1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Potato War

Potato War, (Kartoffelkrieg), the name given by the Prussians to the War of the Bavarian Succession in 1778–79. The Prussians and a Saxon contingent, commanded by Frederick the Great and his brother Prince Henry, were opposed to two Austrian armies under London and Lacy. The operations consisted almost entirely of manoeuvres which had for their object the obtaining or the denial to the enemy of food-supplies. The war thus acquired the name of Kartoffelkrieg. Its duration was from the 3rd of July 1778 to the assembly of the congress of Teschen on the 10th of March 1779, and its total cost £4,350,000 and 20,000 men to all parties. The war may be studied from the military point of view as an extreme example of what Clausewitz calls “war with a restricted aim.”