The War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

1
The War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

• Maria-Theresa of Austria succeeded her father
  Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1711-1740) in
  1740.
• She, as a woman, was seen as weak and some German
  princes, such as Charles Albert of Bavaria
  alleged rights to the Austrian crown.
• In 1740, Frederick II of Prussia invaded Silesia,
  an industrial and wealthy possession of the
  Austrian Habsburg Empire.

2

• Attention
• By this conquest, Prussia doubled its population
  and made huge gains in its industrial
  productivity.
• After 1741, nearly all the powers of Europe were
  involved in the struggle.
• France supported Prussia and Bavaria. Spain
  followed France.
• Austria was supported by Britain and the United
  Provinces, the rivals of France.

3

• Attention
• Prussia emerged first as the most powerful
  northern German kingdom through its
  Junker-officered army into which four-fifths of
  the states resources were allocated and the
  military genius of its kings.
• At the end of the War of Austrian Succession,
  Prussia rose to become a military power in Europe
  due to the full-application of principle of
  tactics and discipline and to its well-trained
  and well-equipped troops.

4
The Peace Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle(1748)

• The right of the Habsburg heiress Maria Theresa
  to the Austrian crown was guaranteed.
• Prussia guaranteed its conquest of Silesia.
• The treaty was marked by the mutual restitution
  of British and French conquests.
• In the commercial struggle between Britain and
  France in the West Indies, Africa, and India,
  nothing was settled the treaty was thus no basis
  for a lasting peace.

5
The Seven Years War(1756-1763)

• After the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748),
  Austria, France and Russia formed an alliance
  against Prussia.
• Britain sided with Prussia in order to protect
  its Hanoverian ally from France.
• The colonial struggle between France and Britain
  was also heated in the same era.

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• Britain Prussia Hanover
• versus
• France Austria Russia Sweden Saxony
• However, the Anglo-Prussian combination remained
  superior in three vital aspects leadership,
  financial power and military/naval expertise and
  British maritime commerce continued to grow even
  during the war.

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• We must be merchants before we are soldiers...
• The British ambassador to Prussia during the
• Seven Years War
• The Prussian army subsidized by Britain fought
  during the Seven Years War very successfully.
• - Battle of Rossbach (1757), Prussian victory
  over the French.
• - Battle of Leuthen (1757), Prussian victory
  over the Austrian.

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• The conflict continued on seas through British
  successes over the French navy.
• - Naval battle of Lagos (1759), British victory
  over a French war fleet.
• - Naval battle of Quiberon Bay (1759), British
  victory over another French war fleet.
• Britain also eliminated French influence from
  India and became the supreme power in most of the
  North American continent.

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• The Seven Years War was a global conflict with
  different theaters such as the Americas, India,
  the Caribbean, Philippines and coastal Africa.
• Attention
• The North America phase of this conflict is
  called the French and Indian War by Americans.

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The Peace Treaty of Paris(1763)

• France ceded Canada and all French North American
  possessions east of the Mississippi River to
  Britain, West Louisiana and New Orleans to Spain.
• France lost influence in India to Britain and
  agreed to withdraw armies from the German
  territories.
• Spain ceded Florida to Britain.

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• Attention
• At the end of the Seven Years War, France lost
  most of its overseas territories and its military
  prestige in the European continent.

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The American War of Independence(1775-1783)

• After the Seven Years War (1757-1763), the
  French foreign policy remained distinctly
  anti-British and committed to extracting
  advantages from any problems which Britain might
  encounter overseas.
• Once, the American rebellion spread, its
  suppression involved large-scale continental
  fighting at a distance of 3.000 miles from the
  British isles.

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• Colonial North America was so decentralized that
  the capture of a city or large town meant little
  for Britain during the conflict.
• Attention
• If it had taken 50.000 British troops with a
  considerable colonial support from the
  Anglo-saxon settlers to conquer French Canada in
  the early 1760s, imagine how many were needed to
  reimpose the British rule on the whole North
  America in the American War of Independence!

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• American colonies France Spain
  the United Provinces
• versus
• Britain
• Britain fought alone the American War of
  Independence and was not aided by European allies
  distracting France.
• Because...

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• The relative decline of the French military power
  at the end of the Seven Years War and its lack
  of political engagement in the east relaxed
  Austria, Prussia and Russia and none of these
  eastern powers wanted to intervene the American
  War of Independence after the involvement of
  France.
• Spain declared war against Britain in 1779.
• France entered into war against Britain in 1780
  in order to help the American colonies.
• Britain declared war against the United Provinces
  the same year in order to prevent an effective
  support of the Dutch to the American colonies.

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• Attention
• In the American War of Independence (1775-1783),
  France, for the first time ever, concentrated its
  resources upon a naval and colonial war.
• The French navy defeated the Royal Navy in 1781
  at the Battle of Chesapeake cutting off supplies
  and transport of the British troops fighting in
  North America.
• As a result, the British army led by Lord
  Cornwallis was defeated at the Battle of Yorktown
  as well the same year by a combined
  Franco-American army.

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The Peace Treaty of Paris of 1783

• Britain recognized the independence of its former
  North American colonies under the name of the
  United States of America.
• Britain returned Florida to Spain.
• France guaranteed fishing rights off the coasts
  of Newfoundland.