The

The Hello and welcome to a History of Europe Key Battles podcast.

This set of episode is on the War of Austrian Succession.

And in the second part, I will talk about the 1730s and two wars which happened leading up to the war of Austrian succession,

the war of polis succession and the war of Jenkins' ear.

The war of the war of Europe experienced a temporary

respite from warfare. Rauders had become more interested in working for the betterment

of their subjects and establishing a balance of power to avoid further conflict. However, the personalised nature of monarchies

still meant that personal idiosyncrasies and dynastic considerations tended to predominate

and to undermine attempts to systematize international relations. The author Reid Browning in his book on the Austrian succession identifies four key rivalries between the European powers of the 18th century, all of which could be traced back to at least the previous century.

The first was a struggle between France and Austria for influence in Germany.

The second was between Austria and Spain as rivals in a conflict over territory in Italy.

The third involved Britain and Spain in the competition for trade in America,

and the fourth cast Britain and France as adversaries in a contest for dominance in the continent.

The Franco-imperial conflict had heightened during the reign of King Lerie 14th of France,

who made repeated attempts to conquer imperial territory on his northwestern and western borders, and succeeded in capturing numerous border towns and the regions of Alsace and French Comte.

The German population remembered the brutality of the French troops, especially the infamous devastation of the Platonate of 1688 to 89.

The Austro-Spanish rivalry in Italy was essentially dynastic.

Spain had long been a dominant foreign power in Italy, ruling in the 16th and 17th

from 17th centuries in both Naples and Milan.

This had been the Spain of the Habsburgs and Vienna and Madrid got on reasonably amicably.

The accession of the New Bourbon dynasty in Spain meant that both Spain and Austria now had rival claims at both ends of the Italian peninsula.

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