1 6 8 9 king of Spain, and reserved for him with formal care his 1745 claim to the crown of France. In 1701, the exiled James II. died at Saint Germain and Louis XIV. promised to recognize his son as king of England. The violation of the treaty of partition and this death-bed promise were direct insults to the English king and, for once at least, William III. was moved to something like a passion. England, Holland, and Austria formed a second grand alliance -the prelude to the war of the March, 1702 Spanish succession. Before hostilities began, King William died and Queen Anne ascended the English throne. The Spanish France in September, 1709 Louis XIV. faced the coalition with inferior generals, while the duke of Marlborough and prince Eugene of Savoy led the allied forces and established their glory upon the misfortunes of France. In 1704, the battle of Bienheim destroyed the prestige of the French monarch. Then, with the support of England and Portugal, the Austrian archduke contested with Philip V. for the Spanish crown. This aroused the Spanish people from their sleep. Three million Jews and Moors had been expelled and a blight was resting upon the seven millions who remained. There was no Spanish navy; Spanish commerce had died; manufactures and agriculture languished. Now this drowsy, dreaming people took up arms with vigor: Spain could not submit to have an Austrian king imposed upon it by heretics. From every side, the armies of the French king were driven back into his own kingdom. Riots were common in the French towns and the French troops were starving. Villars, the French marshal, wrote: "Habit is everything, but the habit of not eating is not easy to acquire." The proud king sent his plate to the mint, pawned his jewels, and resolved to ask for peace. The allies demanded concessions so exacting that Louis was forced to appeal to his people. After the victory of Marlborough and Eugene at Malplaquet, the bloodiest battle of the war, Villars wrote to his king: "If God gives us grace to lose another such your majesty may reckon that your enemies are annihilated." Negotiations for peace were renewed, but the terms offered were such that the French 1 6 8 9 ambassadors exclaimed: "It is evident that you have 1745 not been accustomed to conquer," and Louis said: "Since there must be war, let it be against my enemies, rather than against my grandson." Events now conspired to save France. In 1711, the The Treaty death of the emperor without a son left Archduke of Utrecht Charles as successor to the Austrian throne and an aspirant for the imperial crown. To give into his keeping the undivided Spanish monarchy would be to create anew the sway of Charles V.-and for that Europe was not prepared. In England, the peace party came into power and secret negotiations were begun. By August, 1712, France and England had agreed upon the points at issue and Holland, Portugal, Prussia, and Savoy soon came into the combination. In April, 1713, nine distinct treaties, collectively known as the treaty of Utrecht, were signed and the universal war was ended. Great Nations Louis, who had reigned threescore years and ten, The Birth of obtained better terms for France than he had expected. He ceded to England Hudson Bay, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, a foreshadowing of the end of the long struggle for American supremacy and the complete expulsion of the French. Philip V. was recognized as king of Spain which gave up her possessions in the Netherlands and most of those in Italy to Austria, and Gibraltar and Minorca to England. Prussia received increase of territory and, from a duchy, became a kingdom. Thence, Bismarck, Von Moltke, and the German empire of today. The duke of Savoy received Sicily, part of the duchy of Milan, and recognition as a king. In 1720, Sicily was exchanged for Sardinia which, with the continental possessions of the king, was erected into the kingdom of Sardinia. Thence, Cavour, Victor Emanuel, and united Italy. Slave Trade By the "assiento" contract, Spain gave to England a The African monopoly of the supply of negroes for the SpanishAmerican colonies. To America, this was one of the most important matters covered by the treaty of Utrecht. "Her British Majesty does offer and undertake for the 1 6 8 9 persons whom she shall appoint, that they shall bring 1 7 4 5 into the West Indies of America belonging to His Catholick Majesty," in the next thirty years one hundred and forty-four thousand negroes, at the rate of four thousand eight hundred a year-they might bring as many more as they pleased. Queen Anne took a quarter of the stock and King Philip took another quarter; the remaining half was divided among English subjects. England had long been the protector of the slave trade and now her queen and the Spanish king be Анчен came the largest slave merchants ever known. The assiento was transferred by the government to the South Sea company, the blowers of the famous South Sea bubble. American The treaty of Utrecht protected the balance of power How the in Europe but it scattered the seeds of war broadcast War Affected throughout the world and led to results of vital impor- Geography tance to English dominion in America. During the progress of the war, the central colonies were not disturbed, although South Carolina and New England were involved directly, as will appear in later chapters. The demands that the war made upon English resources were the chief cause of the exactions that were characteristic of the British colonial policy in this period, and must be kept in mind if one is to realize the full significance of the immediately following chapters. The distresses that the war brought to France and Spain explain the otherwise inexplicable neglect of their possessions in America. France gave up part of New France and was 1 6 8 9 left too weak for the protection of the rest. Spain was 1 7 4 5 shorn of her European dependencies but was left with her vast colonial empire and her narrow colonial policy; a ship with weakened hulk, little ballast, and enormous spread of canvas. How it Affected American It was inevitable that political policies in Europe and colonial expansion in America and rival interests of the Independence fish and fur trade should bring French and English colonists into hostile contact. More than any other thing, the danger from the French and the Indians made the English colonists in America dependent upon the mother country and thus, perhaps, delayed the declaration of American independence nearly a century. For the single reason that any adequate understanding of American colonial history of the eighteenth century requires as a background at least an outline of these European wars, the rivalries that caused them, and the conditions that resulted from them, this chapter has been written. Of these three wars in America, King William's war was but the fringe of the war of the grand alliance, the 1689-1697 great European contest that grew from the accession of the prince of Orange to the English throne. To us it is familiar chiefly through the stories of the massacres at Schenectady and Salmon Falls, the seizure and plunder of Port Royal, and the failure of both parts of a duplex plan, the attempt to conquer Canada by an army sent by way of Lake Champlain and the attempt to capture Quebec by a fleet sent by way of the lower Saint Lawrence. In 1697, it was ended by the treaty of Ryswick. King Queen Anne's Soon after the treaty of Ryswick, Frontenac died and was succeeded by Callières who maintained the able and vigorous policy of his predecessor. Detroit was occupied, the most important passes to the west were guarded, another New France was set up at the mouth of the Mississippi, and military lines of communication were established from the Saint Lawrence to the gulf. Meantime, the English colonies lay almost passive by the sea. The waiting was not long, for the next war |