page_title: War of the Austrian Succession
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: War of the Austrian Succession / Background
caption_attribution_description: On her right are the three crowns of the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary and Bohemia.
context_page_description: The 1740 to 1748 War of the Austrian Succession was the last Great Power conflict with the Bourbon-Habsburg dynastic conflict at its heart, and marked the rise of Prussia as a major power. Related conflicts include King George's War, the War of Jenkins' Ear, the First Carnatic War, as well as the First and Second Silesian Wars.
  While the pretext was Maria Theresa's right to inherit from her father Emperor Charles VI, in reality France, Prussia and Bavaria saw an opportunity to challenge Habsburg power. Maria Theresa was backed by Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Hanover, 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 on the seas. Prussia occupied Silesia in 1740, then repulsed Austrian efforts to regain it, while between 1745 and 1748, France conquered most of the Austrian Netherlands. Elsewhere, Austria and Sardinia defeated Spanish attempts to regain territories in Northern Italy, while by 1747, the British naval blockade was crippling French trade.
context_section_description: The immediate cause of the war was the death in 1740 of Emperor Charles VI (1685–1740), and the inheritance of the Habsburg Monarchy, often collectively referred to as Austria. The 1703 Mutual Pact of Succession agreed if the Habsburgs became extinct in the male line, their possessions would go first to female heirs of Joseph, then those of Charles. Since Salic law excluded women from the inheritance, this required approval by the various Habsburg territories and the Imperial Diet.
  When Emperor Joseph I died in 1711, he left two daughters, Maria Josepha and Maria Amalia. In April 1713, the then childless Charles issued the Pragmatic Sanction, allowing female inheritance. However, it also created the potential for conflict by ignoring the 1703 agreement and placing any of his children ahead of his nieces. This meant the birth of Maria Theresa in 1717 ensured her succession dominated the rest of his reign.
  In 1719, Charles required his nieces to renounce their rights in favour of their cousin in order to marry Frederick Augustus of Saxony and Charles Albert of Bavaria respectively. Charles hoped this would secure his daughter's position, since neither Saxony nor Bavaria could tolerate the other gaining control of the Habsburg inheritance. In reality, he simply provided two of his rivals a legitimate claim to the Habsburg lands.
  A family issue became a European one due to tensions within the Holy Roman Empire, caused by dramatic increases in the size and power of Bavaria, Prussia, and Saxony, mirrored by the post-1683 expansion of Habsburg power into lands previously held by the Ottoman Empire. Further complexity then arose from the fact that the theoretically elected position of Holy Roman Emperor had been held by the Habsburgs since 1437. These were the centrifugal forces behind a war that reshaped the traditional European balance of power; the various legal claims were largely pretexts and seen as such.
  Bavaria and Saxony refused to be bound by the decision of the Imperial Diet, while in 1738 France agreed to back the 'just claims' of Charles Albert of Bavaria, despite previously accepting the Pragmatic Sanction in 1735. Attempts to offset this involved Austria in the 1734-1735 War of the Polish Succession and the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–1739, and it was weakened by the losses incurred. Compounded by the failure to prepare Maria Theresa for her new role, many European statesmen were sceptical Austria could survive the contest that would follow Charles' death, which finally occurred in October 1740.
caption: Maria Theresa, Queen regnant of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduchess of Austria, Holy Roman Empress
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