About Plums and Potatoes

Despite the Czech public's interest in the reign of Maria Theresa, her final armed conflict with Frederick the Great over the Bavarian succession from 1778–1779 is almost unknown today. There are several reasons for this – the war lasted less than a year, not a single major battle was fought during its course, the outcome was decided not by generals on the battlefield but by diplomats at the negotiating table, and the soldiers were more concerned with foraging for food, especially potatoes and plums, than with fighting. This is also where the conflict gets its nicknames 'the Potato War' or 'the Plum War'. Nevertheless, this clash deserves to be remembered, not only because of the tens of thousands of casualties, but also due to the fact that military operations took place almost exclusively on the territory of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. The aim of this monograph is therefore to provide a comprehensive analysis of this war within the broader context of European and world history.