!!!Österreichischer Erbfolgekrieg

Austrian Succession, War of the: Following the death of Emperor 
Karl VI in 1740, some of the signatories to the  Pragmatic 
Sanction no longer adhered to its terms and disputed the succession of 
Maria Theresia. In December 1740, the Prussian King Friedrich II 
invaded Silesia, which triggered the War of the Austrian Succession. 
In 1741, Bavaria, France and Spain signed the Alliance of  
Nymphenburg, which was joined by Prussia, Saxony, Sweden, the province 
of Naples and by the Wittelsbach Counts of the Palatinate and of 
Cologne. Maria Theresia was supported by the English and the Dutch. 
Bavarian and French troops pushed forward to Lower Austria and 
occupied Bohemia, which strongly supported the Bavarian Count 
Palatinate Karl Albert, who was crowned Holy Roman Emperor 
Karl VII in 1742. With the help of the Hungarian army, Maria 
Theresia managed to drive the invaders from her lands and conquer 
Bavaria, while the Spanish were defeated in Italy. When England 
supported Austria with a "pragmatic army", Sardinia and 
Saxony joined Austria in its struggle as well, and peace was concluded 
with Bavaria in the Treaty of Fuessen (1745). The struggle with 
Prussia was less successful. Following the two Silesian Wars, peace 
was made in the Treaty of Dresden, but Austria had to give up most of 
Silesia. The third part of the war was dominated by the English-French 
conflict. The War of the Austrian Succession found its end in 1748 in 
the Peace of  Aachen (Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle). Apart from Silesia, 
Maria Theresia also lost the Northern Italian duchies of Parma, 
Piacenza und Guastalla, which went to the Spanish Bourbons, but 
managed to sustain Austria´s position as a great power. Another 
result of the war were far-reaching administrative reforms.

!Literature
R. Browning, The War of the Austrian Succession, 1994.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Österreichischer_Erbfolgekrieg|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]