Seven Years War Analysis

The Seven Years’ War essentially made up of two struggles. One of the two struggles was centered on the naval and colonial conflict between Britain and its enemies, France and Spain; the second, on the conflict between Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia and his opponents: Austria, France, Russia, and Sweden. The naval and colonial war proved a great achievement for Britain, a reflection of the strength of the British navy–itself the product of the wealth of Britain’s expanding colonial economy and the strength of British public finances. The French planned an invasion of Britain, but their fleet was badly battered in defeats in 1759 at Lagos off Portugal and Quiberon Bay off Brittany. These naval victories allowed Britain to make colonial
Russian interests centered on East Prussia, the Austrians were most concerned by Silesia, and the French increasingly devoted their efforts to the war with Britain.
Although Prussia survived the war, casualties were very heavy. Frederick discovered how exposed his territories were; though their extent allowed him to abandon territory therefor trade space for the vital time he needed to exploit internal lines, in order to defeat his opponents one by
The Russians in particular fought well, and their formidable resources made a powerful impression on Frederick. To cope with these challenges, Frederick was obliged to change his tactics during the war: as everyone sought to avoid the mistakes of the previous year’s campaigning season, warfare was shaped by the fluid dynamics of the rival armies. Initially, Frederick relied on cold steel, but after sustaining heavy casualties from Austrian cannon and musket fire at the Battle of Prague (May 6, 1757), he placed more emphasis on the tactics of firepower, for example, at Leuthen. Frederick became more interested in using artillery as a key to open deadlocked battlefronts. However, Frederick’s success in avoiding decisive defeat at the hands of his opponents can distract attention from the extent to which they were able to innovate in order to respond to Prussian tactics. The Prussian oblique order attack (in which one end of the line was strengthened and used to attack, minimizing exposure to the weaker end) lost its novelty, and the Seven Years’ War demonstrated the essential character of European warfare: the similarity in weaponry, training, and balance between component arms of different armies made it difficult to achieve the sweeping successes that characterized some encounters with non-European