The Seven Years' War was a war caused by the conflict between Britain and France for colonies in North America and East India, and the conflict between Prussian aggression and the international political interests of Austria and Russia.
The purpose of Britain is to seize the French colony and establish complete control of the sea; Prussia intends to annex Saxony and turn Poland into its own subject state; Austria intends to weaken its opponent Prussia in the struggle for hegemony in Central Europe and regain Ciri, which was invaded in 1740. West Asia; France tried to annex Hanover, the hereditary territory of the British king in Europe, to protect its colonies in the Americas and East India, and to curb the strengthening of Prussian power; Sweden tried to seize Prussian Pomerania; and Russia tried hard to prevent Prussia from going east. Aggression, expanding their territory in the West. All kinds of contradictions and interests are intricately intertwined, leading to the establishment of two opposing alliances: one is the Anglo-Prussian alliance with the participation of Hannover, Hesse, Kassel, Brunswick and some other German princes; the other One is the Fao-Russian Alliance with Sweden, Saxony, and most of the German princes that have joined the "Holy Roman Empire".
The war began with Prussia's attack on Saxony. On August 28, 1756, the army of King Friedrich II of Prussia suddenly invaded Saxony, surrounded the Saxon army, and forced it to surrender on October 15. In the 1757 war, Friedrich II took advantage of the inconsistency of the Fa-Austrian-Russian alliance plan and the weakness of the slow deployment of the army, and first went to war against Austria. The Prussian army launched a centripetal attack on Prague from all sides. On May 6, the Prussian army defeated Marshal Bravin’s 60,000 Austrian troops and surrounded them in Prague.
However, the troops of Marshal Daun, who came to the reinforcements, defeated the Prussian army near Kolin on June 18, forcing the Prussian army to abandon the Czech Republic. In April, Marshal Estrell's French army occupied Hesse and Kassel, defeated the Hanoverian army near Kloster-Zeven, and captured Hanover. The French army of Prince Subiz approached Eisenach in August and threatened Prussia. Friedrich II mobilized the main force to meet the French army, and defeated the French army in the battle of Rothbach on November 5.
Later, he dispatched troops to enter Silesia forcibly. At that time, the Austrian Army Daun forces had surrounded Shvednitz in Silesia and occupied Breslau. In the battle near Leden on December 5, Friedrich II defeated the Austrian army. Marshal Lewald’s Prussian army took action against the Russian forces that had launched an offensive in East Prussia. On July 5, part of the Russian army under the command of Marshal Apraksin, with the support of the Baltic Fleet, captured Memel, Tilsit, Gombinen, and Instburg. On August 30th, the Russian army defeated Lewald troops in the battle near Gelsdorf in Great Asia, opening the way into East Prussia.
However, Apraksin believed that Peter III, a follower of Friedrich II, would soon become Russian emperor, and ordered the troops to withdraw to Memel. For this reason, he was sent to the court by the Queen for trial, and his duties were replaced by General Fairmore. The Swiss army launched an offensive on Sid in Pomerania in September, but after the Russian army withdrew to Memel, it also withdrew to Stralsund. In this way, the Prussian army won the war of 1757.
In the war of 1758, the Anti-Prussian League sent 316,000 troops, while Friedrich II's army only had 145,000. Although the Anti-Prussian League has twice as much superior force as the enemy, it has failed to give full play to its advantages due to lack of unity and non-cooperation. The Russian army, which launched an offensive in East Prussia in December 1757, occupied East Prussia in January 1758 and designated it as a territory of the Russian state. In the summer of 1758, the Russian army surrounded Kusterlin.
Austria took passive defensive actions in Silesia and Saxony due to fear of Russia's victory, while France also adopted the same approach in Hesse-Kassel and Hannover. Friedrich II concentrated his forces in an attempt to defeat the two main enemies of Austria and Russia, and then invaded the Czech Republic from Silesia and surrounded Orimuc. But when he learned that Kusterlin was besieged, he transferred the main force to Kusterlin. On January 25, in the bloody battle of Tsao Endorf, neither side won. The Prussian army retreated to Custerling. The Russian army retreated to Randsburg, from there to Pomerania, and then retreated to the east of the Vistula with the advent of winter.
At the beginning of 1759, the Anti-Prussian Union Army had reached 352,000, and the British-Prussian Union Army had about 222,000. Russia's plan in the war of 1759 was to gather the army in Poznan and then drive to the Oder River to join the Austrian army. In April, 40,000 Russian troops began to advance towards Oder. General Wedel’s Prussian Army 35.2 attempted to block the Russian army, but was defeated by the Russian army at the Battle of Palitz on July 23. Saltkov reunited with Lawton's Austrian Army in the Crossen area, and after occupying Frankfurt, suggested that Dawn attack Berlin together. Dawn rejected this suggestion and tried to shift military operations to Silesia. Friedrich II decided to stop Saltkov's attack on Berlin. On August 12, the Prussian army was defeated in the battle near Cunelfidolf.
However, due to the failure of the Austrian military command, the already demonstrated opportunity to conquer the Prussian capital of Berlin and end the war failed to materialize. The Russian army withdrew to the east of the Vistula. In the West, French coalition forces started fighting operations in Hannover to keep Hessen-Kassel, but they were defeated when they surrounded the Minden Fortress in Hannover on August 1. Therefore, in the 1759 war, although the Russian army achieved a brilliant victory, the Russian army did not achieve major results due to the policy pursued by Austria, which was afraid of the complete defeat of Prussia and strengthened the Russian power. In the war of 1759, the contradictions among the anti-Prussian allies intensified. France opposed Russia's annexation of East Prussia and was preparing to sign a peace treaty with Britain, but the peace talks ended in failure.
In 1760, Friedrich II reluctantly increased the force to 100,000 to 120,000, while the anti-Prussian alliance had 220,000 troops. The alliance plans to take coordinated action: the Russian-Austrian army is in Silesia, the imperial army is in Saxony, and the French army is taking action against Hanover. Friedrich II turned to the defense in order to ensure the safety of his supply lines and munitions depots. The Russian-Austrian army took action on the enemy's lines of communication in an attempt to force the Prussian army to abandon the fortresses and cities it occupied. Since Dawn did not participate in the coordinated operation, Saltkov turned the main force of the Russian army to Pomerania and sent some troops to attack Berlin. As a result, the Russian army led by General Chernyshov occupied Berlin on October 9. However, as Friedrich II led 70,000 Prussian troops near Berlin, the Cherneshov Army, after destroying the enemy's supply depot and other military installations, withdrew from Berlin and joined the main Russian forces in the Frankfurt area. . The war of 1760 ended with no fundamental changes in the situation on both sides of the war.
The major event in the war of 1761 occurred on December 16. On that day, the Russian army under the command of General Rumyantsev, with the cooperation of the Baltic Fleet, captured the fortress of Prussia, Korburg. After the Russian army under the command of Marshal Bouturlin gained a foothold in Pomerania, it established contact with the Swiss army in order to coordinate with it to carry out an assault from the north to Berlin. In the war of 1761, Prussia lost South Silesia and its connection with Poland and the Baltic Sea was severed. The situation in Prussia was extremely severe. However, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna died of illness on January 5, 1762, and Peter III, a follower of Friedrich II, ascended the throne. He made Russia withdraw from the war, and returned all the land occupied by the Russian army to Prussia, and signed an alliance treaty with Prussia on May 5, thus saving Prussia from the danger of complete destruction. Following Russia, Sweden also withdrew from the war on May 22, 1762.
In the 1762 war, the Prussian army, with the assistance of the Russian Chernesov Army, expelled the Austrian army from Silesia and Saxony, and defeated the imperial army in the battle near Freiburg. However, the war has exhausted all the belligerents. France signed a preliminary peace treaty on November 3 and Pau signed an armistice agreement on November 24.
In the Seven Years' War, in the battles between Britain and France at sea and in the colonies, France won the first victory. In the Battle of Menorca in the Balearic Islands, the French fleet defeated the British fleet on May 20. However, with the beginning of the war in 1758, France, which was trapped in the European battlefield, began to suffer defeat at sea and in its colonies. Britain, which provided only financial aid to Prussia, gradually accumulated power in the colonies and mastered the initiative of war. In 1760, it occupied Canada, part of Louisiana, Florida and most of the French colonies in India.
In early 1763, the Seven Years' War ended. On February 10, 1763, Britain and France signed the Treaty of Paris. On February 15, 1763, the Huberzburg Peace Treaty was signed with Prussia on one side and Austria and Saxony on the other. The Seven Years' War ended. The peace treaty confirmed Prussia's power over Silesia and the Earl of Graz.
The important military and political outcome of the Seven Years' War was to change the balance of power in Europe. Britain seized most of the colonies of France and Spain and became the most powerful maritime power. Prussia's position in the German vassal state has been so consolidated that it can fight for the unification of Germany under its protection. France was divided due to internal contradictions, and its strength was greatly weakened, which was close to the eve of the bourgeois revolution. Tired of the war, Austria and Russia formed an anti-Ottoman alliance. The Seven Years' War enabled Russia to strengthen its political power as a European power.
The Seven Years' War had a great impact on the development of military academics. It exposed the shortcomings of cordon strategy and line tactics, demonstrated the superiority of annihilating the enemy's vital forces in field battles, and new combat methods and methods emerged.