that Prussia must restore its French alliance, build an anti-Austrian coalition with as many other German princes as possible, and then re-enter the war by striking first against Austria. So, in late 1743 and early 1744 Prussia conducted negotiations with France, Bavaria and other German princes to build a coalition to support the Emperor. On 22 May 1744 Prussia formed an alliance with Bavaria, Sweden, Hesse–Kassel and the Electoral Palatinate known as the League of Frankfurt, whose announced aim was to recover and defend the territories of Emperor Charles Albert, including Bohemia (where he had been proclaimed king in 1742). A parallel treaty with France was concluded on 5 June, under which France committed to support the League and attack the Austrian Netherlands. Prussia would champion the Emperor's cause by invading Bohemia from the north, a service for which the Emperor committed to cede the portions of Bohemia northeast of the Elbe to Prussia. Meanwhile, the main Austrian force under Prince Charles of Lorraine would be occupied by the French in Alsace, where the French would counterattack on the opposite front as Prince Charles's army was pulled in two directions. Maria Theresa pursued the same goals she had from the beginning of the War of the Austrian Succession: first, she needed to compel a general recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and her right to rule the Habsburg lands; second, she wanted to achieve the election of her husband, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, as Holy Roman Emperor; third, she hoped to recover and preserve control of the contested Habsburg crown lands of Bohemia and Silesia. As soon as the Franco–Bavarian threat from the west could be defeated, Austria intended to resume hostilities in Silesia and drive out the Prussians, restoring the borders of the territories Maria Theresa had inherited. On 7 August Prussia declared its intervention in the Austrian war on behalf of Emperor Charles Albert, beginning the Second Silesian War. Methods and technologies European warfare in the early modern period was characterised by the widespread adoption of firearms in combination with more traditional bladed weapons. 18th-century European armies were built around units of massed infantry armed with smoothbore flintlock muskets and bayonets. Cavalrymen were equipped with sabres and pistols or carbines; light cavalry were used principally for reconnaissance, screening and tactical communications, while heavy cavalry were used as tactical reserves and deployed for shock attacks. Smoothbore artillery provided