War of the Austrian Succession

When Emperor Charles VI died in October 1740 without a son, his daughter Maria Theresa inherited the Habsburg lands, and several of Europe's powers saw a chance to profit. The war that followed, lasting until 1748, set France, Prussia and Bavaria against Austria and its backers Britain, the Dutch Republic and Hanover, and spread from central Europe to Italy, the Low Countries, North America, India and the high seas. Maria Theresa kept her throne, but lost the rich province of Silesia to Prussia, and the settlement left grievances that led directly to the Seven Years' War.

The Habsburg dominions, often simply called Austria, had no tradition of female succession. In 1713 Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction, which allowed his daughters to inherit ahead of the daughters of his elder brother Joseph I, and he spent much of his reign seeking recognition for it. Those nieces had married the rulers of Saxony and Bavaria, giving both a claim. The imperial crown was a further problem: it was elective and could not be held by a woman. France, which had accepted the Pragmatic Sanction in 1735, agreed in 1738 to back Bavaria's claims.

The young Frederick II had become king of Prussia in May 1740. On 16 December, without declaring war, his army marched into Silesia, which had over a million inhabitants and valuable industries and was held by only a few thousand Austrian troops. In April 1741 he narrowly won the Battle of Mollwitz. France, Bavaria and Saxony then joined the attack; Franco-Bavarian forces took Linz and, in November 1741, Prague, and in February 1742 the Bavarian elector was crowned as Emperor Charles VII, the first non-Habsburg emperor in some 300 years.

Maria Theresa rallied support, famously appealing to the Hungarian diet in September 1741 for more troops. Austrian forces overran Bavaria, and in June 1742 the Treaty of Breslau ended the First Silesian War, leaving Silesia in Prussian hands. In 1743 a British-led army under George II defeated the French at Dettingen, the last battle in which a British monarch led troops in person.

Fearing an Austrian revival, Frederick invaded Bohemia in August 1744, starting the Second Silesian War. After Charles VII's death in January 1745, Bavaria made peace, and Maria Theresa's husband was elected Emperor Francis I in September. Prussian victories at Hohenfriedberg, Soor and Kesselsdorf forced Austria to accept the loss of Silesia once more in the Treaty of Dresden of December 1745.

In Italy, Spanish and French armies fought Austria and Sardinia-Savoy through the 1740s, with victories on both sides and little lasting change. In the Austrian Netherlands France was far more successful. Marshal Saxe defeated the allies at Fontenoy in May 1745, Rocoux in 1746 and Lauffeld in 1747, while the British withdrew troops to meet the Jacobite rising of 1745. French forces captured Bergen op Zoom and in May 1748 Maastricht.

Overseas, New England militia captured the French fortress of Louisbourg in 1745, and in India a French force took the British settlement of Madras in September 1746, opening a long struggle for influence there. At sea, British victories and a naval blockade crippled French trade and finances.

Facing financial collapse, France agreed peace terms with Britain, and the treaty signed on 18 October 1748 largely restored the pre-war position. France gave back the Austrian Netherlands and Madras, Britain returned Louisbourg, Spain's Infante Philip gained Parma and Piacenza, and Maria Theresa's titles were confirmed. Prussia, which roughly doubled in size with Silesia, emerged as a major power. Many French people mocked the result as "as stupid as the peace", and Maria Theresa remained determined to recover Silesia. Austria's resentment of Britain, and Britain's turn towards Prussia, prepared the alliance changes of 1756.

Our 1715 map shows Silesia still within the Habsburg monarchy, while our 1783 map shows it as part of the Kingdom of Prussia.