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Having defeated Bavaria, Austria began an invasion of Silesia. At the end of May an Austrian–Saxon army crossed through the Giant Mountains into Silesia, only to be surprised and decisively defeated by Frederick in the Battle of Hohenfriedberg on 4 June, [44] removing any immediate prospect of Austria recovering Silesia. [45]
Austrian Silesia, [a] officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, [b] was an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Habsburg monarchy (from 1804 the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 the Cisleithanian portion of Austria-Hungary).
Frederick receives homage from the Silesian estates, wall painting by Wilhelm Camphausen, 1882. The rivalry is largely held to have begun upon the death of the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI in 1740, King Frederick the Great of Prussia launched an invasion of Austrian-controlled Silesia, starting the First Silesian War (of three Silesian Wars to come) against Maria Theresa.
Austria made a further concession by formally renouncing its claim to Silesia; in return, Prussia committed to support Maria Theresa's son, Archduke Joseph, in the forthcoming 1764 Imperial election. With that, the belligerents agreed to end the Third Silesian War with the Treaty of Hubertusburg, signed 15 February 1763. [117]
The Second Silesian War was a disappointment for Austria, whose armed forces proved surprisingly ineffective against smaller Prussian armies. [66] The Treaty of Dresden formalised the loss of the Habsburg monarchy's wealthiest province, [61] and defeat by a lesser German prince significantly dented Habsburg prestige. [67]
The defeat of Breslau put the seal on Austria's loss of fertile Silesia; the disastrous December, which included the debilitating loss at Leuthen, followed by Charles' precipitous retreat across Silesia and into Bohemia, and finally the loss of the garrison at Breslau, erased all of Austria's summer gains. Maria Theresa did not despair of ...
The Lands of the Bohemian Crown under Habsburg rule until 1742, when most of Silesia was ceded to Prussia. Prussia's claims in Silesia were based, in part, on a 1537 inheritance treaty between the Silesian Piast Duke Frederick II of Legnica and the Hohenzollern Prince-Elector Joachim II Hector of Brandenburg, whereby the Silesian Duchies of Liegnitz, Wohlau and Brieg were to pass to the ...
In Silesia as a whole, ethnic Poles comprised about 23% of the population, [72] most of whom lived around Kattowitz in the southeast of Upper Silesia. In whole Upper Silesia Poles comprised 61,1% of the population in 1829, but due to state policy of forced germanization their numbers decreased to 58,6% of population 1849. [73]