AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE (1 7 40 1748). This war began with the invasion of Silesia by Frederick II. of Prussia in 1740, and was ended by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. After 1741 nearly all the powers of Europe were involved in the struggle, but the most enduring interest of the war lies in the struggle of Prussia and Austria for Silesia. South-west Germany, the Low Countries and Italy were, as usual, the battle-grounds of France and Austria. The constant allies of France and Prussia were Spain and Bavaria ; various other powers at intervals joined them. The cause of Austria was sup ported almost as a matter of course by England and Holland, the traditional enemies of France. Of Austria's allies from time to time Sardinia and Saxony were the most important.
I. Frederick's Invasion of Silesia, 1740.—Prussia in 174o, was a small, compact and thoroughly organized power, with an army ioo,000 strong. The only recent war service of this army had been in the desultory Rhine campaign of 1733-35. It was therefore regarded as one of the minor armies of Europe, and few thought that it could rival the forces of Austria and France. But it was drilled to a perfection not hitherto attained, and the Prussian infantry soldier was so well trained and equipped that he could fire five shots to the Austrian's three, though the cavalry and artillery were less efficient. But the initial advantage of Fred erick's army was that it had, undisturbed by wars, developed the standing army theory to full effect. While the Austrians had to wait for drafts to complete the field forces, Prussian regiments could take the field at once, and thus Frederick was able to over run Silesia almost unopposed. His army was concentrated quietly upon the Oder, and without declaration of war, on Dec. 16, 1740, it crossed the frontier into Silesia. The Austrian generals could do no more than garrison a few fortresses, and with the small rem nant of their available forces fell back to the mountain frontier of Bohemia and Moravia. The Prussian army was soon able to go into winter quarters, holding all Silesia and investing the strong places of Glogau, Brieg and Neisse.
2. Silesian Campaign of 1741.—In Feb. 1741 the Austrians collected a field army under Count Neipperg (1684-1774) and made preparations to reconquer Silesia. The Austrians in Neisse and Brieg still held out. Glogau, however, was stormed on the night of March 9, the Prussians, under Prince Leopold (the younger) of Anhalt-Dessau, executing their task in one hour with a mathematical precision which excited universal admiration. But the Austrian army in Moravia was now in the field, and Frederick's cantonments were dispersed over all Upper Silesia. It was a work of the greatest difficulty to collect the army, for the ground was deep in snow, and bef ore it was completed Neisse was relieved and the Prussians cut off from their own country by the march of Neipperg from Neisse on Brieg; a few days of slow manoeuvring between these places ended in the battle of Mollwitz (April io, 1741), the first pitched battle f ought by Frederick and his army. The Prussian right wing of cavalry was speedily routed, but the day was retrieved by the magnificent discipline and tenacity of the infantry. The Austrian cavalry was shattered in repeated attempts to ride them down, and before the Prussian volleys the Austrian infantry, in spite of all that Neipperg and his officers could do, gradually melted away. After a stubborn contest the Prussians remained masters of the field. Frederick himself was far away. He had fought in the cavalry melee, but of ter this, when the battle seemed lost, he had been persuaded by Field Marshal Schwerin to ride away. Schwerin thus, like Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy, remained behind to win the victory, and the king narrowly escaped being captured by wandering Austrian hussars. The immediate result of the battle was that the king secured Brieg, and Neipperg fell back to Neisse, where he maintained him self and engaged in a war of manoeuvre during the summer. But Europe realized suddenly that a new military power had arisen, and France sent Marshal Belleisle to Frederick's camp to negotiate an alliance. Thenceforward the "Silesian adventure" became the War of the Austrian Succession. The elector of Bavaria's candi dature for the imperial dignity was to be supported by a French "auxiliary" army, and other French forces were sent to observe Hanover. Saxony was already watched by a Prussian army under Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, the "old Dessauer," who had trained the Prussian army to its present perfection. The task of Sweden was to prevent Russia from attacking Prussia, but her troops were defeated, on Sept. 3, 1741, at Wilmanstrand by a greatly superior Russian army, and in 1742 another great reverse was sustained in the capitulation of Helsingf ors. In central Italy an army of Neapolitans and Spaniards was collected for the con quest of the Milanese.
3. The Allies in Bohemia.—The French duly joined the elec tor's forces on the Danube and advanced on Vienna; but the ob jective was suddenly changed, and after many counter-marches the allies advanced, in three widely separated corps, on Prague. A French corps moved via Amberg and Pilsen. The elector marched on Budweis, and the Saxons (who had now joined the allies) invaded Bohemia by the Elbe valley. The Austrians could at first offer little resistance, but before long a considerable force intervened at Tabor between the Danube and the allies, and Neip perg was now on the march from Neisse to join in the campaign. He had made with Frederick the curious agreement of Klein Schnellendorf (Oct. 9, 1741), by which Neisse was surrendered after a mock siege, and the Austrians undertook to leave Fred erick unmolested in return for his releasing Neipperg's army for service elsewhere. At the same time the Hungarians, moved to enthusiasm by the personal appeal of Maria Theresa, had put into the field a levee en masse, or "insurrection," which furnished the regular army with an invaluable force of light troops. A fresh army was collected under Field-Marshal Khevenhiiller at Vienna, and the Austrians planned an offensive winter campaign against the Franco-Bavarian forces in Bohemia and the small Bavarian army that remained on the Danube to defend the electorate. The French in the meantime had stormed Prague on Nov. 26, the Grand-duke Francis, consort of Maria Theresa, who commanded the Austrians in Bohemia, moving too slowly to save the fortress. The elector of Bavaria, who now styled himself archduke of Austria, was crowned king of Bohemia (Dec. 19, 1741) and elected to the imperial throne as Charles VII. (Jan. 24, 1742), but no ac tive measures were undertaken. In Bohemia the month of De cember was occupied in mere skirmishes. On the Danube, Khe venhiiller, the best general in the Austrian service, advanced on Dec. 27, swiftly drove back the allies, shut them up in Linz, and pressed on into Bavaria. Munich itself surrendered to the Austri ans on the coronation day of Charles VII. At the close of this first act of the campaign the French, under the old Marshal de Broglie, maintained a precarious foothold in central Bohemia, menaced by the main army of the Austrians, and Khevenhiiller was ranging unopposed in Bavaria, while Frederick, in pursuance of his secret obligations, lay inactive in Silesia. In Italy the allied Neapolitans and Spaniards had advanced towards Modena, the duke of which state had allied himself with them, but the vigilant Austrian com mander Count Traun had outmarched them, captured Modena and forced the duke to make a separate peace.
4. Campaign of 1742.—Frederick had hoped by the truce to secure Silesia, for which alone he was fighting. But with the suc cesses of Khevenhiiller and the enthusiastic "insurrection" of Hungary, Maria Theresa's opposition became firmer, and she divulged the provisions of the truce, in order to compromise Fred erick with his allies. The war recommenced. Frederick had not rested on his laurels; in the uneventful summer campaign of 1741 he had found time to begin that reorganization of his cavalry which was before long to make it even more efficient than his infantry. Charles VII., whose territories were overrun by the Austrians, asked him to create a diversion by invading Moravia. In Dec. 1741, therefore, Schwerin had crossed the border and cap tured Olmiitz. Glatz also was invested, and the Prussian army was concentrated about Olmiitz in Jan. 1742. A combined plan of operations was made by the French, Saxons and Prussians for the rescue of Linz. But Linz soon fell; Broglie on the Moldau, weak ened by the departure of the Bavarians to oppose Khevenhiiller, and of the Saxons to join forces with Frederick, was in no condi tion to take the offensive, and large forces under Prince Charles of Lorraine lay in his front from Budweis to Iglau. Frederick's march was made towards Iglau in the first place. Briinn was in vested about the same time (February), but the direction of the march was changed, and instead of moving against Prince Charles, Frederick pushed on southwards by Znaim and Nikolsburg. The extreme outposts of the Prussians appeared before Vienna. But Frederick's advance was a mere foray, and Prince Charles, leaving a screen of troops in front of Broglie, marched to cut off the Prus sians from Silesia, while the Hungarian levies poured into Upper Silesia by the Jablunka Pass. The Saxons, discontented and de moralized, soon marched off to their own country, and Frederick with his Prussians fell back by Zwittau and Leutomischl to Kut tenberg in Bohemia, where he was in touch with Broglie on the one hand and (Glatz having now surrendered) with Silesia on the other. No defence of Olmiitz was attempted, and the small Prus sian corps remaining in Moravia fell back towards Upper Silesia. Prince Charles, in .pursuit of the king, marched by Iglau and Teutsch (Deutsch) Brod on Kuttenberg, and on May 17 was fought the battle of Chotusitz or Czaslau, in which after a severe struggle the king was victorious. His cavalry on this occasion re trieved its previous failure, and its conduct gave an earnest of its future glory not only by its charges on the battlefield, but its vigorous pursuit of the defeated Austrians. Almost at the same time Broglie fell upon a part of the Austrians left on the Moldau and won a small, but morally and politically important, success in the action of Sahay, near Budweis (May 24, 1742) . Frederick did not propose another combined movement. His victory and that of Broglie disposed Maria Theresa to cede Silesia in order to make good her position elsewhere, and the separate peace between Prussia and Austria, signed at Breslau on June II, closed the First Silesian War. The War of the Austrian Succession continued.
In Italy, Traun held his own with ease against the Spaniards and Neapolitans. Naples was forced by a British squadron to withdraw her troops for home defence, and Spain, now too weak to advance in the Po valley, sent a second army to Italy via France. Sardinia had allied herself with Austria, and at the same time neither State was at war with France, and this led to curious com plications, combats being f ought in the Isere valley between the troops of Sardinia and of Spain, in which the French took no part.
In Italy, the Spaniards on the Panaro had achieved a Pyrrhic victory over Traun at Campo Santo (Feb. 8, 1743), but the next six months were wasted in inaction, and Lobkowitz, joining Traun with reinforcements from Germany, drove back the enemy to Rimini. The Spanish-Piedmontese war in the Alps continued without much result, the only incident of note being a combat at Casteldelfino won by the king of Sardinia in person.
The attention and resources of Austria were fully occupied, and the Prussians were almost unopposed. One column passed through Saxony, another through Lusatia, while a third advanced from Silesia. Prague, the objective, was reached on Sept. 2. Six days later the Austrian garrison was compelled to surrender, and the Prussians advanced to Budweis. Maria Theresa once again rose to the emergency, a new "insurrection" took the field in Hungary, and a corps of regulars was assembled to cover Vienna, while the diplomatists won over Saxony to the Austrian side. Prince Charles withdrew from Alsace, unmolested by the French, who had been thrown into confusion by the sudden and dangerous illness of Louis XV. at Metz. Only Seckendorf with the Bavarians pursued him. No move was made by the French, and Frederick thus found himself after all isolated and exposed to the combined attack of the Austrians and Saxons. Marshal Traun, summoned from the Rhine, held the king in check in Bohemia, the Hungarian irregu lars inflicted numerous minor reverses on the Prussians, and finally Prince Charles arrived with the main army. The campaign re sembled that of 1742 ; the Prussian retreat was closely watched, and the rearguard pressed hard. Prague fell, and Frederick, com pletely outmanoeuvred by the united forces of Prince Charles and Traun, regained Silesia with heavy losses. At the same time, the Austrians gained no foothold in Silesia itself. On the Rhine, Louis, now recovered, had besieged and taken Freiburg, after which the forces left in the north were reinforced and besieged the strong places of Flanders. There was also a slight war of manoeuvre on the middle Rhine.
In 1744 the Italian war became for the first time serious. A grandiose plan of campaign was formed, and as usual the French and Spanish generals at the front were hampered by the orders of their respective governments. The object was to unite the army in Dauphine with that on the lower Po. The adhesion of Genoa was secured, and a road thereby obtained into central Italy. But Lobkowitz had already taken the offensive and driven back the Spanish army of Count de Gages towards the Neapolitan frontier. The king of Naples at this juncture was compelled to assist the Spaniards at all hazards. A combined army was formed at Velletri, and defeated Lobkowitz there on Aug. 1 1. The crisis past, Lob kowitz then went to Piedmont to assist the king against Conti, the king of Naples returned home, and de Gages followed the Aus trians with a weak force. The war in the Alps and the Apennines was keenly contested. Villefranche and Montalban were stormed by Conti on April 20, a desperate fight took place at Peyre-Longue on July 18, and the king of Sardinia was defeated in a great battle at Madonna del Olmo (Sept. 30) near Coni (Cuneo). Conti did not, however, succeed in taking this fortress, and had to retire into Dauphine for his winter quarters. The two armies had, therefore, failed in their attempt to combine, and the Austro Sardinians still lay between them.
8. Campaign of 1745.—The interest of the next campaign centres in the three greatest battles of the war—Hohenfriedberg, Kesselsdorf and Fontenoy. The first event of the year was the Quadruple Alliance of England, Austria, Holland and Saxony, concluded at Warsaw on Jan. 8. Twelve days previously, the death of Charles VII. submitted the imperial title to a new election, and his successor in Bavaria was not a candidate. The Bavarian army was again unfortunate; caught in its scattered winter quarters (action of Amberg, Jan. 7), it was driven from point to point, and the young elector had to abandon Munich once more. The peace of Fiissen followed on April 22, by which he secured his hereditary states on condition of supporting the candidature of the grand duke Francis, consort of Maria Theresa. The "imperial" army ceased ipso facto to exist, and Frederick was again isolated. No help was to be expected from France, whose efforts this year were centred in the Flanders campaign. In effect, on May io, before Frederick took the field, Louis XV. and Saxe had besieged Tour nay, and inflicted upon the relieving army of the duke of Cumber land the great defeat of Fontenoy (q.v.). In Silesia the customary small war had been going on for some time, and the concentration of the Prussian army was not effected without severe fighting. At the end of May, Frederick, with about 65,000 men, lay in the camp of Frankenstein, between Glatz and Neisse, while behind the Rie sengebirge about Landshut Prince Charles had 85,00o Austrians and Saxons. On June 4 was fought the battle of Hohenfriedberg (q.v.) or Striegau, the greatest victory as yet of Frederick's ca reer, and, of all his battles, excelled perhaps by Leuthen and Ross bach only. Prince Charles suffered a complete defeat and with drew through the mountains as he had come. Frederick's pursuit was methodical, for the country was difficult and barren, and he did not know the extent to which the enemy was demoralized. The manoeuvres of both leaders on the upper Elbe occupied all the summer, while the political questions of the imperial election and of an understanding between Prussia and England were pend ing. The chief efforts of Austria were directed towards the valleys of the Main and Lahn and Frankfort, where the French and Austrian armies manoeuvred for a position from which to over awe the electoral body. Marshal Traun was successful, and the grand-duke became the Emperor Francis I. on Sept. 13. Frederick agreed with England to recognize the election a few days later, but Maria Theresa would not conform to the Treaty of Breslau without a further appeal to the fortune of war. Saxony joined in this last attempt. A new advance of Prince Charles quickly brought on the battle of Soor, fought on ground destined to be famous in the war of 1866. Frederick was at first in a position of great peril, but his army changed front in the face of the advanc ing enemy and by its boldness and tenacity won a remarkable vic tory (Sept. 30). But the campaign was not ended. An Austrian contingent from the Main joined the Saxons under Marshal Ru towski, and a combined movement was made in the direction of Berlin by Rutowski from Saxony and Prince Charles from Bo hemia. The danger was very great. Frederick hurried up his forces from Silesia and marched as rapidly as possible on Dresden, win ning the actions of Katholisch-Hennersdorf (Nov. 24) and Gorlitz (Nov. 25). Prince Charles was thereby forced back, and now a second Prussian army under the old Dessauer advanced up the Elbe from Magdeburg to meet Rutowski. The latter took up a strong position at Kesselsdorf between Meissen and Dresden, but the veteran Leopold attacked him directly and without hesitation (Dec. 14). The Saxons and their allies were completely routed after a hard struggle, and Maria Theresa at last gave way. In the peace of Dresden (Dec. 25) Frederick recognized the imperial election, and retained Silesia, as at the peace of Breslau.
9. Operations in Italy, 1745-1747.—The campaign in Italy this year was also no mere war of posts. In March 1745 a secret treaty allied the Genoese republic with France, Spain and Naples. A change in the command of the Austrians favoured the first move of the allies. De Gages moved from Modena towards Lucca, the French and Spaniards in the Alps under Marshal Maillebois ad vanced through the Riviera to the Tanaro, and in the middle of July the two armies were at last concentrated between the Scrivia and the Tanaro, to the unusually large number of 8o,000. A swift march on Piacenza drew the Austrian commander thither, and in his absence the allies fell upon and completely defeated the Sar dinians at Bassignano (Sept. 27), a victory which was quickly followed by the capture of Alessandria, Valenza and Casale. Jomini calls the concentration of forces which effected the victory "le plus remarquable de toute la guerre." But the complicated politics of Italy brought it about that Maillebois was ultimately unable to turn his victory to account. Indeed, early in 1746, Austrian troops, freed by the peace with Frederick, passed through Tirol into Italy; the Franco-Spanish winter quarters were brusquely attacked, and a French garrison of 6,000 men at Asti was forced to capitulate. At the same time Count Browne with an Austrian corps struck at the allies on the lower Po, and cut off their communication with the main body in Piedmont. A series of minor actions thus completely destroyed the great concentra tion. The allies separated, Maillebois covering Liguria, the Span iards marching against Browne. The latter was promptly and heavily reinforced, and all that the Spaniards could do was to en trench themselves at Piacenza; the Spanish Infant as supreme commander calling up Maillebois to his aid. The French, skilfully conducted and marching rapidly, joined forces once more, but their situation was critical, for only two marches behind them the army of the king of Sardinia was in pursuit, and before them lay the principal army of the Austrians. The pitched battle of Pia cenza (June 16) was hard fought, and Maillebois had nearly achieved a victory when orders from the Infant compelled him to retire. That the army escaped at all was in the highest degree creditable to Maillebois and to his son and chief of staff, under whose leadership it eluded both the Austrians and the Sardinians, defeated an Austrian corps in the battle of Rottofreddo (Aug. 12), and made good its retreat on Genoa. It was, however, a mere rem nant of the allied army which returned, and the Austrians were soon masters of north Italy, including Genoa (September). But they met with no success in their forays towards the Alps. Soon Genoa revolted from the oppressive rule of the victors, rose and drove out the Austrians (Dec. 5-1 1 ), and the French, now com manded by Belleisle, took the offensive (1747). Genoa held out against a second Austrian siege, and after the plan of campaign had as usual been referred to Paris and Madrid, it was relieved, though a picked corps of the French army under the chevalier de Belleisle, brother of the marshal, was defeated in the almost im possible attempt (July 19) to storm the entrenched pass of Exiles (Col di Assietta), the chevalier, and with him the elite of the French nobility, being killed at the barricades. Before the steady advance of Marshal Belleisle the Austrians retired into Lombardy and a desultory campaign was waged up to the conclusion of peace.
In North America the most remarkable incident of what has been called "King George's War" was the capture of the French Canadian fortress of Louisburg by a British expedition (April 29– June 16, 1745), of which the military portion was furnished by the colonial militia under Col. (afterwards Lieut.-Gen. Sir Wil liam) Pepperell (1696-1759) of Maine. Louisburg was then re garded merely as a nest of privateers, and at the peace it was given up, but in the Seven Years' War it came within the domain of grand strategy, and its second capture was the preliminary step to the British conquest of Canada. For the war in India, see INDIA : History.
1o. Later Campaigns.—The last three campaigns of the war in the Netherlands were illuminated by the now fully developed genius of Marshal Saxe. After Fontenoy the French carried all before them. The withdrawal of most of the English to aid in suppressing the 'Forty-five rebellion at home left their allies in a helpless position. In 1746 the Dutch and the Austrians were driven back towards the line of the Meuse, and most of the im portant fortresses were taken by the French. The battle of Rou coux (or Raucourt) near Liege, fought on Oct. 11 between the allies under Prince Charles of Lorraine and the French under Saxe, resulted in a victory for the latter. Holland itself was now in danger, and when in April 1747 Saxe's army, which had now con quered the Austrian Netherlands up to the Meuse, turned its at tention to the United Provinces, the old fortresses on the frontier offered but slight resistance. The prince of Orange and the duke of Cumberland underwent a severe defeat at Lauffeld on July 2, 1747, and Saxe, of ter his victory, promptly and secretly des patched a corps under Lowendahl to besiege Bergen-op-Zoom. On Sept. 18 Bergen-op-Zoom was stormed by the French, and in the last year of the war Maestricht, attacked by the entire forces of Saxe and Lowendahl, surrendered on May 7, 1748. A large Russian army arrived on the Meuse to join the allies, but too late to be of use. The quarrel of Russia and Sweden had been settled by the peace of Abo in 1743, and in 1746 Russia had allied herself with Austria. Eventually a large army marched from Moscow to the Rhine, an event which was not without military significance, and in a manner preluded the great invasions of 1813-14 and 1815. The general peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) was signed on Oct. 18, 1748.