The Making of Modern Europe, 1648-1780 by Treasure Geoffrey;

Author:Treasure, Geoffrey; [GEOFFREY TREASURE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

Drift and Disaster

Another fruit of Fleury’s diplomacy was the treaty of the Escorial with Spain: the first of the family compacts which were part of the diplomatic pattern of the next forty years. France then had an obligation as well as an interest when Britain went to war with Spain in 1739 over trading rights in South America on the pretext of the alleged injury to the ear of Captain Jenkins. When in 1740 Frederick the Great invaded Silesia and opened up a new, initially unrelated area of conflict, the pressure on the ageing minister became harder to resist. It did not deter the comte de Belle-Isle and his friends that France had so recently guaranteed the rights of the Austrian queen. Frivolous and opportunistic, they appear to have been more aware of France’s traditions than of her present needs. Louis XV was persuaded, against Fleury’s advice, to embark upon a war which could only be justified on the narrowest traditional grounds and on hope of an early victory. It lasted seven years more, brought setbacks, the rapid retreat from Bohemia (1742), the defeat at Dettingen (1743), but also some resounding victories: notably at Fontenoy (1745), Roucoux (1746) and Laffeldt (1747). The victor, Marshal Saxe, joined the select company of France’s greatest soldiers, and retired to write his memoirs, embodying his considered thoughts about the practice of war to which he brought such distinction. France made no significant gains, however, at the peace of Aix-le-Chapelle (1748) for none of the victories had been decisive and most of the military action had indeed been irrelevant to the important issues. Large debts, not yet crippling but large enough to justify Machault’s renewal of the dixième in 1749, underline the point that the war was as wasteful as it was irrelevant.

At Aix, France recovered Louisbourg in Canada, but its earlier loss was a warning of worse to come. The effect of British sea power was felt in the way, by 1748, French overseas trade was brought virtually to a standstill. There was sense in the current argument that, just as France had been successful in Flanders, she could bring pressure on Britain through military action against Hanover. It was essentially Pitt’s strategy, defined by him as winning Canada ‘on the banks of the Elbe’. But Pitt was to be successful largely through the instrument of a strong navy. And so the French entered the next war, in 1756, in the worst of both worlds. Their navy was not strong enough to outmatch Britain’s; they were heavily and unnecessarily committed to Austria. How had that come about?

Inasmuch as France’s intervention enabled Prussia to keep Silesia, it contributed to the weakening of Austria. At the same time, however, it strengthened the hand of Austrian ministers: Haugwitz, who planned for the renewal of imperial authority and the enlargement of her armies, and Kaunitz whose main diplomatic aim, successfully encompassed in 1756, was to draw France in again, but this time on the side of Austria. He

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