Convention of Westminster
Britain and Prussia signed a convention in January 1756 that overturned the alliances of the previous two centuries. The arrangement was defensive and narrow on its face: both parties undertook to oppose the entry of foreign troops into Germany. Britain's interest was Hanover, the electorate its kings also ruled, which was indefensible against France and which had been the standing anxiety of every British government since 1714. Prussia's interest was that Frederick II had taken Silesia from Austria in 1740 and knew that Austria intended to take it back, and had concluded that his French alliance was worthless — Versailles had failed to support him twice. Neither had told the other's traditional partner. France, which had been Prussia's ally, regarded it as a betrayal, and Kaunitz used the moment to complete the negotiation he had been conducting in secret with Louis XV: the first Treaty of Versailles followed in May and made France and Austria allies for the first time since the fifteenth century. Russia and Sweden joined, and Frederick found himself facing three great powers with a population a fraction of theirs. He invaded Saxony pre-emptively in August 1756, which supplied the war. The subsidy Britain paid him — some 670,000 pounds a year — is what kept Prussia in it for seven years, and Pitt's formulation was that America would be conquered in Germany. The two governments quarrelled bitterly at the end of it, and Frederick never trusted Britain again. The rearrangement is called the Diplomatic Revolution and is the standard illustration of how quickly a state system can invert. Two alliances that had defined European politics since 1494 were exchanged within four months by governments each convinced it was being betrayed by the other side.
- Year: 1756 CE
- Category: Political
