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Context | End of the Third Silesian War (part of the Seven Years' War) |
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Signed | 15 February 1763 |
Location | Hubertusburg, Saxony |
Negotiators | |
Signatories | |
See also: Treaty of Paris (1763). |
The Treaty of Hubertusburg (German : Frieden von Hubertusburg) was signed on 15 February 1763 at Hubertusburg Castle by Prussia, Austria and Saxony to end the Third Silesian War. Together with the Treaty of Paris, signed five days earlier, it marked the end of the Seven Years' War. The treaty ended the continental conflict with no significant changes in prewar borders. Austria and Saxony renounced all claims to the Silesian territories ceded to Prussia in the 1742 Treaty of Berlin and the 1745 Treaty of Dresden. Prussia clearly stood among the ranks of the European great powers, while the treaty enhanced the rivalry with Austria. [1]
Austria's resolve to repossess the rich province of Silesia, which had been lost to Prussia in 1748, was the major conflict leading to the Seven Years' War. Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, acquired the support of Russia, Sweden, Saxony, Spain and France, with the specific aim of waging war against Prussia and its ally, Great Britain. It was King Frederick II of Prussia, however, who initiated the hostilities with his attack and capture of Saxony in 1756.
The Seven Years' War started in 1756, with Prussia facing the allied forces of Austria, Russia, France and Sweden. Although in January 1757, the majority of the colleges of the Imperial Diet (minus Hanover, Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), Brunswick and Saxe-Gotha) voted against the move for war, Frederick succeeded in his quest for expanding Prussian influence, power and territory.
Through the first half of the war, the Prussians continued victorious. In the Battle of Rossbach, on 5 November 1757, the Prussian army defeated the French and also Imperial troops. The Prussians defeated the Austrians at Leuthen later in 1757 and the Russians at Zorndorf in 1758.
However, with Sweden entering the war and virtually all of Europe opposing Frederick, the tide seemed to turn. By 1759 eastern Prussia was in the hands of the Russians, and Berlin was occupied for some weeks. Austrian forces had invaded Prussia from the south. Now seriously running short of soldiers, Frederick II was in a desperate situation.
In 1758, the Anglo-Hanoverian army, an ally of Prussia commanded by Ferdinand of Brunswick, defeated the French and occupied the town of Münster. In 1759 Imperial troops invaded Saxony and expelled the Prussians.
Two significant factors, however, led to the eventual return of Prussian dominance in the war. One was the active support of the British and Hanoverians, which had been ineffective combatants but now fought successfully against the French. The second and more important was the withdrawal in 1762 of Russia and Sweden from the war. That occurred as a result of the death of Empress Elizabeth of Russia; her successor, Peter III, an admirer of Frederick, quickly signed a peace treaty with him. By the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, Russia made peace and restored all conquests, and Sweden also made peace that year. This turn in fortune was labeled the Miracle of the House of Brandenburg.
Now fighting alone in the east, the Austrians were soundly defeated in the Battle of Burkersdorf (July 1762). The French, had suffered severe reverses as well. In America, they had lost Louisbourg (1758), Quebec (1759), and some possessions in the West Indies. In India, the British victories at Plassey (1757) and Pondichéry (1761) had destroyed France's military capabilities there. On the sea, the French took Port Mahón from the British (1757) but were defeated by Hawke in Quiberon Bay (1759). The entry of Spain into the war under the terms of the Family Compact of 1761 was of little help to France, where the war had never been popular.
After protracted negotiations between the war-weary powers, peace was made among Prussia, Austria and Saxony at Hubertusburg and among Great Britain, France and Spain at Paris. The Treaty of Hubertusburg restored the prewar status quo but marked the ascendancy of Prussia as a leading European power. Through the Treaty of Paris, Great Britain emerged as the world's chief colonial empire, which had been its primary goal in the war, and France lost most of its overseas possessions. [2]
The phrase "Hubertsburg Peace" is sometimes used as a description for any treaty that restores the situation existing before conflict broke out. [3]
The Pomeranian War was a theatre of the Seven Years' War. The term is used to describe the fighting between Sweden and Prussia between 1757 and 1762 in Swedish Pomerania, Prussian Pomerania, northern Brandenburg and eastern Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
The Silesian Wars were three wars fought in the mid-18th century between Prussia and Habsburg Austria for control of the Central European region of Silesia. The First (1740–1742) and Second (1744–1745) Silesian Wars formed parts of the wider War of the Austrian Succession, in which Prussia was a member of a coalition seeking territorial gain at Austria's expense. The Third Silesian War (1756–1763) was a theatre of the global Seven Years' War, in which Austria in turn led a coalition of powers aiming to seize Prussian territory.
The Battle of Breslau was fought on 22 November 1757 in Breslau during the Third Silesian War. A Prussian army of 28,000 men fought an Austrian army of 60,000 men. The Prussians held off the Austrian attack, losing 6,000 men to the Austrians' 5,000 men. But one day later the Prussians beat a retreat. Breslau's garrison surrendered on 25 November 1757.
The Battle of Zorndorf, during the Seven Years' War, was fought on 25 August 1758 between Russian troops commanded by Count William Fermor and a Prussian army commanded by King Frederick the Great. The battle was tactically inconclusive, with both armies holding their ground and claiming victory. The site of the battle was the Prussian village of Zorndorf. During the battle, Frederick famously took a regimental standard and led an attack himself, rallying his troops.
The Battle of Hochkirch took place on 14 October 1758, during the Third Silesian War. After several weeks of maneuvering for position, an Austrian army of 80,000 commanded by Lieutenant Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun surprised the Prussian army of 30,000–36,000 commanded by Frederick the Great. The Austrian army overwhelmed the Prussians and forced a general retreat. The battle took place in and around the village of Hochkirch, 9 kilometers (6 mi) east of Bautzen, Saxony.
The War of the Fourth Coalition was a war spanning 1806–1807 that saw a multinational coalition fight against Napoleon's French Empire, subsequently being defeated. The main coalition partners were Prussia and Russia with Saxony, Sweden, and Great Britain also contributing. Excluding Prussia, some members of the coalition had previously been fighting France as part of the Third Coalition, and there was no intervening period of general peace. On 9 October 1806, Prussia declared war on France and joined a renewed coalition, fearing the rise in French power after the defeat of Austria and establishment of the French-sponsored Confederation of the Rhine in addition to having learned of French plans to cede Prussian-desired Hanover to Britain in exchange for peace. Prussia and Russia mobilized for a fresh campaign with France, massing troops in Saxony.
The Electorate of Hanover was an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire, located in northwestern Germany and taking its name from the capital city of Hanover. It was formally known as the Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg. For most of its existence, the electorate was ruled in personal union with Great Britain and Ireland following the Hanoverian Succession.
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.
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a German military officer best known for his participation in the Seven Years' War. From 1757 to 1762, he led an Anglo-German army in western Germany which successfully repelled French attempts to captured Hanover.
The Treaty of Saint Petersburg was concluded on 5 May 1762, and ended the fighting in the Seven Years' War between Prussia and Russia. The treaty followed the accession of Emperor Peter III, who admired the Prussian king Frederick the Great. It allowed the latter to concentrate on his other enemies, Austria and Saxony, in what became known as the Second Miracle of the House of Brandenburg.
Austria and Prussia were the most powerful German 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 German question in the 19th century.
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict involving most of the European great powers, fought primarily in Europe and the Americas. One of the opposing alliances was led by Great Britain and Prussia. The other alliance was led by France, backed by Spain, Saxony, Sweden, and Russia. Related conflicts include the 1754 to 1763 French and Indian War, and 1762 to 1763 Anglo-Spanish War.
The Third Silesian War was a war between Prussia and Austria that lasted from 1756 to 1763 and confirmed Prussia's control of the region of Silesia. The war was fought mainly in Silesia, Bohemia and Upper Saxony and formed one theatre of the Seven Years' War. It was the last of three Silesian Wars fought between Frederick the Great's Prussia and Maria Theresa's Austria in the mid-18th century, all three of which ended in Prussian control of Silesia.
Great Britain was one of the major participants in the Seven Years' War, which in fact lasted nine years, between 1754 and 1763. British involvement in the conflict began in 1754 in what became known as the French and Indian War. However the warfare in the European theatre involving countries other than Britain and France commenced in 1756. Britain emerged from the war as the world's leading colonial power, having gained all of New France in North America, ending France's role as a colonial power there. Following Spain's entry in the war in alliance with France in the third Family Compact, Britain captured the major Spanish ports of Havana, Cuba and Manila, in the Philippines in 1762, and agreed to return them in exchange for Spanish Florida. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 formally ended the conflict and Britain established itself as the world's pre-eminent naval power.
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 bore the brunt of the fighting in Europe. The alliance ended in the final months of the conflict, but strong ties remained between both kingdoms.
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.
The Treaty of Versailles of 1758, also called the Third Treaty of Versailles, confirmed the earlier treaties that had been signed at Versailles in 1756 and 1757 between Austria and France. However, it also revoked the 1757 treaty's agreement to create an independent state in the Austrian Netherlands, ruled by Philip, Duke of Parma; it would remain under Austrian rule.
The Invasion of Hanover took place in 1757 during the Seven Years' War when a French army under Louis Charles César Le Tellier, duc d'Estrées advanced into the Electorate of Hanover and neighbouring German states, following the Battle of Hastenbeck. French forces overran most of Hanover. This action forced the Hanoverian Army of Observation, intended to defend the Electorate, to Stade on the North Sea coast. At the Convention of Klosterzeven the Duke of Cumberland agreed to disband his army and acknowledge the French occupation of the Electorate.
The Blockade of Stralsund occurred during the Seven Years' War when a Prussian force invested the Swedish garrison of Stralsund, the capital of Swedish Pomerania. Rather than lay formal siege to the port, the Prussians cut it off by land and blockaded it. They were unable to cut it off by sea, owing to a lack of a Prussian fleet, and eventually the blockade was abandoned when the bulk of Prussian forces were withdrawn to fight in other theatres.