On This Day
1748 – Signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the War of the Austrian Succession.
The War of the Austrian Succession (German: Österreichischer Erbfolgekrieg) was the last Great Power conflict with the Bourbon-Habsburg dynastic conflict at its heart. It occurred from 1740 to 1748 and marked the rise of Prussia as a major power.[7] Related conflicts included King George’s War, the War of Jenkins’ Ear, the First Carnatic War and the First and the Second Silesian Wars.
The pretext for the war was Maria Theresa’s right to inherit her father Emperor Charles VI’s crown in the Habsburg Monarchy, but France, Prussia and Bavaria really saw it as an opportunity to challenge the Habsburg power. Maria Theresa was backed by Britain, the Dutch Republic and Hanover, which were collectively known as the Pragmatic Allies. As the conflict widened, it drew in other participants, among them Spain, Sardinia, Saxony, Sweden and Russia.
There were four primary theatres of the war: Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, and the seas. Prussia occupied Silesia in 1740 and repulsed Austrian efforts to regain it, and between 1745 and 1748, France conquered most of the Austrian Netherlands. Elsewhere, Austria and Sardinia defeated Spanish attempts to regain territories in Northern Italy, and by 1747, a British naval blockade was crippling French trade.
The war ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) by which Maria Theresa was confirmed as Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary. The treaty reflected that stalemate since most of the commercial issues that had led to the war were left unresolved, and many of the signatories were unhappy with the terms. Although the war had nearly bankrupted the state, Louis XV of France withdrew from the Low Countries for minimal benefit, to the dismay of France’s nobility and populace. The Spanish considered their gains in Italy inadequate since they had failed to recover Menorca or Gibraltar and viewed the reassertion of British commercial rights in the Americas as an insult.
Although Maria Theresa was acknowledged as her father’s heir, she did not consider that a concession and deeply resented Britain’s role in forcing her to cede Silesia to Prussia. For British statesmen, the war demonstrated the vulnerability of George II’s German possession of Hanover to Prussia, and many politicians considered they had received little benefit from the enormous subsidies paid to Austria.
The result was the realignment known as the Diplomatic Revolution in which Austria aligned itself with France, which marked the end of their centuries-old enmity, and Prussia became an ally of Britain. The new alliances would fight the Seven Years’ War in the following decade.
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Born On This Day
1897 – Isabel Briggs Myers, American theorist and author (d. 1980)
Isabel Briggs Myers (born Isabel Briggs; October 18, 1897 – May 5, 1980[1][2]) was an American writer and co-creator with her mother, Katharine Cook Briggs, of a personality inventory known as the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and based on theories of Carl Jung.
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FYI
The Passive Voice, From Helen Sedwick: How to Use Real People in Your Writing Without Ending Up in Court
The Passive Voice, From Women Writers, Women’s Books: Writing my Way Through Trauma
The Passive Voice, From The Daily Mail: Spanish crime writer Carmen Mola reveals her most stunning plot twist: She doesn’t exist and her books are penned by three men
The Passive Voice, From The Guardian: Powers and Thrones by Dan Jones audiobook review
By MessyNessy, 13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. DLXXIII): Take a peek around this Georgian style home for sale; A sofa-suitcase, from the early 20th century in England; The Great Raising of Chicago; The Greek region too remote for maps; Enya’s Secretive Irish Kingdom; Aesthetically pleasing horror movies for interior design inspiration and more ->
By Oscar Duran, Beyond Bylines: Blog Profiles: Men’s Mental Health Blogs
By Richard Whittaker, syndicated from conversations.org: Threshold Choir: An Interview with Kate Munger
Recipes
RecipeTinEats
- 2024 Ultimate Christmas menu planning guide December 12, 2024Here’s a handy list of my Christmas recipes, organised by make-ahead and reheating suitability, and those best made fresh. Perfect for menu planning, especially alongside the new Christmas recipe index! I thrive on holiday menu planning. It’s like the Olympics of cooking – except less athleticism and more butter! The goal, as always, is a... […]Nagi
- Easy Christmas Cheesecake Slab – no bake! December 6, 2024This no bake Christmas cheesecake is designed for sizzling Aussie summers – no sweating over a hot oven! Designed to serve a crowd, it’s the easiest cheesecake recipe I know yet it still captures all the hallmarks of a beautiful classic baked cheesecake. Decorate with whipped cream, berries and rosemary sprigs for an effortless, pretty... […]Nagi
wikimedia
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for December 28 December 28, 2024Picture of the day Satellite picture of the Etna volcano erupting in eastern Sicily (Italy) in December 2018.
- Wikimedia Commons picture of the day for December 27 December 27, 2024Picture of the day The Seehornsee in the Berchtesgaden Alps. On the right the normal route to the Seehorn.
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