The Silesian Wars are a series of wars between Prussia and Austria (and their changing allies) for control of Silesia.

They form parts of the larger War of the Austrian Succession and Seven Years' War.The First Silesian War inaugurates, and is generally seen in the context of, the wider ranging War of the Austrian Succession.

It owes its origins to the Pragmatic Sanction of 19 April 1713 whereby the Emperor Charles VI had decreed the imperial succession arrangements as set out in his will, according precedence to his own daughters over the daughters of his (by now deceased) elder brother Joseph I.

This proved prescient: in May of 1717 the Emperor’s own eldest daughter was born and on his death in 1740, she duly succeeds to the thrones of lands within the Habsburg Monarchy as the Queen Maria Theresa.During the emperor’s lifetime the Pragmatic Sanction had been generally acknowledged by the German states: following his death it is promptly contested both by Frederick II, the new king of Prussia and by Bavaria's king, Charles Albert.

The Bavarian king launches a claim to the imperial throne and to the Habsburg territories while Prussia demands Silesia and a part of the Habsburg territories for itself.Frederick II of Prussia bases his demands on a breach of the 1537 Treaty of Schwiebus whereby the Silesian princedoms of Liegnitz, Wohlau and Brieg were to pass to Brandenburg on the extinction of the Piast dynasty.

In 1675, with the death of George William of Legnica the Piast line had died out: at that time no attempt had been made to implement these old treaty provisions, and the Prussian Elector (ruler) had been persuaded to renounce the claim in return for a payment.Sixty-five years on, an extensive alliance forms in support of Prussia’s newly asserted claims on Silesia.

Prussia is supported by France, Bavaria, and Sweden along with various smaller European powers.

The shared objective within the alliance is the destruction or at least the diminution of the Habsburg Monarchy and of its dominant influence over the other German states.

The Habsburgs find themselves supported by the Russians along with the maritime powers, the Dutch and the British/Hanoverians whose imperial aspirations beyond Europe always incline them to join available eighteenth century European wars on the anti-French side.