War, Politics and Diplomacy

Based on hitherto unused manuscript material, War, Politics and Diplomacy examines the origin, development and collapse of the Anglo-Prussian alliance against the complex backdrop of European politics during the Seven Years War (1756-63). Unlike earlier books in the field, this study views the alliance not as a static entity but as a flexible, dynamic instrument of statecraft ever responsive to military and diplomatic shifts. By examining, for the first time, the disintegration of the alliance in a light of preceding intra-alliance relations, Karl W. Schweizer demonstrates that its failure was certain from the conditions of its formation, the progress of the war, and above all, from the disparate aims and interests of the two partners, England and Prussia. This new approach to the history of the alliance produces a fundamentally different interpretation of its overall development, a disbelief in its prospect of survival after the war and hence a modified evaluation of the role played by the principal statesmen involved.