The first Partition of Poland occurred in 1772, and was meant to be the only one as the Partitioning powers believed the losses had sufficiently weakened Poland. The passing of the May 3rd Constitution and subsequent restructuring of the Polish government in 1791 caused the partitioning powers to be concerned that Poland might attempt to become a regional power as it had been before. So, the second and third partitions were undertaken to erase Poland from the map.

Prussia had amongst the finest military traditions anywhere in Europe. They had such well drilled and experienced troops that they regularly took on nations many times larger than themselves and were victorious.

In an attempt to retake the Silesia region which they had lost to Prussia in a previous war, Austria recruited Russia and France to join an alliance against Prussia. However, Prussia successfully fought off each nations attempts to invade its territory and at the end of the war Prussia maintained all of its territory.

Austria, Prussia, and Russia were the three partitioning powers. As the only three nations to border Poland at the time they were also the only nations capable of doing so.

For the past three centuries before the Siege of Vienna, Poland was a major power in Eastern Europe, and Europe on the whole. The victory at Vienna, made possible only by Poland's involvement, was the last great military achievement by Poland, which would be in a steep decline for the next century, until the nation was partitioned in 1795.

The Thirty Years War began in 1618 as a religious conflict between Protestant and Catholic groups within Germany, but then spread to become a war between most of the major powers of Europe.

The many German Principalities served as the hosting grounds for armies from across Europe as the small regional dispute over religion devolved into a war over what nations would be the pre-eminent powers of Europe.

Sweden intervened in order to protect the interests of the Protestant regions of Germany. When the major powers of Europe became involved in the war and Sweden was able to fight them off it served as a signal that Sweden as one of the major powers of the time.

Due to the length of time and distance from home these soldiers were, they could not be resupplied effectively from their home nations, so they instead stole the supplies they needed from cities, towns, and villages in Germany. This caused widespread starvation and destruction in Germany. There were many regions where more than two-thirds of the population was killed or fled the country.

France emerged as the pre-eminent power in Europe following the Thirty Years War. At the time of the French intervention in 1635 the war had largely fallen into stalemate with the Austrian and Spanish Hapsburgs on one side, and the Protestant Germans, English, Danes, and Swedes on the other. France entered on the side of the latter, and brought about a swift change in the fortunes of the war, and in the end led their alliance to a decisive victory.