Back الحرب السيليزية الأولى Arabic Първа силезийска война Bulgarian Første Schlesiske Krig Danish Erster Schlesischer Krieg German Primera guerra de Silesia Spanish نخستین جنگ سیلزی FA Première guerre de Silésie French Első sziléziai háború Hungarian Perang Silesia I ID Prima guerra di Slesia Italian
| First Silesian War | |||||||||
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| Part of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Silesian Wars | |||||||||
 Prussian and Austrian cavalry fighting at the Battle of Mollwitz, by August Heinrich Ferdinand Tegetmeyer | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Prussia |
 Habsburg monarchy | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
The First Silesian War (German: Erster Schlesischer Krieg) was a war between Prussia and Austria that lasted from 1740 to 1742 and resulted in Prussia's seizing most of the region of Silesia (now in south-western Poland) from Austria. The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia (the lands of the Bohemian Crown) and formed one theatre of the wider War of the Austrian Succession. It was the first of three Silesian Wars fought between Frederick the Great's Prussia and Maria Theresa's Austria in the mid-18th century, all three of which ended in Prussian control of Silesia.
No particular triggering event started the war. Prussia cited its centuries-old dynastic claims on parts of Silesia as a casus belli, but Realpolitik and geostrategic factors also played a role in provoking the conflict. Maria Theresa's contested succession to the Habsburg monarchy provided an opportunity for Prussia to strengthen itself relative to regional rivals such as Saxony and Bavaria.
The war began with a Prussian invasion of Habsburg Silesia in late 1740, and it ended in a Prussian victory with the 1742 Treaty of Berlin, which recognised Prussia's seizure of most of Silesia and parts of Bohemia. Meanwhile, the wider War of the Austrian Succession continued, and conflict over Silesia would draw Austria and Prussia into a renewed Second Silesian War only two years later. The First Silesian War marked the unexpected defeat of the Habsburg monarchy by a lesser German power and initiated the Austria–Prussia rivalry that would shape German politics for more than a century.