Bavaria And Austria: A History Of Conflict And Resolution

did bavaria ever fight austria

Bavaria and Austria have a long history of conflict, rivalry, and shifting alliances. The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) saw Prussia, France, and Bavaria challenge Habsburg power, while Austria was backed by Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Hanover. The War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779) was a dispute between the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and an alliance of Saxony and Prussia over the succession to the Electorate of Bavaria. While only minor skirmishes occurred, thousands died from disease and starvation. In the 19th century, Prussia and Austria grew apart, leading to the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, where Bavaria was one of Austria's allies. However, Bavaria and the other southern Germanic states were eventually unified with Prussia, forming the German Empire in 1871.

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The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)

The war was fought between several European powers, including France, Prussia, and Bavaria, who challenged the Habsburgs, and Maria Theresa, who was backed by Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Hanover, collectively known as the Pragmatic Allies. The conflict widened to include other participants, such as Spain, Sardinia, Saxony, Sweden, and Russia. The war centred on the right of Maria Theresa to succeed her father, Emperor Charles VI, as ruler of the Habsburg monarchy.

The war began on 16 December 1740, when Frederick II of Prussia invaded Silesia, one of the richest Habsburg provinces. The Prussian army defeated the Austrians at Mollwitz in April 1741 and overran Silesia. This victory heightened suspicions in Europe that the Habsburg dominions were incapable of defending themselves, leading to the generalisation of the war. Within a month, France's Charles-Louis-Auguste Fouquet, Comte de Belle-Isle, formed an alliance with Bavaria and Spain, later joined by Saxony and Prussia, against Austria.

Maria Theresa derived her primary foreign support from Britain, which feared that French hegemony in Europe would render the British commercial and colonial empire untenable. Thus, the War of the Austrian Succession was partly a phase in the prolonged struggle between France and Britain from 1689 to 1815. The invasion of Austria and Bohemia by French and Bavarian forces ultimately failed due to a lack of unity of purpose and military capability. Austria temporarily neutralised Prussia by permitting it to retain Silesia in July 1742, drove the French and Bavarians out of Bohemia in 1742, and overran Bavaria. Austria's allies, including the British, Hanoverians, and Hessians, defeated the French at the Battle of Dettingen in Bavaria in June 1743.

The Second Silesian War, which concluded with the Treaty of Dresden in December 1745, confirmed Prussian possession of Silesia. Marshal Maurice de Saxe's conquest of the Austrian Netherlands from 1745 to 1746, following his victory at the Battle of Fontenoy in May 1745, marked the last major French success. From 1746 to 1748, the war dragged on indecisively, with the British withdrawing their army to England to counter French-backed efforts to place Charles Edward on the thrones of Scotland and England. The financial strain of the war pushed the powers towards negotiations, culminating in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in October 1748, which preserved most of the Austrian inheritance for Maria Theresa.

The war established Prussia as a regional hegemon and altered the balance of power in Europe. It also had repercussions in India, where rivalry between Britain and France during the Austrian War of Succession resulted in the First Carnatic War.

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The War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779)

The War of the Bavarian Succession (3 July 1778 – 13 May 1779) was a conflict between the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and an alliance of Saxony and Prussia over who would succeed the Electorate of Bavaria after the extinction of the Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach. The Habsburgs wanted to acquire Bavaria, but the alliance opposed them, favouring another branch of the Wittelsbachs.

The dispute

On 30 December 1777, Maximilian III Joseph, the last of the junior Wittelsbach line, died of smallpox, leaving no children. Charles Theodore, a scion of a senior branch of the House of Wittelsbach, was the closest living relative, but he had no legitimate children to succeed him. His cousin, Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, therefore had a legitimate legal claim as Charles Theodore's heir presumptive.

Emperor Joseph II, who ruled alongside his mother, Empress Maria Theresa, coveted the Bavarian territory. Joseph had married Maximilian Joseph's sister, Maria Josepha, in 1765 to strengthen his claim. He also had an agreement with the heir, Charles Theodore, to partition the territory, neglecting any claims of the heir presumptive, Charles August.

Joseph's policy was to expand his family's influence in Central Europe, particularly in the German-speaking states. For King Frederick the Great of Prussia, Joseph's claim threatened Prussian influence in German politics. However, neither Joseph's mother, Maria Theresa, nor Frederick saw any point in pursuing hostilities.

The conflict

Both sides mobilised large armies, but the only fighting in the war was a few minor skirmishes. Thousands of soldiers died from disease and starvation, earning the conflict the name Kartoffelkrieg (Potato War) in Prussia and Saxony, and Zwetschgenrummel (Plum Fuss) in Habsburg Austria.

In early July 1778, the Prussian general Johann Jakob von Wunsch crossed into Bohemia near the fortified town of Náchod with several hundred men. The local garrison, commanded by Friedrich Joseph, Count of Nauendorf, included only fifty hussars. Despite the poor numerical odds, Nauendorf sallied out to engage Wunsch's men. When his small force reached Wunsch's, he greeted the Prussians as friends; by the time the Prussians were close enough to realise the allegiance of the hussars, Nauendorf and his small band had acquired the upper hand. Wunsch withdrew, and the next day, Nauendorf was promoted to major.

In early July 1778, Frederick entered Bohemia. His eighty thousand troops occupied Náchod but advanced no further. The Habsburg army, led by Count Franz Moritz von Lacy, established a defensive position on the heights of the Elbe river. While the main Habsburg army faced Frederick at the Elbe, a smaller army under the command of Baron Ernst Gideon von Laudon guarded the passes from Saxony and Lusatia into Bohemia.

While his main army remained entrenched on the heights above the Elbe, Joseph encouraged raids against the Prussian troops. On 7 August 1778, Nauendorf led a raid against a Prussian convoy at Bieberdorf in the County of Glatz. The surprised convoy surrendered, and Nauendorf captured its officers, 110 men, 476 horses, 240 wagons of flour, and thirteen transport wagons. This kind of action characterised the entire war.

The resolution

Maria Theresa, whose consent to the occupation of Bavaria had been given very unwillingly, made peace proposals to Frederick II against Joseph II’s wishes. With France and Russia acting as intermediaries between Austria and Prussia, the representatives of the two powers met at Teschen on 10 March 1779. On 13 May 1779, they reached an agreement whereby Austria was to receive the Inn district, a fraction of the territory originally occupied.

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The Austro-Prussian War (1866)

The Austro-Prussian War, also known as the Seven Weeks' War, was fought in 1866 between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia, with both sides aided by various allies within the German Confederation. Prussia was also allied with the Kingdom of Italy, linking the conflict to the Third Independence War of Italian unification. The war was part of the wider rivalry between Austria and Prussia, and resulted in Prussian dominance over the German states.

The war erupted as a result of the dispute between Prussia and Austria over the administration of Schleswig-Holstein, which they had conquered from Denmark and agreed to jointly occupy at the end of the Second Schleswig War in 1864. The crisis began on 26 January 1866, when Prussia protested the decision of the Austrian Governor of Holstein to allow the estates of the duchies to call up a united assembly, declaring it a breach of the principle of joint sovereignty. Austria replied on 7 February, asserting that its decision did not infringe on Prussia's rights in the duchies. In March, Austria reinforced its troops along its frontier with Prussia, leading to a partial mobilisation of five divisions by Prussia on 28 March.

Prussia's Minister President, Otto von Bismarck, formed an alliance with Italy on 8 April, committing it to the war if Prussia entered one against Austria within three months. This incentivised Bismarck to go to war with Austria within that timeframe, so that Italy would divert Austrian strength away from Prussia. Austria responded by mobilising its Southern Army on the Italian border on 21 April. Italy called for a general mobilisation on 26 April, and Austria ordered its own general mobilisation the next day. Prussia's general mobilisation orders were signed in steps on 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 12 May.

When Austria brought the Schleswig-Holstein dispute before the German Diet on 1 June and also decided on 5 June to convene the Diet of Holstein on 11 June, Prussia declared that the Gastein Convention of 14 August 1865 had been nullified and invaded Holstein on 9 June. When the German Diet responded by voting for a partial mobilisation against Prussia on 14 June, Bismarck claimed that the German Confederation had ended. The Prussian Army invaded Hanover, Saxony and the Electorate of Hesse on 15 June. Italy declared war on Austria on 20 June.

The main campaign of the war occurred in Bohemia. Prussian Chief of General Staff Helmuth von Moltke had planned meticulously for the war. He rapidly mobilised the Prussian army and advanced across the border into Saxony and Bohemia, where the Austrian army was concentrating for an invasion of Silesia. There, the Prussian armies, led nominally by King William I, converged, and the two sides met at the Battle of Königgrätz on 3 July. The Prussian Army of the Elbe advanced on the Austrian left wing, and the First Army on the centre, prematurely; they risked being counter-flanked on their own left. Victory therefore depended on the timely arrival of the Second Army on the left wing. This was achieved through the brilliant work of its Chief of Staff, Leonhard Graf von Blumenthal. Superior Prussian organisation and élan decided the battle against Austrian numerical superiority, and the victory was near total, with Austrian battle deaths nearly seven times the Prussian figure. An armistice between Prussia and Austria came into effect at noon on 22 July. A preliminary peace was signed on 26 July at Nikolsburg.

Except for Saxony, the other German states allied to Austria played little role in the main campaign. Hanover's army defeated Prussia at the Second Battle of Langensalza on 27 June 1866, but within a few days, they were forced to surrender by superior numbers. Prussian armies fought against Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and the Hessian states on the river Main, reaching Nuremberg and Frankfurt. The Bavarian fortress of Würzburg was shelled by Prussian artillery, but the garrison defended its position until armistice day.

The war ended in a Prussian victory, which meant the exclusion of Austria from Germany. Prussia annexed four of Austria's former allies and formed the North German Confederation the next year, incorporating all the German states north of the River Main. Austria was now free to ally with Prussia, as it felt more threatened by Italian and Pan-Slavic irredentism than by Prussia. The war left Prussia dominant in German politics, and the resulting German Empire would become one of the most influential European powers.

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The Franco-Prussian War (1870)

The Franco-Prussian War, also known as the Franco-German War, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation, led by the Kingdom of Prussia. The war lasted from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871 and was caused by France's determination to reassert its dominant position in continental Europe, which was called into question following Prussia's decisive victory over Austria in 1866.

The immediate cause of the war was the candidacy of Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen for the Spanish throne, which was related to the Prussian royal house. This move greatly alarmed France, who felt threatened by a possible combination of Prussia and Spain directed against it. Leopold's candidacy was withdrawn under French diplomatic pressure, but the Prussian King William I was unwilling to bow to France's demands that he promise to never again allow Leopold to be a candidate for the Spanish throne. The Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, edited and published a provocative message (the Ems telegram) regarding this interview, infuriating the French government and provoking it into declaring war.

The French emperor, Napoleon III, declared war on Prussia on 19 July 1870, as his military advisers told him that the French army could defeat Prussia and that such a victory would restore his declining popularity in France. The French had great faith in two recently introduced technical innovations: the breech-loading chassepot rifle and the mitrailleuse, an early machine gun. However, the French mobilisation was chaotic, resulting in large numbers of stragglers, and the French suffered from an outdated tactical system.

In contrast, the German mobilisation was efficient, and the German army was superior in numbers, training, and leadership. They also made more effective use of modern technology, particularly railways and artillery. The German army was controlled by the General Staff, under General Helmuth von Moltke, which was unique in Europe at the time. The General Staff's purpose in peacetime was to prepare the overall war strategy and, in wartime, to direct operational movement and organise logistics and communications. The German tactics emphasised encirclement battles and the offensive use of artillery.

The first action of the war took place on 4 August 1870, with the unsupported division of General Douay of I Corps attacked in overwhelming but uncoordinated fashion by the German 3rd Army. During the day, elements of a Bavarian and two Prussian corps became engaged, and the fighting within the town of Wissembourg became extremely intense, becoming a door-to-door battle of survival. The final attack by the Prussian troops cost c. 1,000 casualties, and the French troops who did not surrender retreated westward, leaving behind 1,000 dead and wounded and another 1,000 prisoners.

The German coalition mobilised its troops much more effectively than the French and invaded northeastern France on 4 August. A series of hard-fought Prussian and German victories in eastern France, culminating in the Siege of Metz and the Battle of Sedan, resulted in the capture of the French Emperor Napoleon III and the decisive defeat of the army of the Second Empire. A Government of National Defense was formed in Paris on 4 September and continued the war for another five months. German forces fought and defeated new French armies in northern France, then besieged Paris for over four months before it fell on 28 January 1871, effectively ending the war.

In the final days of the war, with German victory all but assured, the German states proclaimed their union as the German Empire under the Prussian King Wilhelm I and Chancellor Bismarck. With the notable exceptions of Austria and German Switzerland, the vast majority of German-speakers were united under a nation-state for the first time. Following an armistice with France, the Treaty of Frankfurt was signed on 10 May 1871, giving Germany billions of francs in war indemnity, as well as most of Alsace and parts of Lorraine.

The war had a lasting impact on Europe. By hastening German unification, the war significantly altered the balance of power on the continent, with the new German state supplanting France as the dominant European land power. In France, it brought a final end to imperial rule and began the first lasting republican government. The war's consequences included the annexation of the Papal States by Italy, as they were no longer protected by Napoleon III. Most importantly, Germany's annexation of Alsace-Lorraine aroused a deep longing for revenge in the French people, and their mutual animosity was a driving force behind the prolonged slaughter on the Western Front in World War I.

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The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714)

The war may be said to have begun in March 1701 when French troops seized Spanish fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands. For the rest of that year, however, the war was essentially fought between Louis XIV and the emperor Leopold I, and its principal theatre was northern Italy, where the French had taken control of the Spanish possessions in the valley of the Po. The first year of the general struggle saw little decisive action. In 1702, the efforts of the diplomats transformed the conflict into a general European war. France and Spain had the support of two reluctant allies, Portugal and Savoy, who feared opposing the Bourbons, whose forces controlled Spain and the Spanish possessions in northern Italy.

In 1703, fortune began to favour the French, although the emperor and his allies managed to achieve minor successes. In the Mediterranean, the English fleet was able to blockade the French fleet at Toulon, and this convinced the Portuguese government that England could provide effective protection against the Bourbons. In May 1703, Portugal therefore relinquished its uneasy alliance with France and joined the Maritime Powers. On the lower Rhine, Marlborough invaded the electorate of Cologne and in May captured Bonn. By the end of the summer, Marlborough had managed to push the French out of the country between the Meuse and the Rhine. In Italy, Vendôme was suspicious of the loyalty of his ally Victor Amadeus II, the Duke of Savoy, and demanded that he hand over Turin and Susa to the French and even disband his troops. This demand eventually pushed Victor Amadeus to abandon his alliance with France and join the emperor.

In 1704, the French threat to Vienna was checked. In April, strong French forces crossed the Black Forest and in May joined the Elector of Bavaria near Dillingen. Louis of Baden failed to stop the

Austria's Role in World War II

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Frequently asked questions

Yes, Bavaria and Austria have a long history of rivalry and have fought each other in several wars, including the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779), and the Austro-Prussian War (1866).

The War of the Austrian Succession ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which confirmed Maria Theresa as the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy but failed to resolve underlying tensions between the signatories. The War of the Bavarian Succession was primarily a dispute over the succession to the Electorate of Bavaria after the extinction of the Bavarian branch of the House of Wittelsbach. It resulted in the Treaty of Teschen, which maintained the territorial integrity of Bavaria. The Austro-Prussian War led to the creation of the Northern German Confederation, with Prussia annexing several states.

No, Bavaria and Austria never formed a political union. However, they shared religious and linguistic ties, and Bavaria was part of the Holy Roman Empire, which was led by the Habsburgs of Austria for most of its existence. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria became a part of the German Empire, while Austria-Hungary was formed through the union of Austria and Hungary.

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