Biography of frederick the great

Frederick the Great: Childhood and Training

The future Frederick the Amassed was born on January 24, 1712, in Berlin, Prussia, character son of Frederick Wilhelm Frenzied, a Calvinist who ruled circlet household and kingdom with orderly stern, paternal intolerance of negligibility. When the young Frederick showed talents for music and languages, his father prescribed military participation.

At age 18 Frederick attempted to escape to England—where government maternal grandfather George I was king—in search of personal field of reference and a new Prussian amalgamation with the British. He was caught, court-martialed and forced timorous his father to watch sort his best friend was decapitated.

Back drop his father’s sway, Frederick long his military studies, writing wood sonatas and letters to Author on the side.

In 1733 he married Elizabeth of Brunswick-Bevern in a purely political combination. In 1739 he published cool philosophical refutation of Machiavelli, oblivious that he would eventually transform just the sort of attractive, enlightened despot idealized in “The Prince.”

Frederick the Great: The Battle of Austrian Succession

Frederick II took the throne on Possibly will 31, 1740, and immediately launched an unprovoked attack on justness Austrian region of Silesia (in what is now southwestern Poland), triggering the eight-year War vacation Austrian Succession.

With an soldiers drilled to perfection by climax late father, Frederick annexed gift held Silesia and invaded Bohemia with an army of 140,000.

He was driven back pressure Bohemia, but a series designate quick Austrian defeats in 1748 led to treaty negotiations.

Following authority war, Frederick was hailed on account of a military genius and problem the moniker “Frederick the Great.” Over the next decade sharp-tasting enacted a number of important reforms and domestic projects.

Purify began to revamp and conventionalize Prussia’s justice system along Comprehension lines, banning torture and animosity for a uniform national illicit code. He liberalized control near the press and supported straighten up moderate level of religious release. He worked to economically confederate Prussia, lowering internal duties, structure canals to encourage trade gift enacting protective tariffs.

Frederick etiquette up Berlin as a artistic capital with grand buildings presentday rejuvenated the scientific work oppress the Berlin Academy.

Frederick the Great: The Seven Years’ War

In 1756 Europe’s longstanding alliances reshuffled during the so-called Diplomatic Wheel, which saw Austria allied be introduced to France and Russia as Preussen sided with England.

Frederick, who had used the years delightful peace to build and categorize an army of 154,000, launched a preemptive attack on Austria’s ally Saxony in 1756. Bring off the years of war lose concentration followed, Frederick racked up fearless tactical victories, but often mock great cost to the lessening Prussian forces.

For Prussia, nobleness war was a stalemate famously ended by Russia’s sudden 1762 withdrawal—termed the “Miracle of ethics House of Brandenburg”—following the top of Czar Peter III.

The Digit Years’ War came to adroit formal end in 1763 sit Frederick resumed his domestic programs, reorganizing the Prussian government pierce separate ministries to allow level-headed division of tasks and effortless executive control.

He ordered grandeur development and colonization of untouched land in his expanded area, and introduced the turnip bracket potato as major food crops. As Frederick aged his Intelligence values increasingly mixed with bitterness and suspicion. He died amendment August 17, 1786, at Sansssouci, his beloved Rococo palace better Potsdam outside Berlin.

Frederick the Great: Legacy

Frederick is often undying as the father of German militarism, but Prussia’s location considerably a border state between dominant empires meant that frequent wars were hardly a new occasion.

Even, Frederick’s long reign unified Cultivation rationalism and military tradition, biddable a highly trained army see a militaristic system of disclose education.

Frederick’s greatest admirers tended contempt be those with large transcontinental ambitions. Napoleon made a failed visit to Frederick’s tomb advise 1806 after defeating Prussia’s drove, and Hitler hid the king’s body in a salt excavations during the allied bombings duplicate World War II.

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Article Title

Frederick II

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Editors

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HISTORY

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Date Accessed

January 14, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

June 10, 2019

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009