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Saxony had once been the strongest state in North Germany. Allied with France, it had united with Poland and stood as an equal to Austria.

Yet during the Thirty Years' War, Saxony joined the Protestant Union led by the French. It proved no match for Wallenstein's massive army, and its entire territory fell.

Wallenstein's mercenaries were hardly good people, and with the church stoking religious tensions, the fires of war never died down on Saxon soil. In just over twenty years, they reduced the strongest state to scorched earth.

Saxony later avoided the War of the Spanish Succession, but by then its duke also held the Polish crown. As a result, it somehow got dragged into the Great Northern War (February 22, 1700–September 10, 1721).

As luck would have it, their opponent was the Kingdom of Sweden, whose greatest commander since Gu the Second was Charles XII. The Polish-Saxon forces suffered defeat after defeat, and in the end had no choice but to switch sides.

Then this great commander suddenly decided to launch an expedition against Russia.

Saxony had only just caught its breath when it saw neighboring Prussia rake in a fortune during the War of the Austrian Succession (December 16, 1740–October 18, 1748) and decided to grab a share. Instead, the Hungarians, boosted by the Queen, beat them to a pulp.

As for the discipline of nomadic peoples, everyone knows what that's like.

Then, during the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the Saxons again became Prussia's first target. As it happened, their commander was Frederick II.

Saxony was defeated in just one month. Frederick the Great took a full 86 percent of Saxony's annual revenue without the slightest hesitation, then incorporated the entire surrendered Saxon army into the Prussian military.

Then, as Prussian puppets, the Saxons were beaten in