War of the Spanish Succession
Europe fought for thirteen years to stop France and Spain having the same king, and then let a Bourbon keep Madrid. Charles II of Spain died childless in November 1700 after a lifetime of ill health produced by generations of Habsburg intermarriage, leaving an empire covering Spain, the southern Netherlands, Milan, Naples, Sicily and the Americas. His will left everything to Philip of Anjou, Louis XIV's grandson, with the provision that the crowns be kept separate. Louis accepted, and then made the acceptance intolerable: he registered Philip's continuing rights to the French succession, sent troops into the Dutch barrier fortresses, and recognised the Stuart pretender as king of England. The Grand Alliance of Britain, the Dutch Republic and Austria formed in 1701. The war was fought in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain and at sea, and produced Marlborough and Prince Eugene, who between them won Blenheim in 1704 — the first serious French defeat in a generation, a march of 400 kilometres to the Danube conducted in secret — and then Ramillies, Turin, Oudenarde and Malplaquet, which cost more than it gained. The alliance's own war aim collapsed in 1711 when the Austrian claimant became emperor, since nobody wished to see Spain and Austria united either. Britain negotiated separately, and Utrecht in 1713 left Philip V in Spain on renouncing France, gave Austria the Italian and Netherlandish possessions, and gave Britain Gibraltar, Minorca, Newfoundland, Acadia and the slave-trading asiento. The war is where the modern financial state shows itself. Britain fought it on borrowing organised through a new central bank and a funded national debt, and France fought it on tax farming and forced loans, and the difference told over thirteen years more than any battle did.
- Year: 1701 CE
- Category: Military
