The stately quadrille is the name given to set of constantly shifting alliances between the great powers of Europe during the 18th century. The ultimate objective was to maintain the balance of power in Europe to stop any one alliance or country becoming too strong. It takes its name from the quadrille, a dance in which the participants constantly swap partners.
The most widely cited instance was in 1756, when Britain and Austria abandoned their 25-year-long Anglo-Austrian Alliance and instead made new alliances with their former enemies, Prussia and France, respectively. That was known as the Diplomatic Revolution.
Background
Shifting alliances had long been a factor in European politics and were often regarded as responses to shifting power and threat. During the 16th century and the early 17th century, much of the emphasis in European politics had been on restricting the power of the Habsburgs in Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.
The quadrille was a popular dance of the 18th century. Because of its similarity to the way in which Great Powers swapped partners, the term was swiftly applied to describe it.
In the years immediately after the war, Britain and France, which were widely considered to have been the leaders of opposing coalitions in the last war, formed an Anglo-French Alliance and recognized that they shared temporary, mutual interests. In the years that followed, they managed to defeat a resurgent Spain, formerly a French ally, in the War of the Quadruple Alliance. Spain sought an alliance with Austria and gained it in 1725.
By 1731, Britain and France were clearly drifting apart. A diplomatic initiative with Austria was begun by the British government, and a new Anglo-Austrian Alliance was created. Spain withdrew its friendship with Austria and eventually ended up allied to France again.
In 1733, however the Anglo-Austrian Alliance seemed under threat, when the British failed to assist the Austrians in the War of the Polish Succession. Austria had to rely heavily on Russia for assistance and was forced to make huge concessions to Spain in the 1738 peace treaty. Britain realised that its failure to intervene had allowed France to become too strong.
The stately quadrille reached its height in 1756, when several new alliances formed as a result of the Diplomatic Revolution.
In 1740, Prussia, an emerging power, attacked Austria. Britain and France soon became embroiled in the war, which ended in a stalemate in 1748, but Austria appeared to have lost most in the war. Despite extensive British funding, it was increasingly disillusioned about the Anglo-Austrian Alliance and began looking for a replacement.
In 1756, Austria did what was considered unthinkable by many by abandoning its British connection to form a new alliance with France. Fearing that Continental Europe would be destabilized and led to war, Britain made an alliance with Prussia at the Convention of Westminster in the hope that a new balance of power would prevent war.
Decline
The concept began to fade in the second half of the 18th century, as Britain and France became the dominant European powers. The failure to prevent the Seven Years' War, in which over a million died, was a major factor. States began to seek a more stable and long-lasting series of alliances: one of the most successful in the second half of the century was the Bourbon Family Compact between France and Spain, which endured throughout a number of major European conflicts, including the Wars of Austrian and Polish Successions and the Seven Years' War and endured past the American War of Independence in which French and Spanish support contributed towards British defeat.
After the Napoleonic Wars, a Concert of Europe was set up to create a forum for discussion rather than create shifting alliance patterns, which had a tendency to cause major wars. This was successful through most of the 19th century, until World War I collapsed the post-Napoleonic system amid increasingly acute nationalist tensions, which led to the formation of Germany and the collapse of the Austrian, Russian, and Ottoman empires.
Clark, Christopher. Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia 1600–1947. Penguin Books, 2007
Simms, Brendan. Three Victories and a Defeat. Penguin Books, 2008.
Strachan, Hew. The First World War. Simon & Schuster, 2006
Related Research Articles
The War of the Polish Succession was a major European conflict sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II of Poland, which the other European powers widened in pursuit of their own national interests. France and Spain, the two Bourbon powers, attempted to test the power of the Austrian Habsburgs in Western Europe, as did the Kingdom of Prussia, whilst Saxony and Russia mobilized to support the eventual victor. The fighting in Poland resulted in the accession of Augustus III, who in addition to Russia and Saxony, was politically supported by the Habsburgs.
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1715. Charles II of Spain died in November 1700 without children, leading to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire. The nominated heir, French-born Philip of Anjou, was primarily backed by Spain and France, while his rival, Archduke Charles, was supported by the Grand Alliance, whose chief members included Austria, the Dutch Republic, and Great Britain. Related conflicts include the 1700 to 1721 Great Northern War, Rákóczi's War of Independence, the Camisards revolt in southern France, Queen Anne's War in North America, and minor trade wars in India and South America.
The 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, sometimes called the Treaty of Aachen, ended the War of the Austrian Succession, following a congress assembled on 24 April 1748 at the Free Imperial City of Aachen.
The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 was the reversal of longstanding alliances in Europe between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. Austria went from an ally of Britain to an ally of France; the Dutch Republic, a long-standing British ally, became more anti-British and took a neutral stance while Prussia became an ally of Britain. The most influential diplomat involved was an Austrian statesman, Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz.
French–German (Franco-German) enmity was the idea of unavoidably hostile relations and mutual revanchism between Germans and French people that arose in the 16th century and became popular with the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. It was an important factor in the unification of Germany, World War I, and ended after World War II, when under the influence of the Cold War, West Germany and France both became part of NATO and the European Coal and Steel Community.
The term French–Habsburg rivalry describes the rivalry between France and the House of Habsburg. The Habsburgs headed an expansive and evolving empire that included, at various times, the Holy Roman Empire, the Spanish Empire, Austria, Bohemia and Hungary from the Diet of Augsburg in the High Middle Ages until the dissolution of the monarchy following World War I in the late modern period.
The Peace of Vienna was a series of four treaties signed between 30 April 1725 and 5 November 1725 by the Habsburg monarchy, the Holy Roman Empire, and Bourbon Spain; the Russian Empire later joined the newly-found alliance in 1726. The signing of this treaty marks the founding of the Austro-Spanish Alliance and led the Fourth Anglo-Spanish War (1727-1729). This new alliance thereby removed Austria from the Quadruple Alliance. In addition to a formation of the new partnership, the Habsburgs relinquished all formal claims to the Spanish throne, while the Spanish removed their claims in the Southern Netherlands, and a number of other territories.
The 1731 Treaty of Vienna was signed on 16 March 1731 between Great Britain and Emperor Charles VI on behalf of the Habsburg monarchy, with the Dutch Republic included as a party.
The Second Hundred Years' War is a periodization or historical era term used by some historians to describe the series of military conflicts between Great Britain and France that occurred from about 1689 to 1815. The Second Hundred Years' War is named after the Hundred Years' War, which occurred in the 14th and 15th century. The term appears to have been coined by J. R. Seeley in his influential work The Expansion of England (1883).
Austria and Prussia were the most powerful states in the Holy Roman Empire by the 18th and 19th centuries and had engaged in a struggle for supremacy among smaller German kingdoms. The rivalry was characterized by major territorial conflicts and economic, cultural, and political aspects. Therefore, the rivalry was an important element of the so-called German question in the 19th century.
Foreign relations exist between Austria and France. Both countries have had diplomatic relations with each other since the Middle Ages. Both countries are full members of the Council of Europe and the European Union.
The European balance of power is a tenet in international relations that no single power should be allowed to achieve hegemony over a substantial part of Europe. During much of the Modern Age, the balance was achieved by having a small number of ever-changing alliances contending for power, which culminated in the World Wars of the early 20th century. By 1945, European-led global dominance and rivalry had ended and the doctrine of European balance of power was replaced by a worldwide balance of power involving the United States and the Soviet Union as the modern superpowers.
The Anglo-Austrian Alliance connected the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Habsburg monarchy during the first half of the 18th century. It was largely the work of the British Whig statesman Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who considered an alliance with Austria crucial to prevent the further expansion of French power.
The Anglo-French Alliance is the name for the alliance between Great Britain and France between 1716 and 1731. It formed part of the stately quadrille in which the Great Powers of Europe repeatedly switched partners to try to build a superior alliance.
The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire after 1809 and also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. It lasted from 18 May 1804 to 3 May 1814 and again briefly from 20 March 1815 to 7 July 1815.
The Anglo-Prussian Alliance was a military alliance created by the Westminster Convention between Great Britain and Prussia that lasted formally between 1756 and 1762, during the Seven Years' War. The alliance allowed Britain to concentrate most of its efforts against the colonial possessions of the French-led coalition while Prussia was bearing the brunt of the fighting in Europe. It ended in the final months of the conflict, but strong ties between both kingdoms remained.
The Franco-Austrian Alliance was a diplomatic and military alliance between France and Austria that was first established in 1756 after the First Treaty of Versailles. It lasted for much of the remainder of the century until it was abandoned during the French Revolution.
Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg was an Austrian and Czech diplomat and statesman in the Habsburg monarchy. A proponent of enlightened absolutism, he held the office of State Chancellor for about four decades and was responsible for the foreign policies during the reigns of Maria Theresa, Joseph II, and Leopold II. In 1764, he was elevated to the noble rank of a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire (Reichfürst).
The Kingdom of Spain entered a new era with the death of Charles II, the last Spanish Habsburg monarch, who died childless in 1700. The War of the Spanish Succession was fought between proponents of a Bourbon prince, Philip of Anjou, and the Austrian Hapsburg claimant, Archduke Charles. After the wars were ended with the Peace of Utrecht, Philip V's rule began in 1715, although he had to renounce his place in the succession of the French throne.
The Treaty of Nymphenburg was a treaty between Bavaria and Spain that was concluded on May 28, 1741 at the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich. It was the first formal pact of a series of French-sponsored alliances against the Habsburg Monarch, Maria Theresa. Through the agreement, the Bavarian Elector Charles Albert gained the support of King Philip V of Spain to become the next Holy Roman Emperor against the claims of the Habsburgs. The treaty was brokered by Marshal Belleisle under the authority of Louis XV of France. As part of the negotiations, the French agreed to materially support Charles Albert's claims. The treaty signaled the expansion of the First Silesian War, which started as a local war between Prussia and the Habsburg Monarchy, into the War of the Austrian Succession, a pan-European conflict.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
