The Great European War of 1701-1714, nicknamed the War of the Spanish Succession, can rightfully be considered one of the world wars. Almost all major states of Western, Central and Southern Europe took part in it. The fighting took place in Europe, North America and all oceans.
Causes of the war
The war broke out because of the desire of the great powers to seize the colonial legacy of the decrepit Spanish Empire. The last king of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, Carlos II (1665-1700), was, due to the closely related marriage of his parents, very sickly and childless. The question of the "Spanish inheritance" arose during his lifetime. There are three contenders for this role.
The main one was the powerful French king Louis XIV of Bourbon - the famous "sun king", married to the sister of Carlos II by the father of Maria Theresa. The cunning Louis intended not to take the Spanish throne himself, but to put his grandson Philip the Duke of Anjou on it. Although, under the terms of his marriage contract with Maria Theresa, their offspring did not have the right to the Spanish throne, the French king found a loophole. The treaty provided for the payment of a large dowry by Spain, but for 40 years Spain was never able to pay it.
The second contender was the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs, namely, Emperor Leopold I. He was married to the sister of Carlos II, who, with all this, was his own niece. Like Louis XIV, he did not aim for the throne himself, but wanted to put his youngest son, Archduke Charles there.
The third candidacy was the Bavarian Crown Prince Joseph Ferdinand. He was a great-uncle of Carlos II and he bequeathed the throne to him in advance. In 1697, England and France agreed to support Joseph's candidacy. Not out of altruistic motives, of course: in this situation, the French would have lost Southern Italy and Sicily, and England would have received a share in the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium). Spain itself and all of its overseas colonies would have been inherited by a Bavarian prince. This alignment caused a stormy indignation in Austria, which was out of work. Passions ran high even more when Joseph Ferdinand died suddenly in early 1699. The dispute over the Spanish inheritance has flared up again.
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Warring parties
Carlos II yielded to the insistence of France and appointed his grandson Louis XIV as his heir, but on the condition that if he inherited the French throne, then his younger brother was to become the Spanish king. In November 1700, Carlos II died and Philip V Bourbon ascended the Spanish throne. This was the signal for the formation of an anti-French coalition and the beginning of hostilities.
Yesterday's enemies - England and Holland, on the one hand, Austria, on the other - have become close to each other. They also succeeded in winning over Portugal and Savoy.
At first, the Allies did not object to Philip's accession. However, they wanted a division of Spanish possessions and a "balance of power" - the latter term has since been widely used by politicians. England and Holland agreed to divide the Spanish Netherlands among themselves, and now the south of Italy and Sicily were intended for Austria.
A trace in European history
The War of the Spanish Succession became one of the elements that formed the civilization of Europe in modern times. At least until the middle of the twentieth century, the names of the famous commanders of this war - the French marshals Duke de Villard, Duke Berwick (an English emigrant) and the Austrian prince Eugene of Savoy - meant a lot for the national consciousness in different European countries. And the name of the English Duke of Marlborough (whose descendant was Winston Churchill) was even included in the song that was known a hundred years later throughout Europe and in Russia ("Malbrook is going on a campaign …").
All European history textbooks include two of the bloodiest battles of this war - at Blenheim (or the second Hochstedt, 1704) and at Malplack (1709). In the first of them, the troops of Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough defeated the Franco-Bavarian army, as a result of which Bavaria concluded a separate peace.
On September 11, 1709, in the largest battle in Europe in the entire 18th century, the Anglo-Austro-Prussian-Dutch army under the command of the same generals attacked de Villard's French army in northern France. Possessing a small superiority in forces, the Allies pushed the French, but at the same time suffered twice as large losses. The Battle of Malplac was a classic illustration of the expression "Pyrrhic victory."
In the War of the Spanish Succession, reliance on the "fifth column" in the enemy camp was widely used. France supported the pretender to the English throne - the son of the exiled King James II. In turn, England, by its incitement, provoked an uprising of the Kamizars in the south of France - the Protestants who remained there after the emigration of most of them in 1685. Supporters of the Austrian claimant to the Spanish throne, with the support of the allies, split Aragon and Catalonia from Spain and held them in 1705-1714.
An important step towards world domination of England
Despite the skillful actions of the generals, the forces of France in the struggle against the powerful coalition began to weaken. At one time, the allies even threatened Paris. But disagreements between them and a series of French successes persuaded opponents to peace negotiations. In 1713, peace was signed in Utrecht, and in 1714 - the final peace in Rastatt and the Treaty of Baden, which ended the war.
The allies managed to prevent the unification of France and Spain. Philip V retained the Spanish throne, but renounced the rights to the French crown for himself and his heirs. Great Britain received Gibraltar and the Spanish island of Menorca, Austria - Belgium and the Italian possessions of Spain. The French king recognized the Hanoverian dynasty on the English throne and refused to support the supporters of Jacob (Jacobites).
But the most important results of the war were not territorial and dynastic - England managed to achieve a monopoly on the slave trade in the Spanish colonies. This trade over the next hundred years enriched Great Britain indescribably. In addition, during the war, England imposed an agreement on Portugal, as a result of which the latter turned into a de facto English protectorate for more than two centuries. Also during this war, in 1707, England, Scotland and Ireland were finally merged into the United Kingdom.
Thus, the main outcome of the War of the Spanish Succession was the beginning of the global hegemony of Great Britain. This war opened a new historical era.
According to historians, the victims of the first world war of the 18th century were from 235 thousand to 400 thousand people in two parts of the world.
Yaroslav Butakov