Intro

The War of the Austrian Succession was the first of the two great wars during the mid-18’th century. It featured France, Prussia and Bavaria against Britain, Austria and the United Netherlands.  However, after the war dissatisfaction with their allies’ conduct drove France and Austria to end a nearly 300-year rivalry and set the stage for the Seven Years War.

North, East and West Europe

The War of the Austrian Succession ended with the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle in 1748. It conformed the gains of Prussia, but other than that, the borders remained the same as they had been before the war.

The Austrians, a traditional British ally was deeply disillusioned due to the pressure on them to give up Silesia which was annexed by Prussia under Frederick the Great and revanchism against Prussia dominated Austrian foreign affairs. When a proposed joint military action against Prussia was put forward by Austrian ministers, the British shot it down unequivocally Prussia’s erstwhile ally, the French had also become tired of Prussian betrayal as they had abandoned the French three times in the war.  As Britain’s focus was to check French expansion, they made an alliance with anyone powerful enough who would go to war against the French. As the British under Prime Minister William Pitt the elder didn’t view Austria as a suitable power for this, they began to turn to Prussia and Russia. The 1755 Treaty of St Petersburg ended with Britain subsidising Russia with 100,000 pounds per year if Russia agreed to maintain a 50,000 strong army on its Baltic frontier. In case of war Britain would subsidise them with another 400,000 pounds. Good relations between Britain and Prussia skyrocketed after the War ended.  The British was afraid that Prussians would invade Hanover however, after Frederick assured George II, he would do no such thing both sides signed a treaty at Westminster in 1756. The Russians were furious as the British had been going behind their back and signing a treaty with the very power, they had been paying the Russians to attack. The Russians under Tsarina Elisabeth and Count Alexey Bestuzhev Ryumin were afraid that using East Prussia ,the Prussians would expand in the Baltic at the expense of Russia. They wished to take East Prussia and trade it with the Polish for Courland. It is now that Austrian minister Count Wenzel Anton Kaunitz took centre stage. He argued for an immediate rapprochementwith France and in Versailles two agreement were signed in 1756 and 1757 in which in return for French financial and military support against the Prussians, Austria would cede the Austrian Netherlands to France. Russia and Sweden joined in and there was now a very real prospect of Prussia and Hanover getting wiped of the map. The allies agreed they would reduce Prussia to the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Prussia, known for its disciplined army was going to have a troublesome situation. The Austrians reformed their army and massively expanded their artillery wing. When Frederick later met them at the Battle of Lobositz, he remarked ‘’These aren’t the same old Austrians. The Russians and Austrians dealt Frederick many defeats such as Kolin, Hochkirch and Kunersdorf however by the end of the war Prussia despite huge losses stood on top.

North America

After the Treaty of Aix La Chapelle territory was still disputed between the British and French .The committee set to resolve the issue failed to do so. The disputes continued and in 1752 minor skirmishes erupted. In 1754 French units under Paul Martin de la Malgue advanced down the Ohio valley and built two forts. The Governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie sent a 21-year-old Major George Washington to reclaim these occupied territories. He won a victory at Jumonville’s Glen however the death of the French commander Joseph Jumonville caused diplomatic problems between Britain and France . This battle was considered to be the start of the French and Indian War. Several battles were fought when Major General Edward Braddock led a force into the Ohio valley and was ambushed by a combined French and Indian force, killing Braddock. Only the actions of Washington saved the entire army from annihilation. The outbreak of the Seven Years War lead to Great Britain and France officially declaring war on each other and many regiments from both countries being shipped to North America.  The French though outnumbered held on for many years and only after 1759 did the tides turn against them. After the war Britain annexed the French territories in North America

This war turned out to be very important for the history of North America. It led to the formation of Canada and the US. Taxes levied on the American colonies due to the Seven Years War would lead directly to the American Revolution. In fact, while invading Canada the Americans counted on support from the French still living there. France even had to cede Louisiana to Spain which would be returned later on. Many of the Continental Army commanders gained invaluable experience during the war. George Washington and Horatio Gates among others fought in the war.  This front of the war shaped North America and had huge impacts that still linger to this day.

India

The French clearly had the upper hand in India before the signing of the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle having defeated the English and their Carnatic ally in Madras and Adyar respectively. Under Governor Dupleix they sought to expand their influence all over India. At the beginning of the Second Carnatic War, France was the most powerful European power in India. The Nawab of the Carnatic, Anwaruddin Khan lead an army against his rival Chanda Sahib who was supported by the French at the Battle of Ambur.  The subsequent battle, resulting in the Nawab’s death led to a succession crisis in South India. A succession crisis ran parallel to this in and the British and French picked their sides. Britain backed Mohammad Ali Wallajah while France bet on Chanda Sahib. Initially it seemed like the French would win and the war would be over. However due to the audacious leadership of Major Stringer Lawrence and a rising star, Robert Clive the war turned, and Britain signed the favourable Treaty of in 1754. When both sides tried to ally with Indian kingdoms, thematter came to a head at the Battle of Plassey where a British force of Robert Clive defeated a vastly superior Bengali force. With the onset of the Seven Years War, combat flared up in the south where the British took Chandernagore and defeated the French, time and time again. After the Treaty of Paris in 1763,most of French controlled India came under the rule of the British East India Company. The French East India Company collapsed and its territory was absorbed by the crown of France and its capital of Pondicherry would remain French until 1954. The Third Carnatic War established British power in India and set India on the road to British domination.

Iberia and South America

When the Seven Years War started, both Spain and Portugal were neutral.  Their differences in South America being settled in the Treaty of Madrid and the Prime Minister of Spain, Ricardo Wall vehemently opposed the War Party led by Pro French members of the Spanish court. This all changed when Ferdinand VI, King of Spain died in 1759 and was succeeded by his more ambitious younger brother, King Carlos III. King Carlos sought to gain more territories in South America. The situation worsened in 1760 when both sides signed the Treaty of El Pardo, effectively leaving all aspects of the Treaty of Madrid null and void. The Spanish escalated the situation by signing the Family Compact in 1761 with the French. The French hoped by invading Portugal, British troops in Hanover would be pulled out to fight in Portugal. The Portuguese were extremely unprepared. The Prime Minister, the Marquis of Pombal was focusedon industrial projects rather than reforming the military. This lead to a big weakness when the invasion came. In 1762, the Spanish, supported by the French launched offensives in Portugal and South America. The invasion of Portugal was initially successful for the Spanish with Lisbon poised to fall. However, a Scorched Earth tactic along with an effective allied counterattackresulted in failure. In South America the war was fought to a stalemate. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris with Spain ceding territory to Britain not Portugal, who had done most of the heavy fighting.

War Aims –

Britain-

The main diplomatic British position since 1714 was to limit French power.Initially the British war aims were not decided with many ministers taking different positions with no unified front. King George II thought of the Hanoverian Front as the main aim as it was his personal electorate. Others wanted to abandon the electorate and fight a naval and colonial war where they could be absolutely sure of victory. This resulted in a serious problem for the British with France seeming to win on all fronts. It took the genius of William Pitt, Prime Minister of Britain for these arguments to be combined in one strategy. This was to defend Hanover and conquer the French holdings in North America and India. The Spanish approach to war worried the British significantly, with Pitt offering to give up Gibraltar, taken at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Finally, even though the Spanish joined the War and Pittresigned it was too late to prevent a British victory. After the War Parliament remained divided with some members wishing to annex very few territories while more hardline members and the public argued for the complete humiliation of France. The hardline option was chosen. However proud, France would not forget nor forgive this humiliation and would seek revenge

France-

Like the British the French aim was to eclipse the power of their rivals and deal a massive blow to London. However, the 2 Treaties of Versailles made the defeat of Prussia, France’s primary war aim. In return France would receive the Austrian Netherlands. After the defeat at Rossbach though, France began scaling back its operations in Eastern Europe and began focusing the attention on Hanover. France’s major diplomatic failure meant that troops were scattered and only the Duke of Choiseul’s policies saved France from a quick defeat in 1759. The French invaded Hanover in order to conquer it and then trade it back for lost colonies. The French even planned on mounting an invasion of Britain however after the naval battles of Lagos and Quiberon Bay this plan was abandoned. Once, the French even considered financing the return of the Jacobites to Scotland but quickly abandoned that plan. Ultimately, the war was a disaster for France and led to the loss of their territory in North America and most of India

Austria-

As mentioned before the main aim for the Austrians was to reconquer Silesia. It had been the most industrial province and paid a third of the taxes to Vienna’s coffers. The Austrians had energetically taken up the job of reforming their army and even Frederick the Great complemented their reforms. The mission to retake Silesia was so important that Maria Theresa had agreed to make peace with Austria’s nemesis, France. This was also a personal battle for her as she despised Frederick. She saw the rivalry as a battle of personalities. Catholicism against Protestantism and Justice against Chaos. She and Kaunitz masterminded the whole alliance against Prussia and the war came close to an Austro-Russian victory between 1759 to 1762 and only at the end of that Prussia’s fortunes reversed and they were able to beat the Austrians. The lack of money from Silesia came to massively hit the Austrian War chest as towards the end of the war the Austrians had to disband 20,000 troops to pay back the debts they had incurred. However, the Austrian strength and determination was astonishing as they fought for Seven Years, endured defeat after defeat and came back each time. The Austrians fought Frederick in one final war, and they surprisingly gained the upper hand over the Prussians. At the end of the Seven Years war Austria came out in a strong position while for the Prussians there would only be more problems

Prussia-

Prussia’s main role was defensive during the Seven Years War with offensives being taken between 1756 and 1758 and even then, many important battles such as Leuthen was fought inside Prussian territory. Prussia had recently become a Great Power after the War of Austrian Succession. King Frederick was afraid that the powers who were forming a coalition to defeat him would make Prussia a secondary power again. Frederick should also receive some blame for his unpreparedness for France and Russia to enter the war on Austria’s side. In a rare example of foolishness, Frederick was convinced that the French and Russians would not attack him despite his betrayal of the French and personal remarks on the Russian Tsarina, Elisabeth. He therefore was surprised when France and Russia declared war on Prussia. At the end of the war the borders went back to the same in Eastern Europe and it might have seemed for many this war was fought for nothing. However, the more insightful of the contemporaries could not deny this war had a massive impact on the world. As Danish Foreign Minister, Johaan H.E. von Bernstorff stated, “All Frederick had to do was not to lose in order to win”. He fought admirably and despite widely being blamed for starting the war, no one could deny he didn’t fight with bravery and spirit. He was indomitable and at the end of the war got Prussia in a winning position and ensured his place in the annals of history

Lead Up to the war.

Even though many British were optimistic that the war would not begin the attack on Minorca by the French on April 20’th 1756 led to an official British declaration of war and both sided began mobilising for the war in Hanover. Frederick the Great began mobilising Prussian troops after the war began on the Western Front and on 29’th August struck at Saxony who he mistakenly believed had joined the coalition against him. Saxon resistance quickly crumbled, and the remnants of the army retreated to the fort of Pirna. He then met an Austrian army under Field Marshal Von Browne at Lobositz. In heavy fighting Frederick’s initial assaults on the Austrian Position failed and he fled the field, leaving Field Marshal James Keith to stabilize the line and to force the Austrians back in bloody combat. The Seven Years War had started, and it would cost more than a million lives. I hoped you enjoyed reading this. It would mean a great deal to me if you visited more often.

Aniruddh