The Diplomatic Revolution
The First Treaty of Versailles (1 May 1756) between France and Austria overturned two and a half centuries of Franco-Habsburg enmity, allying the two powers against Prussia and, implicitly, Britain. The reversal was engineered by the Austrian Chancellor Wenzel von Kaunitz over several years and was facilitated at the French end by Madame de Pompadour's direct personal correspondence with Maria Theresa — a diplomatic channel that bypassed the traditional foreign ministry — and by Louis XV's conviction that Frederick II's seizure of Silesia represented a long-term destabilising threat to European order. Britain had already signed the Convention of Westminster with Prussia in January 1756, completing the realignment: the two great Protestant powers (Britain, Prussia) now faced the two great Catholic powers (France, Austria) in an alignment that cut entirely across the religious and dynastic patterns of previous centuries. France immediately found itself committed to a land war against Prussia in Germany, in addition to its maritime and colonial contest with Britain — the worst possible strategic combination, and the direct path to the catastrophic losses of the Seven Years' War (1756–1763).
- Year: 1756 CE
- Category: Diplomatic
