War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1715)
Aftermath
With Germany and Italy providing the buffer with France, the Austrian Habsburgs had maintained what was crucial to their security and interests. Together with the recent Balkan conquests, Charles VI now ruled an extensive Habsburg empire. Austria
The Archduchy of Austria was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. With its capital at Vienna, the archduchy was centered at the Empire's southeastern periphery. The archduchy's history as an imperial state ended with the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. It was replaced with the Lower and Upper Austria crown lands of the Austrian Empire. had confirmed its position as a major power, yet the Habsburg dynasty had fallen short of its full war aims: Spain
The Spanish Empire was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its predecessor states between 1492 and 1976. One of the largest empires in history, it was the first to usher the European Age of Discovery and achieve a global scale, controlling vast territory. It was one of the most powerful empires of the early modern period, reaching its maximum extent in the 18th century. had been lost to Philip V and Sicily lost to the Duke of Savoy. Although Sardinia was exchanged for Sicily in 1720 the island, together with the acquisitions of the Spanish Netherlands and Naples, extended the Monarchy's responsibilities beyond their traditional interests and commitments – an overextension which made the Habsburg territories more vulnerable at their periphery, particularly without the assistance of the Maritime Powers.
In Germany, the Imperial army had been unable to recover the lost lands in Alsace and Lorraine, and the Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 until the twelfth century, the Empire was the most powerful monarchy in Europe. The empire reached the apex of territorial expansion and power in the mid-thirteenth century, but overextending led to partial collapse. itself made no gains, and even lost territory (Landau). This was largely due to the fact that Vienna's principal concern had been to establish a secure Danubian state, and the Emperor and his ministers had been unwilling to put German interests before those of Italy and Hungary. The Habsburgs would make further gains when Prince Eugene once again defeated the Ottomans
The Ottoman Empire, also known as the Turkish Empire, was an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453. The Ottoman Empire's defeat and the occupation of part of its territory by the Allied Powers in the aftermath of World War I resulted in its partitioning and the loss of its Middle Eastern territories. in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18, but Vienna's influence within the Empire declined, not least because the rulers of Hanover, Saxony, and Prussia
The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. It was the driving force behind the unification of Germany in 1871 and was the leading state of the German Empire until its dissolution in 1918. Although it took its name from the region called Prussia, it was based in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Its capital was Berlin. had territorial claims beyond Germany, and now had royal titles which they considered equal to the Emperor.
On 1 August 1714 (O.S.) Queen Anne of Great Britain
The Kingdom of Great Britain was a sovereign country in Western Europe from 1 May 1707 to the end of 31 December 1800. The state was created by the 1706 Treaty of Union and ratified by the Acts of Union 1707, which united the kingdoms of England (which included Wales) and Scotland to form a single kingdom encompassing the whole island of Great Britain and its outlying islands, with the exception of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. died. Despite Jacobite machinations, the Act of Settlement ensured a smooth Protestant succession and the Elector of Hanover ascended the throne as George I of Great Britain and Ireland. The first warrant signed by George reinstated Marlborough as Captain-General of the army, and from London the Duke helped organise the defeat of the Jacobite rising of 1715. However, the new King and the Whigs in general never forgave those Tories accused of abandoning the Grand Alliance and the part they played in concluding the Peace of Utrecht. Rather than face impeachment Bolingbroke fled to France
The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe since the High Middle Ages. It was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. Colonial conflicts with Great Britain led to the loss of much of its North American holdings by 1763. The Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. in April 1715 to join the Pretender, as did Ormonde who followed in August. Oxford remained in England and was imprisoned in the Tower of London for two years, never again to hold office. The Tory party, leaderless and riven by faction, did not survive intact, and their decline paved the way for the eventual rise of Robert Walpole and decades of Whig domination in early Georgian Britain – a country which emerged from the war as a world power, and one which had learnt to utilise its financial muscle to harness European allies for its own strategic interests.
The War of the Spanish Succession was the last in which the Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic was a confederation that existed from 1579, during the Dutch Revolt, to 1795. It was a predecessor state of the Netherlands and the first fully independent Dutch nation state. Although the state was small and contained only around 1.5 million inhabitants, it controlled a worldwide network of seafaring trade routes. The income from this trade allowed the Dutch Republic to compete militarily against much larger countries. It amassed a huge fleet of 2,000 ships, initially larger than the fleets of England and France combined. fought as a major power; despite its talented merchants, bankers, and diplomats, the country of just three million people, burdened with debt, could not maintain its 17th-century pre-eminence. Exhausted after its supreme efforts, the Republic could no longer compete with Great Britain; the Dutch navy could not match the British fleet, which had now secured a foothold in the Mediterranean with the annexation of Gibraltar and Minorca. Nevertheless, the Dutch had achieved their principal war aim: the Austro-Dutch Antwerp treaty of 15 November 1715 assured the Dutch their coveted barrier fortress defence system in the Austrian Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the Austrian acquisition of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714 and lasted until Revolutionary France annexed the territory during the aftermath of the Battle of Sprimont in 1794 and the Peace of Basel in 1795.. The agreement also included the closure of the river Scheldt to maritime commerce, thereby restoring Dutch commercial and trade domination. The Dutch oligarchs would henceforth pursue a more defensive, and even neutralist, policy and by the mid-century the Netherlands was a much reduced force in European politics.
On 1 September 1715 Louis XIV died, bringing an end to his long reign that had made France the supreme power in Europe. Louis's five-year-old great-grandson and heir survived his precarious childhood and, including the eight-year regency of the Duke of Orléans, reigned in France as Louis XV until his death in 1774. Louis XIV had ended the war with some minor adjustments along France's eastern borders, but the final settlement had been far more favourable than what the Allies had offered in 1709/10: France had resisted the Allied demand of 'no peace without Spain', and Louis XIV could claim dynastic victory in Spain, thereby avoiding Habsburg encirclement.
In North America France lost territory, and the French settlers were vastly outnumbered by the British in their colonies. Nevertheless, the French held on to Canada, Louisiana, Cape Breton Island, and Prince Edward Island, and thus control of the St Lawrence; thousands more remained in Acadia, and they still held the vast territory to the west between French Canada and Louisiana in the south. However, the war had stretched Louis XIV's finances beyond its limits, and France was left with a massive burden of debt. The kingdom remained inherently strong, but it could not maintain its former dominance and suffered a relative decline in military and economic terms.
On 14 February 1714 the Spanish queen, Marie Luisa, died; on 16 September Philip V married, by proxy, Elisabeth Farnese, niece of the Duke of Parma. Farnese' ejection of Madame des Ursins and Jean Orry from Spain, and her reliance on a new favourite, Giulio Alberoni, the envoy to the Duke of Parma, signalled the end of French dominance in Madrid, and brought forth a new direction of Spanish policy. Italian politics and culture became highly influential, but Philip V had lost his Italian territories, which together with the losses of Gibraltar and Minorca had deprived the king his power in the western Mediterranean. However, the territorial losses had enabled the King and his ministers to concentrate on internal reform and centralisation. For the provinces of the Crown of Aragon this meant the end to much of their political autonomy as they were united into a Castilian Spanish state ruled from Madrid. These steps were problematic and painful, particularly in Catalonia where, despite the survival of Catalan private law and the Catalan language, resentment would linger.
The Basques - Kingdom of Navarre and the Basque Provinces ("Biscay") - had supported the king against the Habsburg pretender, and initially retained their home rule (fueros). However, the centralising drive of the Spanish Crown did not spare them. In 1718, following Philip V's attempt to suppress home rule by bringing customs to the coast and the Pyrenees, Basques in Gipuzkoa and the seigneury of Biscay rose up in arms across coastal areas. Philip V sent over troops and the uprising (matxinada) was quelled in blood. Despite his military success, eventually Philip V backed down on his decision, brought customs back to the Ebro river (1719). The Basques managed to keep their traditional institutions and laws.
Nevertheless, Spain eventually grew in strength under Philip V's and Farnese's leadership, and the country would return to the forefront of European politics. With neither Charles VI nor Philip V willing to accept the Spanish partition, and with no treaty existing between Spain and Austria, the two powers would soon clash in order to gain control of Italy, starting with a brief war in 1718. However, the War of the Spanish Succession brought to an end a long period of major conflict in western Europe: the partition of the Spanish Monarchy had secured the balance of power, and the conditions imposed at Utrecht helped to regulate the relations between the major European powers over the coming century.
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