven Years' War. Frederick the Great at the Battle of Zorndorf. Artist Karl Röchling

Meanwhile, the imperial army, commanded by Prince Friedrich of the Palatinate-Zweibrücken. But the second brother of Frederick the Great, Prince Heinrich, having made a successful campaign against the French, was already approaching Saxony; the imperial army hurriedly hid from him in Bohemia and appeared again at the theater of the Seven Years' War only when Daun went to Saxony (at the end of July). As soon as the Russians set out from Brandenburg, Frederick went to Daun. But both of them did not dare for a decisive battle for a long time; Finally, Friedrich, who considered Downe to be too timid a general, became close to him at Gohkirke, with no more than 30,000 troops. Laudon, the best of the Austrian generals, took advantage of this imprudence and on October 14, 1758, unexpectedly attacked the Prussians. He took their camp, all their baggage and a hundred guns; the Prussians lost 9,000 killed; among others, Marshal Keith was killed here.

Broken Frederick went to Silesia. While Daun and the Vienna military council were discussing a plan for further action in the Seven Years' War, the Prussian king went ahead of the Austrians and freed the Silesian fortresses of Neisse and Kosel from the siege. Prince Heinrich, abandoned by Frederick in Saxony, forced Daun to retreat. When Friedrich (November 20, 1758) returned from Silesia to Saxony, Daun had already gone to Bohemia, and the imperial army retired to winter quarters in Franconia after an unsuccessful campaign against Leipzig and Torgau. The year ended with severe suffering in Saxony, where Frederick, as usual, avenged the evil inflicted on him by the Austrians and Russians.

In France, the failures of the campaign of 1758 created a strong rupture between the court and the nation. Officers and soldiers, ladies and novelists admired the King of Prussia as if they were their own hero. Cursing the alliance with Austria and extolling Frederick has become fashionable. In the words of a French writer of that time, to a person who had been in Parisian theaters, in society and on walks, it must have seemed that Paris was inhabited by Prussians, and not French, and that the few who had a French view of the Seven Years' War hardly dare to express it. But for Germany, this mood of her frivolous neighbors was more harmful than one might imagine. German sovereigns attached the greatest value to deft French compliments and manners, and those who were most capable of improving and renovating German life were most carried away by this weakness; passion for the French completely alienated them from their people, and the German nobility followed their example. Frederick II himself, his brother Heinrich, Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick and the Crown Prince of Brunswick, also Ferdinand (then still a young man), were more French than Germans both in the nature of education, and in language, and in all habits. Such German Frenchmen envied people who were in the French service, and loudly said that only their body lives in Germany, and their soul belongs to French good society.

In France at the end of 1758 an important change took place. Cardinal de Berni was forced to retire, arousing the court's displeasure with the fact that he wanted to somewhat reduce court expenses and end the unpopular Seven Years' War, seeing this as a need to upset finances. In place of Bernie, Minister of Foreign Affairs was appointed Duke of Choiseul, who held this position for 12 years and gradually took over the management of the military department and finances: he held on because he knew how to please the king, and Pompadour, and the writers of the Voltaire direction at the same time. He began his management of an amazing business, concluding a new treaty with Austria, which provided the Austrians with even more benefits than the treaty of 1756, and was completely silent about the interests of France.

Seven Years' War in 1759

The continuation of the Seven Years' War in 1759 was marked by the victory of the French. Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick wanted to take Frankfurt am Main from the French, which Soubise captured by cunning. But approaching this city, he met a French army under the command not of the Prince of Soubise, who had not yet returned to the camp from the Parisian winter pleasures, but under the command of Broglie, an experienced and prudent general. If Broglie had acted according to the instructions sent to him from Paris, he would have fallen into inevitable death; but he followed his own mind and took up an extremely strong position on the mountains near Bergen, an hour and a half from Frankfurt. On April 13, 1759, Ferdinand stormed it and was defeated, but retreated in perfect order, and the French did not profit much from their victory, because they lost a lot of time in inaction.

On April 25, 1759, Contad arrived in the French camp; in June and July he reached the Weser and crossed that river. But on July 31, Prince Ferdinand forced him into battle. This battle took place at Prussian Minden, ended disadvantageously for the French, and they had to retreat behind the Rhine and Main. They say that Marshal Kontad made many mistakes in the battle of Minden; but the main reason for his defeat was that no unity could be established in the movements of an army commanded by privileged generals; many aristocratic generals simply did not follow the orders of the commander in chief, but acted as they pleased. However, the same thing happened to the victors: the French army was saved from complete destruction only due to the fact that the commander of the English cavalry, Lord jermaine, disobeyed the orders of Prince Ferdinand three times. He was brought to a military court for this, the court found him guilty; but nevertheless he subsequently became a minister, and in this rank extremely spoiled by his negligence the course of the North American war, and when it was no longer possible to leave him a minister, despite the opposition of many peers, he was made a member of the upper house with the title Lord Sackville. It was a great happiness for the French that after the battle of Minden, Ferdinand had to send 12 thousandth corps from his army to help Frederick, whose situation was then very bad; Ferdinand of Brunswick, the commander-in-chief's nephew, sent with this corps to the east, had already crossed the Rhine and won successes there. Thanks to this weakening of the allied army, the French settled down in winter quarters in almost the same places where they stood last winter. In October 1759, Prince Soubise was deprived of his leadership, and it was entrusted to Contad and Broglie.

According to the plan drawn up by Frederick's enemies for the campaign of 1759, the Russians with the Austrian detachment of Laudon were to capture Silesia, and the imperial army Saxony. Russians now commanded in the war Saltykov, and Fermor remained with him merely as an adviser; they moved forward slowly, and the Prussian general Don, sent against them, greatly impeded their movement, so that they only reached the Oder in July. Dona was a cautious man and did not risk entering into battle with them; Frederick, who already despised the Russian army too much, recalled the Don because he did not want to give battles. Wedel appointed in his place, carried out the king's order to give battle under any circumstances. With desperate courage, he attacked the Russians on July 23, 1759 at Züllichau And Kae and was broken. His defeat could have been disastrous for Prussia and changed the whole course of the Seven Years' War; but Saltykov and Fermor catered to the wishes of the Grand Duke Peter and did not approve of the policy of the empress. After the battle, they moved towards Frankfurt on the Oder with unusual slowness. Daun with the main Austrian forces stood for a long time without any action in Lusatia, finally moved forward, sent Gaddic to threaten Brandenburg, and Laudon with 18,000 troops to reinforce the Russian army. Frederick left his brother Heinrich with the difficult task of holding Down, who far outnumbered Henry in strength, and he himself went to Gaddik and Laudon, but did not have time to prevent Laudon from connecting (August 7) ​​with the Russians.

Pyotr Saltykov, one of the four Russian commanders-in-chief in the Seven Years' War

Joining with Wedel's corps, Friedrich attacked the Russians on August 12, 1759 at Kunersdorf , near Frankfurt. He suffered such a defeat that for him the Seven Years' War already seemed lost, and at first he himself despaired. But it was precisely in this difficult situation that the inexhaustibility of his mind showed itself most strikingly. He quickly gathered his army, which was ruined in all directions, put it in order and strengthened it. The disagreement between the Russians and the Austrians helped him a lot. Laudon wanted the victors to go together to Berlin and end the Seven Years' War by taking it. But Saltykov did not at all want to help the Austrians acquire dominion in Germany, and until the end of August he stood motionless in Frankfurt, saying that his army was unable to do anything until he recovered from two battles in which he suffered very heavy losses. Finally he went to Silesia, but at the end of October he returned from there to Poland.

Seven Years' War. Battle of Kunersdorf, 1759. Painting by A. Kotzebue, 1848

Meanwhile, Prince Henry proved to be an excellent general, acting masterfully in Saxony. We cannot speak in detail about this campaign; we will only say that Henry did not allow the Austrians to join the Russians for some time. But in autumn the Prussian general Fink made a mistake, as a result of which (November 21, 1759) he was captured by the enemy with his entire corps, consisting of 12,000 people. This misfortune greatly damaged the success of the actions of Frederick, who was then fighting Daun in Silesia.

Seven Years' War in 1760

The struggle of Ferdinand of Brunswick against the French in the following year (1760) ended with both warring armies remaining for the winter in almost the same positions as they had occupied in the previous year. The Crown Prince of Brunswick scored several successes against the French and their German allies; but he was so praised for them by his own and others that he received an exaggerated opinion about his talents, and long after the Seven Years' War, already in his old age, he had to pay for this self-delusion.

In 1760, Friedrich more brilliantly than ever showed what a brilliant commander with a good army can do, acting against generals fighting according to school tactics and strategy, even if these generals had cold prudence and a huge mass of troops, but troops devoid of an enlivening spirit. Army of Friedrich, was already far from the same as at the beginning of the Seven Years' War, and the generals were not the same, his treasury was depleted; the province of Prussia was occupied by the Russians, Westphalia was defenselessly open to the enemy; Saxony, Silesia and Brandenburg were devastated; he himself sometimes lost heart and despaired of the future; but still he did not give up. Hostilities in Silesia and Saxony began in 1760 only in June; at the very beginning of them, Frederick had the misfortune to lose the fortress and the whole corps. His general Fouquet, on whose ability he relied too much, rashly entered the battle with Laudon near Landsgut, June 28, 1760. 6,000 Prussians were captured; the rest of Fuke's army was dispersed and then destroyed. A few weeks later, the important fortress of Glatz was surrendered to the enemy by the commandant, who was recommended and exalted by the same Fouquet.

About this time Daun moved at last from Saxony to Silesia; but Frederick began to threaten Dresden and the imperial army; Daun was forced to return and rescued Dresden, part of which had already been burned by Friedrich. For that, Loudon burned part of Breslau; but Prince Heinrich forced him to lift the siege of this city, quickly moving from Saxony to Silesia, Frederick on August 15, 1760 defeated Laudon under Liegnitz; Saltykov took advantage of this to separate from the Austrians and return to the Oder. In September, Frederick was already again in a hurry to the Elbe to continue the Seven Years' War by fighting against the Austrian corps. Lassi who went to Berlin. Saltykov sent reinforcements to Lassi, but only as a result of strict orders from Petersburg. October 9, 1760 Lassi entered Berlin; the city and its environs, of course, had to suffer from the enemy, but less than one could expect: the Russian commanders kept their soldiers in discipline. Four days later the enemy withdrew from Berlin, and the Russians at Loudon returned to their main army. She was inactive for some time; The Austrians fought the Prussians in Saxony.

The imperial army won some successes in Saxony over the Prussians, who were twice as small as it, and therefore in the autumn Frederick again came from Silesia to the Elbe. He went to the fortress Torgau, very important to him and in the hands of the enemy. She was covered by two armies: Down, who followed Frederick from Silesia, and Laudon. On November 3, 1760, the king attacked Down, who had taken a very strong position; this battle, called the battle of Torgau, was the bloodiest in the entire Seven Years' War. The Prussians won a brilliant victory; its consequence was the capture of Torgau. Still, Frederick was in a desperate situation. Saxony was no longer in his power; the margraviate of Brandenburg and part of Silesia were devastated; another part of Silesia was occupied by the Austrians; in the west, the French advanced as far as Gotha and Göttingen. To all this, other bad circumstances were added: in August 1759, King Ferdinand VI of Spain died, and Spain joined the alliance against Prussia; and in October 1760 George II died, and it was probably to be expected that Frederick's only true ally, Pitt, would be forced to relinquish power.

Struggle between England and France in the colonies

Spending a lot of money on the war in Germany, Pitt had a very correct calculation that the British would receive huge interest on this money in the East Indies and in America. The events that took place during the Seven Years' War in the colonies of the east and west were very important for the future of Europe. Let's name the main ones.

During the years of the Seven Years' War, the English nation acquired vast expanses of land in the East Indies and America, acquired colossal wealth, and its growing industry received an unlimited field. But no one foresaw that, while gaining in external well-being, the nation suffers an irreparable loss in the character of its internal life. However, even those who are unwilling to admire the flourishing of industry and the development of an industrial civilization must still agree that the English, in the reign of George II, took away from France that primacy in Europe, which she had enjoyed since the time of Louis XIV. It must also be said that there was a certain moral benefit from that admiration for English prosperity and the state system, which has become a European fashion since the time of Montesquieu. People gradually came to the conclusion that freedom, light and living movement bring material benefits to peoples, in other words, that these things also have a monetary price, which in our time is recognized as the only measure of happiness.

The struggle between France and England in the East Indies, which coincided with the Seven Years' War in Europe, gave rise to the foundation of that vast Anglo-East Indies kingdom, which now has about 150 million inhabitants. The British preparations for war served as a pretext for the Nabob of Bengal to destroy the English trading post in Calcutta, then still an insignificant settlement. Having mastered it, the nabob committed a horrendous cruelty: 146 people were locked in a small prison room, known as the "Black Pit"; she was only 11 feet long and 18 feet wide; out of 146 locked in it, 123 people died in terrible suffering in one night (June 1756). The British in the East Indies had under command Lord Clive a small army of 2,400 men. It was so irritated by this barbarism that it performed feats similar to the deeds of the soldiers of Pizarro and Cortes, of course, committed the same robberies. In 1757, Clive, having defeated the Bengalis in Battle of Plassey, had already destroyed French influence in Bengal, and appointed another in place of the former Nawab, who had to pay huge sums to the English East India Company, Lord Clive and his soldiers.

Richard Clive and the Nabob Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, 1757

A year later, the French sent an army to the East Indies under the command of Count Lally. A quick-tempered, rude despot, Lally quarreled with all the French authorities in the East Indies, with his officers and with the commander of the French fleet in the East Indies; this, of course, helped the success of the British. In a few years the French were completely driven out of the East Indies; at the beginning of 1761, they even lost Pondicherry and Mage, so that, following the results of the Seven Years' War, of all their possessions in the Eastern Ocean and beyond this ocean, they had only the islands of Bourbon and Ile-de-France. The English East India Company won a huge kingdom for itself.

The war in America also ended unhappily for the French. In 1759 they lost part of their West Indian possessions, and in the autumn of the following year the British took possession of all of Canada. We skip all the details of this part of the Seven Years' War; we only mention that on September 13, 1759, the British, under the most unfavorable circumstances, won near Quebec; general wolf, having won it, lost his life in it, but his name acquired immortality from the British. French possessions in Africa were also conquered by the British. In addition, the British captured and destroyed many French military and merchant ships on all seas and several times made devastating landings on the northern coast of France.

The death of General Wolf at the Battle of Quebec, 1759. Artist B. West, 1770

Comparing the state of England and France at the time of the death of George II, we will understand why George, at the end of his reign, gained popularity with the English, and Louis XV, whom the people honored in an idolatrous manner no further than in 1744, fell at that time into contempt among the French, who sang swearing songs about him. England then bore the costs of the war in all parts of the world; but on the other hand, she acquired the treasures of all countries by her growing industry and her dominion over world trade, and the ruler of the English state, Pitt, became famous throughout Europe, which saw in him the ideal of an excellent minister. France, on the other hand, lost her colonies and her trade during the Seven Years' War; its military and merchant ships were destroyed or taken by the British. Her army in the Seven Years' War covered itself with shame; she herself was given as booty to greedy tax-farmers; the government forcibly took away even church utensils, because other sources of income turned out to be insufficient; public credit was exhausted; taxes were raised to the last opportunity, and court fun did not stop. Finally, the rulers of the French state, Pompadour, Cardinal Burney, Duke of Choiseul, were people of such a bad reputation that even such crimes were attributed to them, which they probably did not commit.

Having become a minister, Choiseul immediately began to persuade Spain to take part in the Seven Years' War. On the other hand, Pitt persuaded her to ally with England. The efforts of both ministers remained in vain while Ferdinand VI lived. But when, after his death (in 1759), he ascended the Spanish throne CharlesIII, the former king of Naples, Choiseul received a sure hope to achieve his goal. Charles had a disposition towards France, was proud of the name of Bourbon, and Choiseul enjoyed his special gratitude, for the French minister helped him make one of his sons (Ferdinand IV) his successor in Naples, instead of his brother, Philip, who should have been his successor under the terms Aachen Peace. The new king of Spain immediately entered into negotiations with France; their subject was the conclusion of the closest alliance between all members of the Bourbon dynasty or the so-called " Bourbon family treaty". The negotiations lasted a year and a half and were conducted in the same manner as the negotiations of Kaunitz preceding the Seven Years' War to conclude an alliance between Austria and France. This came from the fact that the Spaniards were just as opposed to an alliance with France as the French were against an alliance with Austria. For this reason, the matter was carried on secretly from the ministers between Choiseul, Pompadour and King Louis, King of Spain and his envoy in Paris, Grimaldi. During these negotiations, Choiseul made peace proposals to the participating powers of the Seven Years' War. He either hoped to use them to cover negotiations between France and Spain from England, or to satisfy the demand of his king, who wanted to conclude a separate peace with England. An attempt was even made to convene a peace congress: but all this did not lead to anything. England after some time entered into separate negotiations with France.

Seven Years' War in 1761

After the death of George II (in 1760), his 23-year-old grandson became king of England, GeorgeIII. The new king was not a gifted person, but her mother and friend, a Scot Lord Bute gave him an education that far from prepared him to be a good constitutional king. They inspired him with a sanctimonious zeal for pilgrimage, developed in him an awkward obstinacy and impregnated him with absolute concepts. Having become king, he immediately began to be offended by the concepts and decisive character of Pitt, who in his eyes was a predator who had taken government power from the king. However, Pitt retained control of foreign affairs for about a year, although George soon after his accession to the throne gave a place in the ministry to his mentor and friend, Lord Bute (in March 1761). Pitt was forced to resign six months later on Bute's appointment as minister. The reason for this was the turnover that the negotiations with Spain received. Having received news of the friendship that was being established between France and Spain, Pitt rightly concluded that the negotiations between the French and the English ministry were aimed only at compelling the king of Spain to conclude a family treaty with France. This goal has now been achieved: in August 1761, Charles III signed a family treaty, according to which all lines of the Bourbon house mutually guaranteed their possessions and pledged to help each other in all wars, including the Seven Years War. Having received reliable news of the conclusion of this treaty, Pitt demanded in his office that war be immediately declared on Spain. Lord Bute and the King rejected his demand, and he retired (October 5, 1761).

The negotiations further slowed down the already slow pace of the Seven Years' War in Germany. In the summer of 1761, the French could not do anything against Ferdinand of Brunswick, although they were much more numerous than him. Their success was hampered, firstly, by the superiority of Ferdinand over their generals, and secondly, by the disagreement between Soubise and Broglie who envied each other; hindered and a huge wagon train, hindering all their movements. Four companies of the noble guard, 130 people each, kept a convoy with them, in which each company had at least 1,200 horses; from this fact alone, one can judge what the convoy of the entire army was. In the winter of 1761-1762, the French took up winter quarters in almost the same places they had occupied the previous winter.

The imperial army and the Swedes played the same sad role in 1761 as before; was now the imperial commander-in-chief Serbelloni; his army was easily held by a few small detachments of Prince Henry. The Swedes at times made attempts to enter Brandenburg, but constantly failed. In Pomerania itself, they established themselves only when the Russian general Rumyantsev mastered Kohlberg; Heiden he defended this fortress for a long time and courageously, but the lack of provisions forced it to surrender (December 16, 1761). However, even after that, the Prussians, who had taken up winter quarters in Mecklenburg, kept the Swedes tightly locked up in one corner of Pomerania for the whole winter. The Swedish Diet this year strongly condemned the participation of their country in the Seven Years' War; but the ruling oligarchs continued it against the will of the diet, as they began without its consent.

Capture of Kolberg by the Russians during the Seven Years' War, 1761. Painting by A. Kotzebue, 1852

Daun stood all summer against Prince Henry in Saxony; only in November and December did he succeed in driving the Prussians out of part of Saxony. Decisive action was expected in 1761 in the Silesian theater of the Seven Years' War, where Laudon was stationed with most of the Austrian forces and Friedrich. But even there only small battles took place, because Frederick had to take care of his weakened army, and Laudon was waiting for the Russians, who moved late and slowly. In July 1761 they finally arrived, but their commander-in-chief, Buturlin, did not think to act seriously in the Seven Years' War and on September 9 went back from Silesia, leaving the Austrians with only a 20,000th corps Chernysheva. With Chernyshev, Laudon went to Schweidnitz. The Schweidnitz garrison was weak, although it was the most important fortress in the whole of Prussia after Magdeburg; Loudon took her by storm on 1 October. This was the only important work of the main Austrian army during the entire campaign of 1761.

At the end of 1761 Frederick's position was desperate. His army was reduced to the point that he had scarcely 60,000 men; Pitt's resignation was an even heavier blow for him than the loss of Schweidnitz, Kolberg and a large part of Saxony. Pitt's successor, Lord Bute, did not renew the subsidy treaty for 1762 and wanted to make peace separately from Frederick in order to strengthen his ministry. But he showed great mediocrity in his worries about peace: the Seven Years' War went on happily for England, and he carelessly and imprudently showed his idea to sacrifice Frederick for the sake of peace not only to the Austrians, but also to Frederick's admirer, Peter III, who ascended the Russian throne in January 1762.

Seven Years' War in 1762

October 5, 1761 Pitt was forced to resign because he wanted to declare war on Spain, but the king and Bute did not agree to this. But on January 2, 1762, Pitt's successor, Lord Bute, himself had to do what Pitt wanted: the publication of the family treaty between France and Spain forced him to do so. In the same January, Admiral Rodney was sent with the English fleet against the French West Indies possessions. In addition, the British equipped a squadron with a landing force to occupy or devastate the Spanish island of Cuba, and after a while another expedition against the Philippine Islands. The Spaniards wanted to force Portugal, which was in alliance with England, to go to war with the British, and for this they decided to do with her as Frederick had done with Saxony. But they met resistance in Portugal that they did not expect, and their plan collapsed. The French lost all their West Indian colonies in 1762; all their West Indies trade was destroyed, as before the East Indies. Spain, of course, could not fight the British either by land or by sea, and also suffered enormous losses. The rich warehouse of her trade, Havana, was taken by the British. Manila, the main point of the Philippine Islands, was also taken. The British found huge booty in Havana and Manila. In addition, they captured at sea the Spanish warship "Hermione", which was carrying a cargo of precious metals to Spain, at a cost of 6,000,000 rubles. silver; this prize is said to be the richest ever taken by the British. The Spaniards lost 12 ships of the line in 1762, and only once did they manage to take some booty from the British: having conquered one of the Portuguese colonies in South America, they captured 26 English merchant ships with rich cargo and large stocks of various goods.

The victories and conquests of the British in the Seven Years' War prepared a great embarrassment for George III and his favorite, Bute. They wanted to conclude peace as soon as possible, because both, as limited and strictly religious people, extremely hated Frederick for his mind and for his free way of thinking; and in England the number of people increased every day, dissatisfied that they leave the King of Prussia without help. The opposition agitated the people by all means. All Whigs left the ministry; all efficient people refused positions, and were replaced by incompetent people. The Whigs began to raise the power of the democrats against the king and minister, who opposed the will of the nation. The king and Bute were anxious that the French should make progress in the German theater of the Seven Years' War, make conquests there, in exchange for which one could offer the return of some of the conquests made by the British in America and Asia, and thus find the possibility of reconciliation. But in 1762 there was little hope for French success in Germany.

Broglie was replaced, and the army entrusted to an incompetent prince Subizu; Ferdinand of Brunswick then had almost as many troops as Soubise, and he pushed him back. This put both the British ministers in great difficulty and the Duke of Choiseul, who now also wanted to end the Seven Years' War and was in secret negotiations with Lord Bute. Bute hotly reproached Choiseul for the mediocrity of the French commander-in-chief, and Soubise was ordered to go forward again, at all costs. But Soubise could not even hold on to his former positions and was very glad that, despite the successes of his opponents, on November 3, preliminary peace conditions were signed between France and England. Prince Ferdinand resented George, as did the English; he angrily refused the command. The reconciliation of France with England brought Frederick the advantage that, under the preliminary conditions of peace, the French stopped the war with him; but on the other hand, he remained left to his own forces alone. At the same time, he had the misfortune to see that in Russia the state of affairs had changed to his disadvantage. We must now say what a change has taken place in Russia.

On January 5, 1762 (December 25, 1761, old style), Empress Elizabeth died, and Peter III became Russian emperor. This gave the king of Prussia the first hope of getting out of the labyrinth in which he was then. Peter was an enthusiastic admirer of Frederick, and it was known that in everything he followed only his own inclinations and whims. As soon as he ascended the throne, he entered into friendly relations with Prussia. With his usual morbid impatience, he hurried to restore peace between Russia and Prussia, not listening to his ministers, not paying any attention to the treaties between Russia and the powers of the Austrian alliance. On February 23 (1762) he announced to Russia's allies in the Seven Years' War that he was separating from them. March 16, 1762 was imprisoned Stargard peace between Russia and Prussia. On May 5, this world was turned into a defensive and offensive alliance. Even before the signing of the treaty on alliance, Chernyshev, who had gone to Poland, received an order to go to Silesia and unite with the Prussians.

Russian Emperor Peter III. Portrait by Pfanzelt, 1762

A direct consequence of this change in Russian policy was the reconciliation of Sweden with Prussia. The King of Sweden, Adolf Friedrich, was constantly against the Seven Years' War, which brought Sweden neither glory nor profit, but cost in 1758 - 1761. 8,000,000 thalers to this poorest European country. The Sejm, convened at the end of 1760 and lasting until June 1762, also demanded peace; in addition, he generally strongly condemned the oligarchs who had dominated Sweden since 1718. Adolf Friedrich could easily have overthrown the oligarchy, all the more so since Peter III, who hated the party that started the war with Prussia, would have helped him in this. But in his simple-hearted honesty, the Swedish king remained true to this oath and was content to force the frightened oligarchs to sign out of the Seven Years' War. Peace negotiations were started by his wife, the sister of Frederick II, who had previously experienced many insults from the state council; after the conclusion of peace, the Council of State thanked her publicly for her part in the cause. On April 7, 1762, a truce was concluded; May 22 was signed in Hamburg peace between Prussia and Sweden. Under its terms, everything was restored to the state it was before the war.

Frederick's friends did not have long to enjoy the alliance with the Russians. In the same year, Peter III was deposed by a coup on June 28, 1762, and his wife Catherine II ascended the Russian throne. She had no desire to fight in the Seven Years' War for Austria and ordered that Peter's order to return the fortresses of the province of Prussia to the Prussians be carried out. But she recalled her army to Russia, which had just managed to connect with the Prussians. However, Friedrich knew how to make excellent use of the short time when Chernyshev's army was with him. His success was also helped by the fact that the Austrians recklessly withdrew most of their troops from Silesia in the autumn of 1761. With Chernyshev, Frederick pushed Daun beyond Schweidnitz and cut him off from communication with this fortress. This was done on July 21, when Chernyshev had already received the order to go to Russia; but in order to please the king, he postponed his campaign for three days and took up such a position that the Austrians, who did not know about the order he had received, it seemed as if he wanted to support the attack of Frederick. Pushing back Down, Frederick turned all his efforts to the capture of Schweidnitz; the possession of this fortress strengthened for him the preservation of Upper Silesia in the negotiations for peace and served him as a reward for the Westphalian fortresses that still remained in the hands of the French. But not until October did he manage to force the surrender of the Schweidnitz garrison.

The imperial army after Serbelloni was commanded by two generals, and it had already been expelled from Saxony twice. Serbelloni, who commanded the Austrian army in Saxony, acted so sluggishly and unskillfully that the Prussians managed to pass unhindered into Bohemia and take indemnities there for some time. In September Gaddic was appointed to replace Serbelloni. The new Austrian general summoned the entire imperial army to his side, but was nevertheless pushed back by Prince Henry. On October 29, 1762, the prince won a brilliant victory over the imperial army under Freiberg; the defeated lost more than 7,000 men.

The battle of Freiberg was the last in the Seven Years' War: negotiations between Prussia and Austria began after it. They began thanks to the efforts of the Crown Prince of Saxony, who did his best to save his unfortunate country from the scourge of war. It helped him that on November 3, 1762, England and France had already signed the preliminary peace terms. Prussian negotiations with Austria began in December; before that a truce had been concluded between them. Fortunately for Germany, the matter did not drag on longer than the beginning of the next year: almost all German lands were brought to the saddest state by the Seven Years' War. Westphalia, Hesse, Brandenburg, Silesia and Bohemia were, one might say, completely devastated; Saxony suffered even more; Hanover was ruined; Prussian General Kleist managed to rob Franconia and Thuringia once again just before the end of the Seven Years' War.

on the conclusion of the Paris and Hubertsburg Peace Treaties of 1763 that ended the Seven Years' War - see article

Frederick IIFriedrich II, King of Prussia since 1740. A bright representative of the enlightened
absolutism, the founder of the Prussian-German statehood.

In 1756, Friedrich attacked Austrian allied Saxony and entered Dresden. He justified his
actions by a "preemptive strike", claiming that a Russian-Austrian
a coalition that was ready for aggression. Then followed the bloody Lobozitskaya battle, in
which Frederick won. In May 1757 Frederick took Prague, but then on June 18, 1757
year he was defeated in the Battle of Kolinsky.
The battle of Zorndorf on August 25, 1758 ended with the victory of the Russians (according to the unwritten laws of that
time, the winner was the one who left the battlefield behind; the battlefield of Zorndorf
remained for the Russians), the Battle of Kunersdorf in 1759 dealt a moral blow to Friedrich.
The Austrians occupied Dresden, and the Russians Berlin. Victory provided some respite
in the Battle of Liegnitz, but Frederick was finally exhausted. Only contradictions between
Austrian and Russian generals kept it from final collapse.
The sudden death of the Russian Empress Elizabeth in 1761 brought an unexpected deliverance.
The new Russian Tsar Peter III turned out to be a great admirer of Frederick's talent, with whom he
signed a truce. Received power as a result of the palace
coup, Empress Catherine II did not dare to again involve Russia in the war and withdrew all
Russian troops from the occupied territories. Over the next decades, she
maintained friendly relations with Friedrich in line with the policy of the so-called. northern chord.

Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev

Manifestation in the Seven Years' War:
By the beginning of the Seven Years' War, Rumyantsev already had the rank of major general. As part of the Russian troops under
under the command of S. F. Apraksin, in 1757 he arrived in Courland. 19 (30) August distinguished himself
at the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf. He was entrusted with the leadership of a reserve of four infantry
regiments - Grenadier, Trinity, Voronezh and Novgorod - which was located on the other
side of the forest that bordered the Jagersdorf field. The battle continued with varying success, and
when the Russian right flank began to retreat under the blows of the Prussians, Rumyantsev, without an order to
on his own initiative he threw his fresh reserve against the left flank of the Prussian infantry.
In January 1758, the columns of Saltykov and Rumyantsev (30,000) went on a new campaign and
occupied Koenigsberg, and then the whole of East Prussia. In summer Rumyantsev's cavalry
(4000 sabers) covered the maneuvers of Russian troops in Prussia, and her actions were
recognized as exemplary. In the battle of Zorndorf Rumyantsev, direct participation
did not accept, however, after the battle, covering Fermor's retreat to Pomerania, 20
dismounted dragoon and equestrian grenadier squadrons of the Rumyantsev detachment were detained
for the whole day, the 20,000th Prussian corps at Pass Krug.
In August 1759, Rumyantsev and his division took part in the Battle of Kunersdorf.
The division was located in the center of the Russian positions, at the height of the Great Spitz. It is she
became one of the main objects of attack by the Prussian troops after they crushed the left flank
Russians. Rumyantsev's division, however, despite heavy artillery fire and
the onslaught of Seydlitz's heavy cavalry (the best forces of the Prussians), repulsed
numerous attacks and went into a bayonet counterattack, which he personally led
Rumyantsev. This blow threw back the army of King Frederick II, and she began to retreat,
pursued by the cavalry.

Willim Villimovich Fermor

Manifestation in the Seven Years' War:
Fermor's military career peaked during the Seven Years' War. In the rank of General-in-Chief, he
brilliantly takes Memel, contributes to the victory of the Russian troops at Gross-Jegersdorf (1757).
In 1758 he became the commander of the Russian troops instead of S. F. Apraksin,
takes Königsberg and all of East Prussia. Empress Maria Theresa was erected
to the dignity of a count. Unsuccessfully besieged Danzig and Kustrin; commanded the Russians
troops in the battle of Zorndorf, for which he received the Order of Andrei
First-Called and Saint Anne.
Post-war life:
Participated in the battle of Kunersdorf (1759). In 1760 he acted along the banks of the Oder for
distraction of Friedrich's forces, for a short time replaced the ill Saltykov at the post
commander in chief, and at that time one of his detachments (under
command of Totleben) Berlin was occupied. At this time, on duty
officer, and then general on duty at Fermor, the future great Russian
commander A. V. Suvorov.
At the end of the war in 1762 he was dismissed from military service. Appointed next year
governor-general of Smolensk, and after 1764 he headed a commission in the Senate on
salt and wine collections. Empress Catherine II entrusted him with the restoration
the city of Tver, almost completely destroyed by fire. In 1768 or 1770 he came out in
resignation, on September 8 (19), 1771 he died.

Stepan Fedorovich Apraksin

Stepan Fedorovich Apraksin
Manifestation in the Seven Years' War:
When Russia concluded an anti-Prussian alliance with Austria, Empress Elizabeth
Petrovna granted Apraksin a field marshal and appointed
commander-in-chief of the active army.
In May 1757, Apraksin's army, numbering up to 100 thousand people, of which -
20 thousand irregular troops set out from Livonia in the direction of the river
Neman. 20 thousandth detachment under the command of General-in-Chief Fermor at
support of the Russian fleet besieged Memel, the capture of which on June 25 (according to the old
style) in 1757 was the signal for the start of the campaign.
Apraksin with the main forces moved in the direction of Verzhbolovo and Gumbinen.
The enemy of the Russian army in East Prussia was left for her
guard corps under the command of Field Marshal Lewald, numbering
30.5 thousand soldiers and 10 thousand militias. Having learned about the bypass movement of the Russian
army, Lewald came out to meet her with the intention of attacking the Russian
troops. General battle between the Prussian and Russian armies
happened on August 19 (30), 1757 near the village of Gross-Egersdorf and ended
the victory of the Russian troops. For five hours of battle, the losses of the Prussian side exceeded
4.5 thousand people, Russian troops - 5.7 thousand, of which 1487 were killed. news about
victory was received with enthusiasm in St. Petersburg, and Apraksin received in his coat of arms
two cannons placed crosswise.

Pyotr Semyonovich Saltykov

Manifestation in the Seven Years' War
In the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), the Russian Empire acted
ally of France and Austria. Russia's main adversary in
this war was Prussia, whose army he personally led
King Friedrich II. However, the period of this war from 1757 to 1758
the year was not very successful for the Russian army,
especially after the bloody pyrrhic victory of the Russian troops over
Friedrich's army at Zorndorf. Inefficiency of actions
and the fall of the authority of the commander-in-chief of the Russian
Fermor's troops led to the fact that
Empress Elizabeth dismissed him. Replaced it
in this post Saltykov - the appointment took place in 1759.

The 1762 campaign was the last in the Seven Years' War. The weapon itself fell out of the hands of the weary fighters. The conclusion of peace was hastened by Russia's withdrawal from the Seven Years' War after the death of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Sweden withdrew from the struggle even earlier by signing the Treaty of Hamburg (May 22, 1762), by which it undertook to clear Prussian Pomerania. The Seven Years' War ended with the Paris and Hubertsburg Peace Treaties of 1763, which summed up its political results.

Peace of Paris 1763

The result of the business trip of the French ambassador, the Duke of Nivernay to London and the English Duke of Bedford to Paris, was the conclusion of a preliminary peace at Fontainebleau (November 3, 1762) and then a final peace in Paris (February 10, 1763). The Peace of Paris 1763 ended maritime and colonial struggle between France and England . England, having destroyed the French and Spanish fleets in the Seven Years' War, received all the benefits she could wish for. France, under the Peace of Paris, gave the British an entire power in North America: Canada with all the regions belonging to it, that is, the island of Cap-Breton, the islands of St. Lawrence, the entire Ohio Valley, the entire left bank of the Mississippi except for New Orleans. Of the Antilles, she ceded three disputed islands, receiving back only the island of St. Lucia, and also renounced Grenada and the Grenadile Islands.

Results of the Seven Years' War in North America. Map. The British possessions before 1763 are marked in red, the accession of the British following the Seven Years' War is marked in pink

Of all Senegal, France retained after the Seven Years' War only the island of Gorea, of all its former vast possessions in Hindustan - only five cities.

India in the middle and end of the 18th century. On the large map, the purple line shows the border of the spread of French colonial influence by 1751, lost as a result of the Seven Years' War

According to the Peace of Paris, the French returned to the British Minorca, located off the Spanish coast. Spain did not oppose this concession, and since she also ceded Florida to the British, France gave her the right bank of the Mississippi as a reward (agreement of November 3, 1762).

These were the main results of the Seven Years' War for France and England. The English nation could be satisfied with peace on such terms. And regardless of them, the very end of the war, which increased the public debt of Britain by 80 million pounds, was a great blessing for her.

Treaty of Hubertsburg 1763

Almost at the same time as the Treaty of Paris, the Hubertsburg Peace Treaty was signed. between Prussia, Austria and Saxony (February 15, 1763), who determined the outcome of the Seven Years' War on the continent . It was drafted by Minister Herzberg on behalf of the Prussian king, Frisch and Kollenbach on behalf of Maria Theresa and the Emperor, and Brühl on behalf of the Saxon Elector Augustus III. According to the Treaty of Hubertsburg, Frederick II the Great kept Silesia, but promised to cast his vote for the election of the Roman kings (that is, the heirs to the throne of the German Empire) the eldest son of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa, Joseph. The Elector of Saxony received back all his possessions.

The Treaty of Hubertsburg restored those state borders that existed in Europe before the Seven Years' War. The Prussian king remained the ruler of Silesia, because of which the struggle actually began. The enemies of Frederick II faced in the Seven Years' War with an enemy who "managed to defend himself better than they did to attack him."

“It is wonderful,” said one of the most active figures of that era, French Cardinal Bernie, “that following the results of the Seven Years’ War, not a single power achieved its goal.” The Prussian king planned to make a great upheaval in Europe, to make the imperial throne an alternating property of Protestants and Catholics, to exchange possessions and take for himself those areas that were more to his taste. He gained great fame by subordinating all European courts to his species, but he left an unstable power as a legacy to his successor. He ruined his people, exhausted his treasury and depopulated his domains. Empress Maria Theresa showed in the Seven Years' War more courage than was expected of her, and made her appreciate the power and dignity of her armies higher ... but did not achieve any of her intended goals. She could neither regain Silesia, lost in the War of the Austrian Succession, nor return Prussia to the position of a secondary German possession. Russia in the Seven Years' War showed Europe the most invincible and worst led army in existence. The Swedes played a subordinate and inglorious role to no avail. The role of France in the Seven Years' War, according to Bernie, was ridiculous and shameful.

General results of the Seven Years' War for the European powers

The results of the Seven Years' War turned out to be doubly disastrous for France - both in terms of what she lost in it and in what her enemies and rivals won. As a result of the Seven Years' War, the French lost their military and political prestige, their fleet and their colonies.

England emerged from this fierce struggle as the sovereign mistress of the seas.

Austria, that exacting ally, to which Louis XV had surrendered, freed herself, as a result of the Seven Years' War, from the political influence of France in all Eastern European affairs. After the Seven Years' War, she began to settle them without any regard for Paris, together with Prussia and Russia. The tripartite agreement of Russia, Austria and Prussia in 1772, concluded soon, on the First Partition of Poland was the result of the joint intervention of these three powers in Polish affairs.

Russia fielded in the Seven Years' War already organized and strong troops, slightly inferior to those that the world saw later near Borodino (1812), Sevastopol (1855) and Plevna (1877).

Prussia, as a result of the Seven Years' War, acquired the name of a great military power and actual supremacy in Germany. The Prussian dynasty of Hohenzollerns "with their raking hands" thereafter continuously increased their possessions. The Seven Years' War, in fact, became the starting point for the unification of Germany under the leadership of Prussia, although it took place only a hundred years later.

But for Germany generally the immediate results of the Seven Years' War were very tragic. The unspeakable disaster of many German lands from military devastation, the mass of debts left to weigh on posterity, the death of the well-being of the working classes - these were the main results of the persistent political efforts of the religious, virtuous and beloved subjects of the Empress.

Seven Years' War 1756-1763 was provoked by a clash of interests of Russia, France and Austria on the one hand and Portugal, Prussia and England (in union with Hanover) on the other. Each of the states that entered the war, of course, pursued its own goals. Thus, Russia tried to increase its influence in the West.

The beginning of the war was laid by the battle of the fleets of England and France near the Balearic Islands on May 19, 1756. It ended with the victory of the French. Land operations began later - on August 28. The army under the command of the Prussian king Frederick the 2nd invaded the lands of Saxony, and later began the siege of Prague. At the same time, the French army occupied Hanover.

Russia entered the war in 1757. In August, the Russian army suffered heavy losses, but won the battle of Gross-Jägersdorf, opening the way to East Prussia. However, Field Marshal Apraksin, who commanded the troops, learned about the illness of the empress. Believing that her heir would soon take the throne, he began to withdraw troops to the Russian border. Later, announcing such actions as treason, the Empress brought Apraksin to court. Fermor took the place of the commander. In 1758, the territory of East Prussia was annexed to Russia.

Further events of the seven-year war (briefly): the victories won in 1757 by the Prussian army under the command of Frederick the 2nd were brought to naught in 1769 due to the successful actions of the Russian-Austrian troops during the Battle of Kunersdorf. By 1761 Prussia was on the brink of defeat. But in 1762 Empress Elizabeth died. Peter the 3rd, who ascended the throne, was a supporter of rapprochement with Prussia. Preliminary peace talks held in the autumn of 1762 ended with the conclusion of the Paris Peace Treaty on January 30, 1763. This day is officially considered the date of the end of the Seven Years' War.

The victory was won by the Anglo-Prussian coalition. Thanks to this outcome of the war, Prussia finally entered the circle of leading European powers. Russia did not gain anything as a result of this war, except for the experience of military operations. France lost Canada and most of its overseas possessions, Austria lost all rights to Silesia and the county of Galz.

The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) got its name from its length in time. It was the largest conflict of the 18th century. It happened not only...

Causes and results of the Seven Years' War. Major battles of the Seven Years' War 1756-1763

By Masterweb

29.04.2018 16:00

The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) got its name from its length in time. It was the largest conflict of the 18th century. It took place not only in Europe, but also in North America, India, and the Caribbean. At one time, Churchill called it "the First World War." In history, this conflict is referred to as the third Silesian, Pomeranian, Carnatic, French-Indian, Recent War.

Causes

The main causes of the Seven Years' War were hidden behind the confrontation of world powers for colonies in North America. Military clashes there began two years before the declaration of war. England and France were the main rivals. Colonists from these countries unleashed an armed conflict. Allied Indians also took part in it. Another reason was the strengthening of Prussia in Europe. Many developed countries did not like this.

Other countries joined coalitions for their own benefit:

• Austria wanted Silesia back.
• Prussia hoped to capture Saxony.
• Sweden sought to retake Stettin and a number of other lands.
• Russia fought for East Prussia.

Countries united in coalitions. One included England, Prussia, Hanover, the other - France, Austria, Russia, Spain. This was rather unusual, since France and Austria had long fought each other for hegemony in Europe.

Opponents

The main states that participated in the Seven Years' War (opponents) and their commanders-in-chief:

• Prussia was ruled by Frederick II. He was the emperor and commander-in-chief in one person, so he did not have to report to anyone.
• England - King was George II.
• Austria - Maria Theresa was at the head of the state, Karl Alexander was appointed commander. But after the unsuccessful battle of Leuthen, he resigned, the command passed to Leopold Joseph.
• Russia - the rules in the country are Elizaveta Petrovna, the commander-in-chief was first Apraksin, he was replaced by Fermor, then Saltykov and Buturlin. They were subordinate to the St. Petersburg Conference. Later, Peter the Third became emperor.
• France - Louis XV was the emperor, the commanders succeeded each other as a result of intrigues and frequent defeats. Le Tellier was appointed first, then Richelieu, de Bourbon-Condé, Erasmus, Victor-Francois, de Rogan.

Invasion of Saxony

Officially, the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) began with the Prussian invasion of Saxony. Frederick the Second entered its territory on August 28, 1756. A couple of days later, Russia declared war on Prussia.

The 33,000-strong Austrian army came to the aid of Saxony. But she was broken. Saxony had only eighteen thousand soldiers. They could not resist the two hundred thousandth Prussian army, so they capitulated. Frederick II drove the Saxons into his army, and in vain. Throughout the war, they ran across to the enemy in battalions.

It was important for Frederick the Second to seize these lands in order to transfer hostilities to the side of the enemy. He was also able to use the human and material resources of wealthy Saxony.

Major battles in Europe

During such a long period of war, many battles were fought. Main battles of the Seven Years' War:

• Under Kolin - took place on 06/18/1757. The battle lasted six hours. Austria had fifty-four thousand men, and Prussia thirty-five thousand. Frederick II was intoxicated with success, but miscalculated his strength and lost.
• Under Leithen, it happened on 12/05/1757. Thirty-two thousand soldiers marched from the Prussian side, while Austria had eighty thousand soldiers. Despite such a numerical superiority, the army under the command of Prince Charles Alexander lost.
• Under Rosbach - took place on 11/05/1757. French troops in the amount of forty-three thousand people could not invade Prussia, because they were defeated by twenty-two thousand soldiers of Frederick II.
• Zorndorf - happened on 08/25/1758. Russian forces (forty-two thousand soldiers) clashed with Frederick II (thirty-three thousand). The battle was bloody. The Russian troops lost sixteen thousand, and the Prussians eleven thousand. The fight ended in nothing.
• Kunersdorf - took place on August 12, 1759. Frederick the Second, with thirty-five thousand troops, opposed forty-one thousand Russian soldiers under the command of Semenovich. The Prussian army was defeated.
• Under Torgay, it happened on 11/03/1760. Considered the last major battle of the war. The forces of Prussia (forty-four thousand) and Austria (fifty-three thousand) clashed. The losses of both sides were colossal - sixteen thousand soldiers on each side. The victory was for Frederick II.

Having lost a significant part of his army in battles, the Prussian ruler began to protect it from bloody battles. The war continued for another three years, but everything was limited to maneuvers and marches. The main battles of the Seven Years' War were fought only in the early years.

North American front

Events in North America began as early as 1754, when there was a skirmish at Great Meadows between colonists from England and France. At first, the French were losing ground, but united with the Indians, they were able to win the Battle of Monongahela in 1755. After a series of battles on May 17, 1756, England declares war on Louis XV.

The decisive battle took place in 1759 near Quebec. The French outnumbered the British. The difference was four thousand soldiers. However, the English subjects had the best training and won. Quebec was taken, and a year later Montreal was captured. The result of the Seven Years' War was the displacement of the French from Canada.

Asian Front

In 1757, the British and French seized land from each other in Bengal and India. There was also a struggle for dominance in the Indian Ocean between the two fleets. In 1759, French ships left the Indian coast.

The ground forces of Louis XV were also not up to par. In 1760, they were defeated at Vandivash, and a year later the British achieved the capitulation of the enemy from the capital of French India. Such results of the Seven Years' War suited George II quite well.

The British conducted military operations in the Philippines in 1762 against Spain. However, they could not stay there for a long time and in 1765 completed the evacuation from the islands. The result of the Seven Years' War in the Philippines was the impetus for new anti-Spanish uprisings of the local population. However, they cannot be called successful. The Philippines remained under Spanish rule until 1898 when it was taken over by the United States.

Losses

Losses among the warring states:

• Austria - four hundred thousand soldiers;
• Prussia - about two hundred thousand;
• France - up to two hundred thousand;
• Russia - about one hundred and forty thousand;
• England - twenty thousand.

No one can name the number of killed natives of North America, India and other colonies for which the war was fought. What were the results of the Seven Years' War? Were they worth the sacrifice? Did the war resolve the contradictions between the strongest powers of Europe at that time?

Results of the Seven Years' War

Four peace treaties were signed between the warring countries. Each of them had its own characteristics:

• Petersburg - already signed by Peter the Third. Under the agreement, Russia withdrew from the conflict and voluntarily transferred to Prussia its lands, which were occupied by Russian soldiers. Subsequently, these actions of Peter III became one of the reasons for the coup and accession to the throne of Catherine II.
• Hamburg - concluded between Sweden and Prussia. Peace was established on the terms of the withdrawal of Swedish troops from the occupied territories. The parties released the prisoners without ransom.
• Parisian - it was concluded by four states at once. England and Portugal negotiated with France and Spain. Louis XV refused Canada, Nova Scotia, the islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Ohio Valley. Spain received Havana from England, but conceded Florida. England received Puerto Rico, Menorca was returned to her, but she gave Martinique and Guadeloupe to France. Spain received Louisiana but pledged to withdraw troops from Portugal. France had to leave Hanover, Senegal. The state of Louis XV was allowed to fish near Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
• Hubertusburg - ended the war. Was signed between Austria, Prussia, Saxony. Maria Theresa renounced Silesia and Graudenz, and Frederick II did not demand compensation for damages. Troops were withdrawn from foreign lands, prisoners of war were released or demobilized. By secret agreement, Prussia was going to vote for the son of Maria Theresa in the election of the head of the Holy Roman Empire.

Many contemporaries were perplexed about the peace treaty between European states. So much blood was shed, and as a result, the pre-war status quo was restored. However, this is not quite true.