but very recent events have proved that few statesmen attach much importance to treaties in the absence of an army sufficient to enforce their enactments. Since the times of Frederick the Great, Charles Albert of Sardinia in 1848, and the Japanese empire in 1904—to quote but two examples—have opened hostilities without a formal declaration of war. It is probable that in consequence of the exigencies of modern warfare this will in the future become more and more customary. Silesia fell an easy prey to Frederick. He immediately decreed that the Protestants should enjoy complete equality of rights, but that the Romanists should not be in any way molested. The Silesian Protestants enthusiastically welcomed the Prussian troops, and the Roman Catholics seeing that Frederick, whose agnosticism assured his impartiality, did not intend to pursue a policy of retaliation, soon found it advisable to accept the rule of Frederick. Only the Austrian government officials, and some members of the nobility who were closely connected with the court of Vienna, left Silesia. The country had but a small Austrian garrison, and with the exception of a few fortresses fell almost immediately into the hands of the King of Prussia, who, on January 3, 1741, made his solemn entry into Breslau. In the following spring the Austrians made an attempt to recover Silesia, but after a complete defeat at Mollwitz on April 16, they were obliged to retire into Moravia.
The armies of France, Saxony and Bavaria had meanwhile began to move against the Habsburg States. Frederick in a masterly diplomatic campaign, which has perhaps only been rivalled by his countryman Bismarck, proved that he had no wish to establish a French hegemony in Germany in succession to the Austrian one, or to increase largely the power of Saxony—Prussia's old rival. He therefore chose this moment for concluding an armistice with Maria Theresa. Under the mediation of England a treaty was signed at Klein Schnellendorf on October 9, 1741, by which Lower Silesia and some smaller districts were ceded to Frederick. The agreement was insincere on the part of both contractors. Frederick was determined, should the enemies of Maria Theresa prove successful, to secure the whole of Silesia and perhaps other parts of the lands of the Bohemian crown as his share of the spoils. The Queen of Bohemia and Hungary had firmly resolved, should her armies be
