Prussia gained some disputed lands and Portugal won minor concessions in Brazil against encroachments on the Amazon from French Guiana. In addition, Spain ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to Great Britain and agreed to give to the British the Asiento, a monopoly on the oceanic slave trade to the Spanish colonies in America.
Utrecht marked the rise of Great Britain under Anne and later the House of Hanover and the end of the hegemonic ambitions of France. After the signing of the Utrecht treaties, the French continued to be at war with the Holy Roman Empire until , when hostilities ended with the treaties of Rastatt and Baden.
Spain and Portugal remained formally at war with each other until the Treaty of Madrid of February , while peace between Spain and Emperor Charles VI, unsuccessful claimant to the Spanish crown, came only in with the signing of the Treaty of The Hague.
Weakened Spain eventually grew in strength under Philip V, and the country would return to the forefront of European politics. With neither Charles VI nor Philip V willing to accept the Spanish partition, and with no treaty existing between Spain and Austria, the two powers would soon clash in order to gain control of Italy, starting with a brief war in However, the War of the Spanish Succession brought to an end a long period of major conflict in western Europe; the partition of the Spanish Monarchy had secured the balance of power, and the conditions imposed at Utrecht helped to regulate the relations between the major European powers over the coming century.
Skip to main content. Search for:. As he had reigned over a vast global empire, the question of who would succeed him had long troubled ministers in capitals throughout Europe. The balance of victories and losses shifted regularly over the course of the war, with both sides exhausted militarily and financially.
As early as , the Tories initiated secret talks with the French, seeking mutual ground whereon Great Britain and France could dictate peace to the rest of Europe. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published February 07, ; Last Edited June 19, The Canadian Encyclopedia , s. Thank you for your submission Our team will be reviewing your submission and get back to you with any further questions.
Thanks for contributing to The Canadian Encyclopedia. Article by Stuart R. Britain Treaty of Utrecht France treaty. But the crucial piece of the puzzle was the agreement that the French and Spanish monarchies would never be united under one person.
Thereto, Philip V had to cede all his rights to the French throne, while the princes in line for the French and Spanish succession after him had to cede their rights to the Spanish throne. Article 2 of the Hispano-British Peace of 13 July 28 CTS literally stipulated that peace in Europe could only be sustained if the balance of power were preserved.
Therefore, the union of the crowns of France and Spain could never be condoned and had to be excluded for the future. The article incorporated the different charters of cession of Philip V and the French princes, as well as their acceptance by Louis XIV. The article was based on similar clauses in the treaties of 11 April , which did, however, lack a direct reference to the balance in the body of the article. But they also incorporated the same charters, all of which held such a reference.
It has been said by international lawyers that the introduction of the balance of power in the Utrecht Peace Treaties promoted it into a foundational principle of the positive law of nations.
Others have pointed at the scarcity of references to balance of power in later treaties of the 18th century. It is indeed remarkable that direct references to the balance of power in 18th-century treaties remain relatively rare and in almost all cases relate to matters of dynastic succession. The concrete legal implications of adopting the balance of power as a principle of the law of nations may indeed have been restricted to superseding the normal order of dynastic succession in a few cases but in the Europe of the 18th century this was a change of the greatest order.
These were based on an amalgamation of feudal, canon and imperial law, historic rights, dynastic inheritance, conquest, and cession by treaty.
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