TREATIES OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE (1740-48)

The treaty signed in 1668 by France and the Tripple Alliance (England, Sweden, and the Dutch republic) ended the War of Devolution (1667-68), which Louis XIV of France had initiated to advance his claims to the Spanish Netherlands. By the treaty, France kept the conquered towns of Charleroi, Douai, Tournai, Oudenaarde, Lille, Armentières, and a number of other towns in Flanders. France restored to Spain Cambrai, Aire, and Saint-Omer in Flanders, and the Franche-Comté.


The treaty was no more tha a truce in which Louis XIV temporarily put aside his plans for territorial expansion. The question of the right of devolution was not settled by the treaty.


The treaty of 1748 was negotiated largely by Great Britain and France, with the other powers following their lead, ending the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48, known in America as King George´s War).


The treaty was marked by the mutual restitution of conquest, including the fortress of Luisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, to France, Madras in India to England, and the Barrier towns to the Dutch. The right of the Habsburg heiress Maria Theresa to the Austrian lands was guaranteed, but the Habsburgs were seriously weakened by the guarantee to Prussia, not a party to the treaty, of its conquest of Silesia. Both Britain and France were trying to win the friendship of Prussia, now clearly a significant power, for the next war. Maria Theresa gave up to Spain the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla in Italy.


The treaty confirmed the right of succession of the House of Hanover in both Great Britain and in Hanover. In the commercial struggle between England and France in the West Indies, Africa, and India, nothing was settled; the treaty was thus no basis for a lasting peace.