In the 1742 Treaty of Breslau, Maria Theresa of Austria, struggling for the succession after her father Emperor Charles VI according to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, had to cede most of the Bohemian province of Silesia to the attacking King Frederick II of Prussia.

She attacked the Electorate of Bavaria and in January 1745 achieved the support of Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Saxony to reconquer Silesia.

Furthermore, her rival, Emperor Charles VII, died a few days later, and on 22 April 1745 his son and successor, Elector Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria, concluded the Treaty of Füssen with her.

Maria Theresa's husband Francis I was finally elected Holy Roman Emperor on 13 September, and Frederick's troops gained shining victories at Soor and Kesselsdorf, occupying Dresden on 18 December.

Frederick, however, had to cope with a rising number of enemy powers and expiring resources, all the more because he had failed to obtain support from Empress Elizabeth of Russia.