Everything about Peace Of Utrecht totally explained
The
Treaty of Utrecht that established the
Peace of Utrecht, rather than a single document, comprised a series of individual
peace treaties signed in the
Dutch city of
Utrecht in March and April 1713. Concluded between various European states, it helped end the
War of the Spanish Succession.
The treaties were concluded between the representatives of
Louis XIV of
France and
Philip V of
Spain on the one hand, and representatives of Queen
Anne of
Great Britain, the
Duke of Savoy, and the
United Provinces on the other.
The negotiations
France and Great Britain had come to terms in October 1711, when the preliminaries of peace had been signed in
London. This initial agreement was based on a tacit acceptance of the partition of Spain's European possessions. Following this, a congress opened at Utrecht on
January 29,
1712, with the British representatives being
John Robinson, Bishop of Bristol, and
Thomas Wentworth, Lord Strafford Reluctantly the United Provinces accepted the preliminaries and sent representatives, but the Emperor refused to do so until he was assured that these preliminaries were not binding. This assurance was given, and so in February the Imperial representatives made their appearance. As Philip wasn't yet recognized as its king, Spain didn't at first send plenipotentiaries, but the Duke of Savoy sent one, and Portugal was also represented.
One of the first questions discussed was the nature of the guarantees to be given by France and Spain that their crowns would be kept separate, and matters didn't make much progress until after
July 10,
1712, when Philip signed a renunciation. With Great Britain and France having agreed a truce, the pace of negotiation now quickened, and the main treaties were finally signed on
April 11,
1713.
Principal provisions
By the treaties' provisions, Louis XIV's grandson Philip,
Duke of Anjou was recognised as
King of Spain (as Philip V), thus confirming the succession as stipulated in the will of the late King
Charles II. However, Philip was compelled to renounce for himself and his descendants any right to the French throne, despite some doubts as to the lawfulness of such an act. In similar fashion various French princelings, including most notably the
Duke of Berry (Louis XIV's youngest grandson) and the
Duke of Orléans (Louis's nephew), renounced for themselves and their descendants any claim to the Spanish throne.
Spain's European empire was also divided:
Savoy received
Sicily and parts of the
Duchy of Milan, while
Charles VI (the
Holy Roman Emperor and
Archduke of Austria), received the
Spanish Netherlands, the
Kingdom of Naples,
Sardinia, and the bulk of the Duchy of Milan. In addition, Spain ceded
Gibraltar and
Minorca to
Great Britain and agreed to give to the British the
Asiento, a valuable monopoly
slave-trading contract.
In North America, France ceded to Great Britain its claims to the
Hudson's Bay Company territories in
Rupert's Land,
Newfoundland and
Acadia. The formerly partitioned island of
Saint Kitts was also ceded in its entirety to Britain. France was required to recognize British suzerainty over the
Iroquois and commerce with the Far Indians was to be open to traders of all nations. France retained its other pre-war North American possessions, including Île-Saint-Jean (now
Prince Edward Island) as well as Île Royale (now
Cape Breton Island), on which it erected the
Fortress of Louisbourg.
A series of commercial treaties were signed also.
After the signing of the Utrecht treaties, the French continued to be at war with Emperor Charles VI and with the
Holy Roman Empire itself until 1714, when hostilities were ended with the
Treaty of Rastatt and the
Treaty of Baden. Spain and
Portugal remained formally at war with each other until the
Treaty of Madrid in 1715, while the Empire and the now-
Bourbon Spain didn't conclude peace until 1720.
Responses to the treaties
The treaty's territorial provisions didn't 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 and the
Duke of Marlborough. Indeed, later in the century the Whig
John Wilkes contemptuously described it as like "[the] Peace of God, for it passeth all understanding". However, in the
Parliament of 1710 the
Tories had gained control of the
House of Commons, and they wished for an end to Britain's participation in a European war;
Queen Anne and her advisors had also come to the same position.
The party in the administration of
Robert Harley (created Earl of Oxford and Mortimer on 23 May 1711) and the
Viscount Bolingbroke proved more flexible at the bargaining table and were characterised by the Whigs as "pro-French"; Oxford and Bolingbroke persuaded the Queen to create twelve new "Tory peers" to ensure ratification of the treaty in the
House of Lords.
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. This led to the creation of a Dutch proverbial saying: "
De vous, chez vous, sans vous", meaning "concerning you, in your house, but without you".
Balance of power
The European concept of the
balance of power, first mentioned in 1701 by
Charles Davenant in
Essays on the Balance of Power, became a common topic of debate during the war and the conferences that led to signing of the treaties. Boosted by the
April 19,
1709 issue of
Daniel Defoe's
A Review of the Affairs of France, a
periodical which supported the Harley ministry, the concept was a key factor in British negotiations, and was reflected in the final treaties. This theme would continue to be a significant factor in European politics until the time of the
French Revolution (and was to resurface in the nineteenth century).
Further Information
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