His son was the famous Frederick the Great, one of the most remarkable fighters that the world has ever seen.  This prince had been brought up under strict discipline by his father.  The old king had been insistent that his son should be no weakling.  It is told that one day, finding Frederick playing upon a flute, he seized the instrument and snapped it in twain over his son’s shoulder.  The young Frederick, under this harsh training, became a fit leader of a military nation.  When his father died and left him a well-filled treasury and a wonderfully drilled army, he was fired with the ambition to spread his kingdom wider.  Germany, as has been said, was made up of a great many little counties, each ruled by its petty prince or duke, all owing homage, in a general way, to the ruler of Austria, who still was supposed to be the head of the Holy Roman Empire.

[Map:  The Growth of Brandenburg-Prussia, 1400-1806]

This empire was not a real nation, but a collection of many different nationalities which had little sympathy with each other.  The ruler of Austria was also king of Bohemia and of Hungary, but neither country was happy at being governed by a German ruler.  Then, too, the Croatians, Serbs, Slovenes, and Slovaks were unhappy at being ruled, first by the Hungarians and then by the emperor, as they were Slavic peoples who wished their independence.  It so happened that about the time that Frederick became king of Prussia in place of his father, the head of the House of Austria died, leaving his only child, a daughter, Maria Theresa, to rule the big empire.  Frederick decided that he could easily defeat the disorganized armies of Austria, so he announced to the world that the rich province of Silesia was henceforth to be his and that he proposed to take it by force of arms.  Naturally, this brought on a fierce war with Austria, but in the end, Frederick’s well-trained troops, his store of money, and above all, his expert military ability made the Prussians victorious, and at the close of the fighting, almost all of Silesia remained a part of the kingdom of Prussia.  The Austrians, however, were not satisfied, and two more wars were fought before they finally gave up trying to recover the stolen state.  Frederick remained stronger than ever as a result of his victories.

Questions for Review

 1.  Why were the fighting men of the Middle Ages a source of loss to a
    nation in general?
 2.  How was it that Spain became one nation?
 3.  What did Peter the Great do for Russia?
 4.  Why did the Emperor have less power than many kings?
 5.  What was the ambition of Louis XIV of France?
 6.  What effect had the training of his father upon the character of
    Frederick the Great?
 7.  Had Frederick the Great any right to Silesia?

CHAPTER VIII

  The Fall of the Two Kingdoms