Transcript Wars and Diplomacy: (1740-1748) War of Austrian Succession

Chapter 18
The Eighteenth Century:
European States, International
Wars, And Social Change
The European States



Enlightened
Absolutism-not
incredibly drastic, social
utility
Limited by presence of
nobility and their
interests
Some accomplishments
of note: legal reform,
education reform,
religious toleration, etc,



Problems in France:
weak, incompetent
government
Britain: King vs.
Nobility, Parliamentpatronage
Rise of Absolutism in
central and eastern
Europe-Prussia,
Russia, Austria
The European States cont.



Prussia: Increasingly
militarized and
bureaucratizedmiddle class
bureaucracy
Frederick William I
and Frederick the
Great
Participant in the
Seven Years War



Austria: centralized by
Maria Theresa
Joseph II pursued
enlightened absolutism
and radical reform but
failed
Participant in Seven
Years War
The European States cont.


Russia: Increased it's
territory, power of nobles
strengthened
Along with Austria and
Prussia, partitioned
Poland; also had control
of “independent” Polish
state




Spain: under Bourbon
control, temporarily
rejuvenated
Portugal: weakened, no
longer a major power
Italian states: Dominated
by Austria
Scandinavian states:
made attempts at
enlightened reform, but
ultimately returned to
traditional rule
Wars and Diplomacy:
(1740-1748) War of Austrian Succession
• -Unable to produce an heir to the Austrian
throne
• -Charles VI negotiated pragmatic sanction,
holding throne for daughter Maria Theresa
• -Pragmatic Sanction disregarded, Frederick II
(Prussia) invaded Austrian Silesia, and France
helped
• -Maria Theresa joined with Great Britain
• -Fought all over Europe and its colonies
• -1748 Aix la Chapelle (treaty), all territories
returned except Silesia (to Prussia)
Wars and Diplomacy:
(1756-1763) The Seven Years War
• Maria Theresa wanted Silesia back, worked to separate
Prussia and France
• New alliances: France/Austria/Russia vs. Great Britain/Prussia
• Conflict in Europe
-Frederick II defeated
-Russia leaders changed, withdrew from conflict
-Peace of Hubertusburg 1763, Prussia gets Silesia
• War in India (Britain/France)
-British (under Robert Clive) won, Treaty of Paris 1763
• French and Indian war
-French/Indians vs. Colonists/British
-Treaty of Paris: Britain gains most of America
Wars and Diplomacy:
Armies and Warfare
• composition of armies
-reflected hierarchical structure of society
• maritime powers Britain and Dutch Republic
• increase in size
• nature of warfare
-no longer religious, now ideological
-violent and destructive
-warfare based on limited objectives
-clever elaborate maneuvers rather than direct
confrontation
-siege warfare
Economic Expansion and Social Change:
• - Rapid population growth (doubled since first
half of century)
• Cause: decline in the death rate because of
more food and better transportation of food +
supplies (=improved diet + less famine)
• New crops from America = corn + potatoes
• Surplus of food
• Cause: end of bubonic plague
• COMUNQUE - diseases (typhus, smallpox,
influenza, dysentery), poor hygienic conditions
and famine could still be devastating.
• lower class women served as wet nurses
• childhood increasingly viewed as a phase in
human development.
• primogeniture the practice of treating the first
son as the favorite.
• infanticide unable to care for children 
abandoned them to foundling homes.
• newly married couples established independent
households
• increase food production because of : more
farmland, increased yields per acre, healthier
and more abundant livestock, improved climate.
• new agricultural techniques considered best
suited to large scale farms
• chronic shortage of money that undermined the
efforts of governments to meet their needs.
• new public and private banks and the
acceptance of paper notes  expansion of
credit in the 18th century.
• textile industries most still produced by
traditional methods.
• textile centers
• cottage industry
• - Expansion banking and trade
• - Agricultural revolution
The Social Order of the 18th C
• Social classes still very traditional
– Division still in “orders” of “estates”
• Ideas of Enlightenment starting to reach
idea of social
– Did not like that a person is immovable in
society
Peasants
• Largest group
• Most peasants did not have land, had to
work a noble’s land
• Serfdom still around places like eastern
Germany and Prussia
• Small villages were still the center of their
lives
Nobility
• 2-3% of European population
• Nobles still were thought to make best
officers in the military and best leaders in
politics
• BUT as Enlightenment hit, people started
to find if they could make $ they could be
part of the nobility
• Had country homes to separate
themselves from the lower classes
• Grand tour
Cities
• Artisans had to start taking unskilled jobs
• Poverty very visible, huge problem
Leaders
Louis XV and Louis XVI: contributes to France’s decline,
led to French Revolution
Frederick William I and Frederick  army and bureaucracy
Maria Theresa: no intense reform, more central
Catherine the Great  reform, repression of peasantry
Joseph II of Austria II  alienated nobility and church, tried
to abolish serfdom
Robert Walpole: a lot of power b/c George's had little
understanding of gov. and spoke little English, too
peaceful
William Pitt the Elder: expansion!