Peace of Utrecht
Context |
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Signed | 1713–1715 |
Location | Utrecht, Dutch Republic |
Signatories |
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Languages | |
Full text at Wikisource | |
The Peace of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht between April 1713 and February 1715. The war involved three contenders for the vacant throne of Spain, and involved much of Europe for over a decade. The main action saw France as the defender of Spain against a multinational coalition. The war was very expensive and bloody, and finally stalemated. Essentially, the treaties allowed Philip V (grandson of King Louis XIV of France) to keep the Spanish throne in return for permanently renouncing his claim to the French throne, along with other necessary guarantees that would ensure that France and Spain should not merge, thus preserving the balance of power in Europe.[1]
The treaties between several European states, including
Another enduring result has been the creation of the
Negotiations
On 2 January 1710, king Louis XIV of France agreed to commence peace negotiations in Geertruidenberg .[3]
France and
With Great Britain, France and Spain having agreed to a "suspension of arms" (armistice) covering Spain on 19 August in Paris, the pace of negotiation quickened. The first treaty signed at Utrecht was the truce between France and Portugal on 7 November, followed by the truce between France and Savoy on 14 March 1713. That same day, Spain, Great Britain, France and the Empire agreed to the evacuation of Catalonia and an armistice in Italy. The main treaties of peace followed on 11 April 1713. These were five separate treaties between France and Great Britain, the Netherlands, Savoy, Prussia and Portugal. Spain under Philip V signed separate peace treaties with Savoy and Great Britain at Utrecht on 13 July. Negotiations at Utrecht dragged on into the next year, for the peace treaty between Spain and the Netherlands was only signed on 26 June 1714 and that between Spain and Portugal on 6 February 1715.[6]
Several other treaties came out of the congress of Utrecht. France signed treaties of commerce and navigation with Great Britain and the Netherlands (11 April 1713). Great Britain signed a like treaty with Spain (9 December 1713).[6]
Treaties
Peace and friendship treaties of Utrecht and elsewhere | |||||
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Date (New Style / (Old Style)) | Treaty name | Anti-French side | French side | Texts | |
14 March 1713 | Convention for the Evacuation of Catalonia and the Armistice in Italy (Utrecht)[7] |
Holy Roman Empire Great Britain |
Bourbon Spain
|
Spanish, French/German | |
11 April 1713 (31 March 1713) | Peace and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht | Great Britain | France | English, French/German | |
11 April 1713 | Peace Treaty of Utrecht | Dutch Republic | France | Dutch, French, French/German | |
11 April 1713 | Peace Treaty of Utrecht | Portugal | France | French/German,French (Art. 8) | |
11 April 1713 | Peace Treaty of Utrecht | Prussia | France | French/German | |
11 April 1713 | Peace Treaty of Utrecht | Savoy | France | French/German | |
13 July 1713 (2 July 1713) | Peace and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht | Great Britain | Bourbon Spain
|
English, Spanish, Spanish/Latin/English, French/German | |
13 July 1713 | Peace, Alliance and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht | Savoy | Bourbon Spain
|
Spanish, Spanish/German | |
6 March 1714 | Peace Treaty of Rastatt | Habsburg Austria | France | French/German | |
26 June 1714 | Adjusted Peace and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht | Dutch Republic | Bourbon Spain
|
Spanish | |
7 September 1714 | Peace Treaty of Baden | Holy Roman Empire | France | Latin/German | |
6 February 1715 | Adjusted Peace and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht | Portugal | Bourbon Spain
|
Portuguese, Spanish |
Navigation, commerce and other treaties of Utrecht and elsewhere | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Date (New Style / (Old Style)) | Treaty name | Side | Side | Texts | |
30 January 1713 (19 January 1713) | Second Barrier Treaty (Utrecht) | Dutch Republic | Great Britain | Latin | |
2 April 1713[8] | Guelders Treaty of Utrecht | Holy Roman Empire | Prussia | German (p. 91–96) | |
11 April 1713 | Navigation and Commerce Treaty of Utrecht | Dutch Republic | France | French/German | |
11 April 1713 (31 March 1713) | Navigation and Commerce Treaty of Utrecht | France | Great Britain | French/German | |
13 July 1713 | Preliminary Commerce Treaty of Madrid | Bourbon Spain
|
Great Britain | Spanish | |
9 December 1713 (28 November 1713) | Adjusted Commerce and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht | Bourbon Spain
|
Great Britain | Spanish, Latin/German | |
15 November 1715 | Third Barrier Treaty (Antwerp) | Dutch Republic Great Britain |
Holy Roman Empire | French/German | |
14 December 1715 | Explanatory Peace and Commerce Treaty of Madrid | Bourbon Spain
|
Great Britain | Spanish |
Principal provisions
The Peace confirmed the Bourbon candidate as Philip V of Spain to remain as king. In return, Philip renounced the French throne, both for himself and his descendants, with reciprocal renunciations by French Bourbons to the Spanish throne, including Louis XIV's nephew Philippe of Orléans. These became increasingly important after a series of deaths between 1712 and 1714 left the five year old Louis XV as his great-grandfather's heir.[9]
Great Britain was the main beneficiary; Utrecht marked the point at which it became the primary European commercial power.
In a major coup for the British delegation, the
The importance placed by British negotiators on commercial interests was demonstrated by their demand for France to "level the fortifications of Dunkirk, block up the port and demolish the sluices that scour the harbour, [which] shall never be reconstructed".[18] This was because Dunkirk was the primary base for French privateers, as it was possible to reach the North Sea in a single tide and escape British patrols in the English Channel.[19]
Under Article XIII and, despite the British demands to preserve
In North America, France recognised British suzerainty over the Iroquois, and ceded Nova Scotia and its claims to Newfoundland and territories in Rupert's Land.[22] The French portion of Saint Kitts in the West Indies was also ceded in its entirety to Britain.[22] France retained its other pre-war North American possessions, including Cape Breton Island, where it built the Fortress of Louisbourg, then the most expensive military installation in North America.[23]
The successful French
Responses to the treaties
The treaty's territorial provisions did not go as far as the Whigs in Britain would have liked, considering that the French had made overtures for peace in 1706 and again in 1709. The Whigs considered themselves the heirs of the staunch anti-French policies of William III of England and the John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. The Whigs were now a minority in the house, but still pushing their anti-peace agenda. The whigs opposed peace every step of the way. The Whigs even called the treaty a sellout for letting the duke of Anjou stay on the Spanish throne.[25]
However, in the
The party in the administration of
Although the fate of the Spanish Netherlands in particular was of interest to the United Provinces, Dutch influence on the outcome of the negotiations was fairly insignificant, even though the talks were held on their territory. The French negotiator Melchior de Polignac taunted the Dutch with the scathing remark de vous, chez vous, sans vous,[28] meaning that negotiations would be held "about you, around you, without you". The fact that Bolingbroke had secretly ordered the British commander, the Duke of Ormonde, to withdraw from the Allied forces before the Battle of Denain (informing the French but not the Allies), and the fact that they secretly arrived at separate peace with France was a fait accompli, made the objections of the Allies pointless.[29] In any case, the Dutch achieved their condominium in the Austrian Netherlands with the Austro-Dutch Barrier Treaty of 1715.[30]
Aftermath
The Treaty stipulated that "because of the great danger which threatened the liberty and safety of all Europe, from the too close conjunction of the kingdoms of Spain and France, ... one and the same person should never become King of both kingdoms".
First mentioned in 1701 by Charles Davenant in his Essays on the Balance of Power, it was widely publicised in Britain by author and Tory satirist Daniel Defoe in his 1709 article A Review of the Affairs of France. The idea was reflected in the wording of the treaties and resurfaced after the defeat of Napoleon in the 1815 Concert of Europe that dominated Europe in the 19th century.[citation needed]
For the individual signatories, Britain established naval superiority over its competitors, commercial access to Spain and America, and control of Menorca and Gibraltar; it retains the latter territory to this day. France accepted the Protestant succession on the British throne, ensuring a smooth transition when Anne died in August 1714, and ended its support for the Stuarts under the 1716 Anglo-French Treaty.[33] While the war left all participants with unprecedented levels of government debt, only Great Britain successfully financed it.[34]
Spain retained the majority of its Empire and recovered remarkably quickly; the recapture of Naples and Sicily in 1718 was only prevented by British naval power and a second attempt was successful in 1734. The 1707, 1715 and 1716 Nueva Planta decrees abolished regional political structures in the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca and the Principality of Catalonia, although Catalonia and Aragon retained some of these rights until 1767.[35]
Despite failure in Spain, Austria secured its position in Italy and Hungary, allowing it to continue expansion into areas of South-East Europe previously held by the Ottoman Empire. Even after paying expenses associated with the Dutch Barrier, increased tax revenues from the Austrian Netherlands funded a significant upgrade of the Austrian military.[36] However, these gains were diminished by various factors, chiefly the disruption of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 caused by Charles disinheriting his nieces in favour of his daughter Maria Theresa.[37]
Attempts to ensure its succession involved Austria in wars of little strategic value; much of the fighting in the 1733–1735 War of the Polish Succession taking place in its maritime provinces in Italy. Austria had traditionally relied on naval support from the Dutch, whose own capability had been severely degraded; Britain prevented the loss of Sicily and Naples in 1718 but refused to do so again in 1734.[38] The dispute continued to loosen Habsburg control over the Empire; Bavaria, Hanover, Prussia and Saxony increasingly acted as independent powers and in 1742, Charles of Bavaria became the first non-Habsburg Emperor in over 300 years.[39]
The Dutch Republic ended the war effectively bankrupt, while the damage suffered by the Dutch merchant navy permanently affected their commercial and political strength and it was superseded by Britain as the pre-eminent European mercantile power.
While the final settlement at Utrecht was far more favourable to France than the Allied offer of 1709 had been, it gained little that had not already been achieved through diplomacy by February 1701.[45] Though France remained a great power, concern at its relative decline in military and economic terms compared to Britain was an underlying cause of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740.[46]
Evaluations
The British historian G. M. Trevelyan has argued that:
That Treaty, which ushered in the stable and characteristic period of Eighteenth-Century civilization, marked the end of danger to Europe from the old French monarchy, and it marked a change of no less significance to the world at large, – the maritime, commercial and financial supremacy of Great Britain.[47]
The British academic Brendan Simms argues that:
Britain had shaped Europe in her interests at the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It soon became clear, however, that she had designed a system to deal with past threats, principally from France, rather than those of the future. The new challenges came first from Spain, which was unreconciled to the loss of its Mediterranean lands.[48]
See also
- Disputed status of Gibraltar
- French Shore
- Herman Moll
- Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate, composition by Handel
References
- ISBN 9781118532225.
- ^ R.R. Palmer, A History of the Modern World 2nd ed. 1961, p. 234.
- ^ Articles preliminaires accordez & promis per le Roi T.C. pour servir de fondement aux Negociations de Geertruydenberg. Le 2. Janvier 1710
- ^ The staunch Tory Strafford was hauled before a committee of Parliament for his part in the treaty, which the Whigs considered not advantageous enough.
- ISBN 9781781590317.
- ^ a b Randall Lesaffer, "The Peace of Utrecht and the Balance of Power", Oxford Public International Law.
- ^ Oxford Public International Law
- ^ Netherlands (1893). Verslagen omtrent 's rijks oude Archieven (in Dutch). The Hague. Retrieved 1 April 2022.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 9780007203765.
- ^ Pincus, Steven. "Rethinking Mercantilism: Political Economy, The British Empire and the Atlantic World in the 17th and 18th Centuries" (PDF). Warwick University: 7–8. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
- ^ Anne, Queen of Great Britain; King Philip V of Spain (July 1713). "Peace and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht between Spain and Great Britain". pp. Articles X and XI.
- ^ Drescher: JANCAST (p. 451): "Jewish mercantile influence in the politics of the Atlantic slave trade probably reached its peak in the opening years of the eighteenth century ... the political and the economic prospects of Dutch Sephardic [Jewish] capitalists rapidly faded, however, when the British emerged with the asiento [permission to sell slaves in Spanish possessions] at the Peace of Utrecht in 1713".
- ^ England Under Queen Anne Vol III, by G. M. Trevelyan, p. 123
- ^ Africa, Its Geography, People, and Products, by W. E. B. Du Bois
- ^ Slavery and Augustan Literature
- ^ Capitalism and Slavery, p. 40
- ^ A History of Colonial America by Oliver Perry Chitwood, p. 345
- JSTOR 3816138.
- ISBN 9780907628774.
- ISBN 978-84-9892-060-4.
- ^ Campos, Luciano Rodrigues (21 April 2007). "O Arbitramento No Amapá". Archived from the original on 22 June 2008.
- ^ a b George Chalmers, Great Britain (24 January 1790). "A Collection of Treaties Between Great Britain and Other Powers". Printed for J. Stockdale – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 9781408704011.
- ^ "Treaties of Utrecht – European history". Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ISBN 9781118532225.
- ISBN 9781118532225.
- ^ The twelve peers consisted of two who were summoned in their father's baronies, Lords Compton (Northampton) and Bruce (Ailesbury), and ten recruits, namely Lords Hay (Kinnoull), Mountjoy, Burton (Paget), Mansell, Middleton, Trevor, Lansdowne, Masham, Foley, and Bathurst. David Backhouse, "Tory Tergiversation In The House of Lords, 1714–1760" Archived 28 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Szabo, I. (1857). The State Policy of Modern Europe from the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century to the Present Time. Vol. I, Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, p. 166
- ^ Churchill, W. (2002). Marlborough: His Life and Times, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0226106365, pp. 954-955
- ^ Israel, J. I. (1995), The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0198730721 hardback, ISBN 0198207344 paperback, p. 978
- ^ Article II, Peace and Friendship Treaty of Utrecht.
- ^ Lesaffer, Randall (10 November 2014). "The peace of Utrecht and the balance of power". OUP Blog. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-7190-3774-0.
- ^ Carlos, Ann; Neal, Larry; Wandschneider, Kirsten (2006). "The Origins of National Debt: The Financing and Re-financing of the War of the Spanish Succession" (PDF). International Economic History Association: 2. Retrieved 6 September 2018.
- ISBN 9780691051659.
- ASIN B0189PTWZG.)
{{cite book}}
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- ISBN 978-0-582-05950-4.
- ISBN 9780521045452.
- ISBN 978-1-909662-22-3.
- ^ Van Nimwegen 2002, p. 31.
- ISBN 978-90-04-18558-6.
- ISBN 9781108040136.
- ^ Van Nimwegen 2020, p. 354.
- ISBN 978-1-118-53222-5.
- ISBN 978-0-582-05629-9.
- ^ G.M. Trevelyan, A shortened history of England (1942) p. 363
- ISBN 9780141983899.
Bibliography
- Bruin, Renger and Cornelis Haven, eds. Performances of Peace: Utrecht 1713 (2015). online
- Christ, Johann Friedrich (1726). Ruhe des jetzt lebenden Europa Dargestellet in Sammlung der neuesten Europaeischen Friedens-Schlüße, Wie dieselbe unter Regierung ... Käyser Carl des VI. Von den Utrechtischen an biY auf dieses 1726te Jahr zum Vorschein gekommen; Dem Original-Text nach emendat und zuverläßig nebst guter und verbesserter Ubersetzung der mehresten Stücke auch kurtzen Inhalt und Summarien Wie nicht weniger mit Remißionen, Anmerckungen und Registern ... Als ein politisches Manual-Buch ausgefertiget. Erste und Andere Abtheilung: Die Ruhe gegen Frankreich und Spanien enthaltend (in German). Coburg: Paul Günther Pfotenhauer. p. 1044. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
- Gregory, Desmond: Minorca, the Illusory Prize: A History of the British Occupations of Minorca Between 1708 and 1802 (Associated University Press, 1990)
- Lesaffer, Randall. "The peace of Utrecht and the balance of power", Oxford Historical Treaties 10 Nov 1914 online
- Lynn, John A (1999). The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714. Longman. ISBN 0-582-05629-2
- Mowat, Robert B. History of European diplomacy, 1451–1789 (1928) pp. 141–154; online pp. 165–182.
- Sichel, Walter. Bolingbroke And His Times, 2 vols. (1901–02) Vol. 1 The Reign of Queen Anne
- Stanhope, Philip: History of England, Comprising the Reign of Queen Anne until the Peace of Utrecht (London: 1870)
- Trevelyan, G. M (1930–34). England Under Queen Anne. 3 volumes. Longmans, Green and co.
- Van Nimwegen, Olaf (2020). De Veertigjarige Oorlog 1672–1712: de strijd van de Nederlanders tegen de Zonnekoning [The 40 Years' War 1672–1712: the Dutch struggle against the Sun King] (in Dutch). Prometheus. ISBN 978-90-446-3871-4.
- Van Nimwegen, Olaf (2002). De Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden als grote mogendheid: Buitenlandse politiek en oorlogvoering in de eerste helft van de achttiende eeuw en in het bijzonder tijdens de Oostenrijkse Successieoorlog (1740–1748) (in Dutch). De Bataafsche Leeuw. ISBN 978-90-6707-540-4.
External links
- "The Treaties of Utrecht (1713)" Brief discussion and extracts of the various treaties on François Velde's Heraldica website, with particular focus on the renunciations and their later reconfirmations.