War of the Spanish Succession (Every Week)

On 1st November, 1700, King Charles II of Spain died, sparking a succession crisis between two claimants, the Bourbon Dynasty of France and Hapsburg Dynasty of Austria. The following war would last for 13 years and involve most of Western Europe. After the war ended in 1714, the European Balance of power was restored. It signaled the rise of Great Britain, the resurgence of Spain under the Bourbons, brought about 18th-Century-style diplomacy, and introduced the colonial theatres as a major part of European warfare.

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-Colours-
Darkest: Nation directly involved in the war
Dark: Occupied Territory
Light: Nation indirectly involved in the war
Lightest: New territorial changes
Brown (1700-01): Unoccupied Spain
Brown (1712-15): Armistice Agreement
Light Brown: Mostly at peace; only still at war with one other nation

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-Sources-
Wikipedia
YouTube

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-Music-
Two Steps from Hell - Black Blade
Epic and Dramatic Trailer Music

[Teudiselo]

*Battle of Almansa* (1707): English forces commanded by a Frenchman (Rouvigny) and French forces commanded by an Englishman (Berwick). Unbelievable but true.

[dadonutparadise]

amazing how 900, 000 people had to die in this war so that 1 person can be the monarch of a nation

[mrmapperil]

Austria demonstrates how to have your rebels have rebels.

[ted]

I love these chaotic wars where it's basically one half of Europe against the other half, with 3 or 4 different theaters of war (from Iberia, to Italy, to Hungary, to the low countries...), so it becomes one giant clusterfuck.

[galacticpenguintv]

Terrific video, Ollie. This is definitely one of your best. The animation was very smooth and the music fit the video very nicely. Great job!

[DanRyzESPUK]

To summarise the end of the war, winners and losers:

- France: Overall winner. Yes, they lost some territories, but their biggest threat banished after this (being surrounded by an enemy dynasty: The House of Habsburg). For the next century they would count Spain as an ally instead of a bitter enemy, and fight by their side in the following wars.

- Great Britain: Tactical winner. They couldn't avoid their biggest fear, a Franco-Spanish alliance, but got nice territorial gains as Menorca and Gibraltar. Spaniards are still resentful towards Gibraltar belonging to UK nowadays.

- Austria: Sort of loser. They failed to keep their House in Spain, in exchange they could keep some former Spanish territories as today Belgium and Naples (somehow Spain got it back by the Seven Years War).

- Spain: Loser. They lost money, influence and territories like Gibraltar. Nothing good came out of this war for them. Moreover, before there was a sort of mutual relationship between the Holy Roman Empire / Austria and Spain, but after this Spain would become France's bitch.

- Hungary: Loser. Missed a great change to gain independence. Good try though.

- Catalonia (and Valencia): Biggest loser. They did bet for the wrong horse and in the Game of Thrones you either win or die (specially when you got no leverage after defeat), and they lost their autonomy and rights for betrayal to the new king.

[prigual]

Brittish forces took Gibraltar for Charles, in the name of Spain, ..and it is still theirs

[francescocantoni]

Great video! This war was very important for my city, Mantua. In 1707, Charles Ferdinand of Gonzaga-Nevers, Duke of Mantua, officially vassal of the Holy Roman Empire owned by Habsburg House but allied with Louis XVI Bourbon, was declared traitor and exiled. That was the end of Mantua's independence, the city and its territory were fused with the Dukedom of Milan.

[louisg]

I like british reaction "Oh, we totally don't care about Spain, but we can make a new war against frenchies, so let's go!!" xD

[xenotypos]

"the rise of Great Britain" They were still weaker than France overall (this isn't the Seven Years War), "rise" is big word for this period. And even if it wasn't a complete victory, France still managed to impose its first objective: putting a Bourbon monarch.

[royaleuropemapping]

AKA, The "let's see who steals more from Spain" war

[emperorofholyrome]

The war of the Spanish succession was truly the first world war.

[harrisonshone]

As an American who lives on the east coast, it's kind of weird how we were involved in this messy war, and yet nobody really remembers it.

[andreasb.]

And people say France sucks militarily, while the map shows Spain as blue, their military involvement was minimal, it was French forces keeping the Carlistas at bay in Spain while facing all the rest of Western/Central Europe and Great Britain at the same time! I am not saying any side was right/wrong but France's achievements under Louis XIV in this war is pretty impressive.

[geograficmanodm]

This video is great! It's very useful to understand well the spanish succession war. I hope it would help to me on the exam of tomorrow. As a spanish, i think that it's a pity that there are no Spanish-speaking channels that make this type of content.

[GamesLegitament]

So who "won" this war, because I've heard people debating all over the place over who won.

[jackwei]

At this time I believe France had the most powerful army in the world arguably with Sweden having the other great army yet if Louis XIV managed to annex all of Spain's holdings around the world who knows what sort of monster would've been created.

[manzilla]

I don't really understand this war. I know that the Spanish Habsburg king died and that the Allies didn't want France to gain control of Spain's empire so they supported the Austrian claim but could someone explain properly to me.

[saikatbhattacharya]

From treaty of westphalia (1648) to beginning of 7 years war (1757-63), France was most powerful nation of Europe.
Enmity between France, England, Holland (Portuguese were dying out then), helped Asian kingdoms to thrive both economically and militarily.
Asian kingdoms gained huge trade surplus by forcing Europeans to compete as buyers with each other.
Asian kingdoms also got military help from one European power against another European power.

Spanish succession war indeed saw resurgence of England which faced too many internal strife due to parliament vs king from 1640s to 1690s.

[KingTapyrr]

This just comes to show how intertwined the dynasties in Europe were in the past. Very nice video!