1, Bavarian Superhea
Since it is a war on the succession of the throne of Bavaria, the cause of this war must be related to the death of the Bavarian ruler. On December 30, 1777, Max Joseph, Duke of Bavaria, died of smallpox and left no children, which attracted many ambitious contenders to the throne. So what kind of charm does Bavaria have that attract so many contenders for the throne? The Duke of Bavaria has a very high status in Holy Roman Empire , enjoying many economic and legal rights, and he is also one of the candidates for the Holy Roman Empire Emperor. This shows that Bavaria is a "hot commodity".
Max Joseph
In fact, there was indeed a first successor at that time, Karl Theodor, Duke of Julich Berg, but this duke was already the Elector of Pafalz. According to regulations, he could only inherit Bavaria after giving up his status as Elector of Pafalz. Although Bavaria is more important, the climate of Palatinate is pleasant and Karl prefers to live in Palatinate. However, Carl has many mistresses who gave birth to many children for him. Carl hopes to leave land for these children, which complicated the issue of inheritance of the Bavarian throne.
red is Bavaria
Austria Grand Duke Joseph hopes to get Bavaria to expand his power. For this reason, he once married Max Joseph's sister Maria, hoping to give birth to children to fight for the inheritance rights of Bavaria. However, things did not go as planned, and the marriage did not give birth to children, so Joseph's claim to inheritance of Bavaria was only an authorization originating from 1425. But Joseph also knew that the legal basis for this authorization was insufficient, so he negotiated with Carl shortly after Max Joseph's death, and finally the two sides reached a secret agreement. Joseph obtained the inheritance rights of Bavaria, and Carl received additional territorial compensation, so that Carl could share the land to his illegitimate children.
Austrian Grand Duke Joseph II
However, in this agreement, Carl's son and presumed heir, Carl II August, became the victim. It is said that Carl August's mother-in-law and Max Joseph's sister (his identity is not certain, and some people think it is Maria Anna of Saxony, the widow of Max Joseph), in order to allow Carl August to successfully obtain the inheritance rights, secret negotiations were held with the Prussians . In this way, the issue of succession to the Bavarian throne gradually became the focus of the competition between Austria and Prussia.
2. "Potato War"
Representatives of various countries held several months of diplomatic negotiations for the right of inheritance. At the same time, Austria and Prussia were also secretly mobilizing their troops, which was far beyond the scale of the Seven Years War . In the end, the negotiations broke down and a big battle was about to break out. The war began with the declaration of Prussian invasion, and the troops of both sides confronted each other near the Elbe River. Since the Prussian army commander was the most outstanding commander in Europe at that time, the Austrian defenders did not dare to act rashly.
Prussian ruler Frederick
It is very difficult to support a huge army during the war, so the focus of the war became the battle for logistics supplies. Both sides continued to attack each other's material escort teams to seize each other's materials, and the hostile sides searched for food on a large scale in the countryside. The commanders of both sides even ordered their soldiers to dig out locally grown potatoes to satisfy their hunger. Such an action became the main content of this war, and both sides even had more time to find food than to fight, and it was precisely because of this that the "Potato War" one was obtained.
In the long-term confrontation, the resources of both countries were severely consumed. In order to break the deadlock, Maria Theresa, the mother of the Grand Austrian Deputy Joseph, began to mediate secretly. She sent a secret envoy to Berlin to propose a truce, and also wrote a letter to the Russian female tsar, Katerina, for help.In the end, both sides withdrew their troops under the mediation of Theresa and Yekaterina, and only a small group of troops were left to monitor each other.
Maria Theresa
However, the war did not end there.
In the winter at the turn of 1778-1779, the armies of both sides broke out in conflict, and the Austrian army launched a raid on the Prussian army. On March 3, 1779, the Austrian commander led his troops to attack Beppsdorf and captured all the local Prussian garrisons. The war on succession to the Bavarian throne ended.
Bavarian inheritance war
3. War lingering sounds
Finally, Austria and Prussia signed the "Teshen Peace Treaty" on May 13, 1779. Austria obtained the Inhe area and returned the lower Bavaria to Carl Theodor. Judging from the arrangements of the peace treaty, this undoubtedly reflects that Austria is the winner of the actual war. However, such an arrangement did not fundamentally resolve the problem. In 1785, the dispute re-emerged, and the Austrian ruler Joseph proposed to use Austrian Netherlands to exchange the remaining Bavarian territory. However, this time, Prussia won over other German princes to form an alliance to put pressure on Joseph, and the plan for this territorial exchange had to be cancelled. It was not until 1799 that Carl August's younger brother Maximilian inherited the Bavarian throne, and this truly declared the solution to the inheritance problem.
Bavarian Maximilian I
Although both sides mobilized a large number of troops, there was no large-scale battle in fact. Despite this, the losses caused by the war were still quite huge. A large number of people on both sides died of hunger or disease, and the confrontation between the two sides also brought heavy economic burdens to their respective countries. No wonder later, the Austrian ruler Joseph thought the war was very terrible and many innocent people suffered greatly.
Wenshijun said
Although the war on the succession of the throne in Bavaria is not famous, its influence is very far-reaching. Some people think that this is the last old-style war in Europe. The subsequent French Revolution and Napoleonic War will profoundly change the traditional way of war, and the military mobilization ability shown in this war also seems to herald the future form of war. In addition, this war also fully reflects the duality tendency in the German region, namely the confrontation between the two major German powers of Austria and Prussia, and this duality tendency will also profoundly affect the future path of Germany's unification.
References
[English] James Frank Bright: "Maria Theresa: A History of the Restoration of the Habsburg Dynasty", Chinese Publishing House, 2020.
[British] Harold Temperley: "Frederick the Great and Joseph II: War and Diplomacy in the 18th Century", Chinese Publishing House, 2020.
(Author: Haoran Literature and History·Friends of ABC)
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