He left at his death, in 1688, the financial condition of the country in a sound state, with an effective army of 38,000 men.

Friedrich I, who followed him, held matters together and got Prussia promoted to the rank of a kingdom in 1701.

His son, Friedrich Wilhelm I, by rigid economies succeeded in raising the financial condition of the kingdom to a still higher level.

The military power of the monarchy he also developed considerably, and is famous in history for his mania for tall soldiers.
We now come to the real founder of the Prussian monarchy as a great European Power, Friedrich Wilhelm I's son, who succeeded his father in 1740 as Friedrich II, and who is known to history as Friedrich the Great.
Friedrich no sooner came to the throne than he started on an aggressive expansionist policy for Prussia.

The opportunity presented itself a few months after his accession by the dispute as to the Pragmatic Sanction and Maria Theresa's right to the throne of Austria.
In the two wars which immediately followed, the Prussian army overran the whole of Silesia, and the peace of 1745 left the Prussian King in possession of the entire country.