The Austrian Secession: War Years And Countries Involved

The War of the Austrian Succession was fought between 1740 and 1748, and involved most of Europe's great powers. The conflict was caused by the question of Maria Theresa's succession to the Austrian Habsburg crown. During the war, Britain proved its military worth, but the armies it served enjoyed mixed fortunes on the battlefield.

The war was sparked by King Frederick II of Prussia's invasion of the Austrian province of Silesia in December 1740. This led to Prussia allying with France, Bavaria, Spain, Sweden and Saxony. These states sought to exploit the succession struggle to acquire Habsburg possessions and diminish Austrian power. Austria, Britain, the United Provinces and Russia opposed them.

Britain's war aims were to prevent the French from overrunning the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) and to protect its Hanoverian territory. The British Army's establishment was rapidly increased, and new regiments were raised. In 1742, a force of 16,000 men was sent to Flanders in support of the Austrians.

The war included the First and Second Silesian Wars in central Europe and a separate conflict between Britain and Spain — the so-called War of Jenkins's Ear, which began in 1739 and was eventually subsumed by the larger war.

The war proved a disaster for both Britain and France. A British army was soundly defeated by the French on 11 May 1745 at Fontenoy, Flanders, and driven off the continent. French maritime trade was eventually ruined by the Royal Navy.

In North America, Canadian war parties ravaged British frontier settlements in Nova Scotia, New York and New England. A combined British-New England expedition captured Louisbourg in June, but the Anglo-American force was no more able to conquer New France than the Canadians were able to conquer New England.

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended the war in May–June 1748 but settled nothing. Britain returned Louisbourg to France in exchange for Madras, India, which French forces had captured during the war. The Netherlands were ceded to Austria, and Silesia to Prussia.

The First Silesian War (1740-1742)

The First Silesian War began with a Prussian invasion of Habsburg Silesia in late 1740 and ended in a Prussian victory with the 1742 Treaty of Berlin, which recognised Prussia's seizure of most of Silesia and parts of Bohemia. The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Moravia and Bohemia (the lands of the Bohemian Crown) and formed one theatre of the wider War of the Austrian Succession.

In the early 18th century, Prussia's ruling House of Hohenzollern held dynastic claims to various duchies within the Habsburg province of Silesia, a populous and prosperous region contiguous with Prussia's core territory in the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Besides its value as a source of tax revenue, industrial output (particularly minerals) and military recruits, Silesia held great geostrategic importance to the belligerents. The valley of the Upper Oder formed a natural military conduit between Brandenburg, the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Margraviate of Moravia, and whichever power held the territory could threaten its neighbours. Silesia also lay along the north-eastern frontier of the Holy Roman Empire, allowing its controller to limit the influence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and of the Russian Empire within Germany.

Prussia's claims in Silesia were based, in part, on a 1537 inheritance treaty between the Silesian Piast Duke Frederick II of Legnica and the Hohenzollern

The Second Silesian War (1744-1745)

The Second Silesian War was fought between Prussia and Austria from 1744 to 1745, confirming Prussia's control of the region of Silesia (now in southwestern Poland). The war was the second of three Silesian Wars fought between Frederick the Great's Prussia and Maria Theresa's Austria in the mid-18th century, all three of which ended in Prussian control of Silesia.

The Second Silesian War was viewed as a continuation of the First Silesian War, which had concluded just two years prior. After the Treaty of Berlin ended hostilities between Austria and Prussia in 1742, the Habsburg monarchy's fortunes improved greatly in the continuing War of the Austrian Succession. As Austria expanded its alliances, Prussia entered a renewed alliance with Austria's enemies in the League of Frankfurt and rejoined the war, hoping to prevent a resurgent Austria from taking back Silesia.

The war began with a Prussian invasion of Habsburg Bohemia in mid-1744 and ended in a Prussian victory with the Treaty of Dresden in December 1745, which confirmed Prussian control of Silesia. The conflict repeated the defeat of the Habsburg monarchy by a lesser German power and contributed to the Austria-Prussia rivalry that shaped German politics for over a century.

The Second Silesian War was part of a conglomeration of related wars that took place after the death of Emperor Charles VI in 1740. At issue was the right of Charles's daughter, Maria Theresa, to inherit the Habsburg lands. The war began when Frederick II of Prussia invaded Silesia in 1740. His victory suggested that the Habsburg dominions were incapable of defending themselves, prompting other countries to enter the fray.

The War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-1748)

The War of Jenkins' Ear was fought between Great Britain and Spain from 1739 to 1748, overlapping with the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748).

The Incident

The conflict was sparked by an incident in 1731, when Spanish coast guards boarded the ship of British sea captain Robert Jenkins to search for contraband. During the search, Jenkins' ear was allegedly severed, and this act became a powerful symbol of English pride.

The Conflict

The majority of the fighting took place in New Granada and the Caribbean Sea, with major operations largely ending by 1742. The most significant operation of the war was a failed British attack on Cartagena in 1741, which resulted in heavy casualties. Apart from minor actions in Spanish Florida, Georgia, and Havana, after 1742, Britain and Spain focused their efforts on the War of the Austrian Succession in Europe.

The Resolution

The fighting formally ended with the 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which meant Britain largely failed to achieve its original territorial and economic ambitions in the Americas. The war is, however, significant in British naval history for Admiral George Anson's voyage around the world from 1740 to 1744.

King George's War (1744-1748)

The War of the Austrian Succession was a European conflict fought between 1740 and 1748, primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. The conflict was sparked by the death of Emperor Charles VI in 1740 and the subsequent debate over the right of his daughter, Maria Theresa, to inherit the Habsburg monarchy. France, Prussia, and Bavaria saw the succession crisis as an opportunity to challenge Habsburg power, while Maria Theresa was backed by Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Hanover.

King George's War took place primarily in the British provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay (which included Maine and Massachusetts), New Hampshire (which included Vermont), and Nova Scotia. The war was characterised by bloody border raids by both sides, with the aid of their Native American allies. The most significant action of the war was an expedition organised by Massachusetts Governor William Shirley, which besieged and ultimately captured the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in 1745.

In addition to the conflict in North America, the War of the Austrian Succession also involved colonial struggles between Britain and France in India. In September 1746, a French naval squadron carrying troops arrived in India and laid siege to the port of Madras, the main British settlement in the Carnatic. Despite having only a small garrison, Madras fell to the French after just six days. However, the French commander, Mahé de la Bourdonnais, agreed to a ransom agreement, and the British East India Company paid to regain control of the settlement. This concession was opposed by Joseph François Dupleix, the governor-general of the French Indian possessions, who reneged on the agreement after Bourdonnais left India.

The War of the Austrian Succession ended in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which confirmed Maria Theresa as the ruler of Austria but failed to resolve underlying tensions between the signatories. The treaty restored colonial borders to their pre-war status, but it did little to end the lingering enmity between the colonial powers, and tensions remained high in both North America and Europe. The struggle for dominance between France and Britain in North America would soon escalate into the French and Indian War, which began in 1754 and spread to Europe in 1756 as the Seven Years' War.

The First Carnatic War (1746-1748)

The conflict saw the British and French East India Companies vie with each other on land for control of their respective trading posts at Madras, Pondicherry, and Cuddalore, while naval forces of France and Britain engaged each other off the coast. The war set the stage for the rapid growth of French hegemony in southern India under the command of French Governor-General Joseph François Dupleix in the Second Carnatic War.

In 1745, there was a British naval attack on a French fleet, which led the French Governor-General Dupleix to request additional forces. A fleet under La Bourdonnais arrived in 1746 to help him. In July of that year, La Bourdonnais and British Admiral Edward Peyton fought an indecisive action off Negapatam, after which La Bourdonnais put in at Pondicherry for repairs and strategising with Dupleix. The fleets met again on 19 August, but Peyton refused battle, recognising that La Bourdonnais had acquired additional guns at Pondicherry, and retreated to Bengal. On 4 September 1746, La Bourdonnais led an attack on Madras. After several days of bombardment, the British surrendered and the French entered the city. The British leadership was taken prisoner and sent to Pondicherry. It was originally agreed that the town would be restored to the British after negotiation, but this was opposed by Dupleix, who sought to annex Madras to French holdings. The remaining British residents were asked to take an oath promising not to take up arms against the French; a handful refused, among them a young Robert Clive, and were kept under weak guard as the French prepared to destroy the fort. Disguising themselves as natives, Clive and three others eluded their inattentive sentry, slipped out of the fort, and made their way to Fort St. David (the British post at Cuddalore), some 110 miles (180 km) to the south.

Anwaruddin, the Nawab of the Carnatic, responded by sending a 10,000-man army to take the fort from Dupleix by force. Dupleix, who had lost the support of La Bourdonnais over the status of Madras, had only 930 French troops. However, in the Battle of Adyar, this small force successfully repulsed the attacks of Anwaruddin's army. Dupleix then launched an assault on Fort St. David. Stung by his defeat at Adyar, Anwaruddin sent his son Muhammad Ali to assist the British in the defence of Cuddalore, and was instrumental in holding off a French attack in December 1746. Over the next few months, Anwaruddin and Dupleix made peace, and the Carnatic troops were withdrawn.

The war ended in 1748 with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, also called the Treaty of Aachen, under which Madras was returned to British control.

Frequently asked questions