Why was Silesia important to Prussia?

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Portrait painting of Frederick II of Brandenburg, King of Prussia, wearing a dark coat with a star medal, yellow gloves, and holding a cane, with the inscription Fridericus II Rex Prussiae. — Frederick II Frederick II, painting in the Castello di Miramare, Trieste, Italy.

Silesia was primarily important to Prussia due to its immense wealth. By the 18th century, the region’s flourishing mining and textile industries had made it the richest of all the Habsburgs’ Austrian provinces.1

This economic prosperity was the primary motivation for Frederick II (the Great) to seize the territory from the Austrian empress Maria Theresa during the War of the Austrian Succession. Following the Prussian conquest, the region’s development continued under more efficient administration, with expanded mining of coal, iron ore, lead, and zinc. These industrial advancements eventually established Silesia as the second most important industrial area in Germany.21