After a reign of 48 years filled with almost endless troubles, Emperor Leopold died in 1705. He was succeeded by his son, Joseph I (reigned 1705–11). In the religious quarrels the new emperor, an ally of Protestant states, showed great restraint and allowed himself to be guided mainly by political motives.
In 1703 Victor Amadeus II, duke of Savoy, who had left the French to go over to the Habsburgs, found himself in a critical situation; his capital, Turin, had come under French siege. An imperial army under Prince Eugene and reinforced by a Prussian contingent was sent to his aid and succeeded in uniting with the Savoyan forces and relieving Turin after a victorious battle (1706). At the beginning of the next year, an agreement was reached under which the French evacuated northern Italy. The same year, a smaller imperial army under Wirich, Graf (count) von Daun, conquered Spanish-ruled southern Italy, but an invasion of southern France, which the sea powers had instigated, failed. A quick success, however, fell to the Austrians in a campaign against the Vatican state over a conflict between the emperor and the Roman Curia concerning mutual feudal rights and caused by Pope Clement XI’s rather pro-French leanings.
The allies were victorious in the Netherlands, winning the Battle of Oudenaarde and conquering Lille (1708). Paris seemed within easy reach. The Battle of Malplaquet (1709) was another victory for the allies, but they had to pay dearly for it. In the meantime, peace negotiations had foundered. After reverses in Spain and a political change in England, the alliance itself was in danger of falling apart. The situation was further aggravated by the death in 1711 of Emperor Joseph I, who left only daughters.
At this juncture, liquidation of the Hungarian rising became possible. Rákóczi, who in 1707 had declared the deposition of the Habsburgs, began to meet with growing opposition among his followers. Imperial troops forced Rákóczi to flee to Poland, and the rebels, who had been promised an amnesty and who were guaranteed religious liberty, made their peace in 1711. From then on the Vienna government tried to be more considerate of Hungary and its aristocracy.
The election of Charles VI as emperor was effected without any difficulties. The English left the coalition, and after a military reverse most of the Habsburgs’ allies joined the treaties of Utrecht (1713–14). In the peace negotiations between Austria and France that were begun at Rastatt, Germany, Prince Eugene showed himself an unyielding and successful agent of Habsburg interests (see Rastatt and Baden, treaties of). Austria gained the Spanish Netherlands (henceforth known as the Austrian Netherlands), a territory corresponding approximately to modern Belgium and Luxembourg. These gains were somewhat impaired, however, by the Dutch privilege of stationing garrisons in a number of fortresses. In Italy, Austria received Milan, Mantua, Mirandola, the continental part of the Kingdom of Naples, and the isle of Sardinia. The Wittelsbachs of Bavaria regained their country, but the treaty contained an appendix that provided for the eventuality of Bavaria’s being exchanged for the Netherlands. Of its gains, the northern Italian territories were of the greatest value to Austria; the possession of Naples and the Netherlands, on the other hand, posed considerable military and political risks. Problem of the Austrian succession
The extinction of the Spanish line of the Habsburgs and the fact that the emperor Charles VI was the last male member of that house posed serious problems for the Habsburg territories, which, at the beginning of the 18th century, were held together mainly by the person of the sovereign, notwithstanding the fact that there were some institutions of central administration. A settlement was made in the form of a family ordinance. On April 19, 1713, Charles VI issued a decree, according to which the Habsburg lands should remain an integral, undivided whole. In the event of the Habsburgs’ becoming extinct in the male line, the daughters of Charles or their descendants or, in default of any descendants of Charles, the daughters of Joseph I and their descendants and, after them, all other female members of the house, should be eligible for the succession. As the son that was born to the emperor in 1716 died after a few months and only daughters were born to him after that (Maria Theresa, 1717; Maria Anna, 1718; Maria Amalia, 1724), this Pragmatic Sanction (a term used to characterize a pronouncement by a sovereign on a matter of prime importance) became of great significance. Austrian diplomacy in the last decades of Charles’s reign was directed toward securing acceptance of the Pragmatic Sanction from all the European powers. It was published in 1720 and by 1722 had been recognized by the estates of all the Habsburg countries. Even the unanimous consent of the Hungarian diet was eventually obtained. New conflicts with the Turks and the Bourbons
During the War of the Spanish Succession, the Ottoman Empire had remained neutral toward Austria. But the Turks had attacked the possessions of the Venetians on the Peloponnese and on the Ionian Islands. Austria tried to intervene and finally declared war. Prince Eugene defeated the Turks near the fortress of Peterwardein (Petrovaradin, now part of Novi Sad, Serbia) and conquered the strong bastion of Temesvár (now Timișoara, Romania) in 1716. In the summer campaign of 1717, Belgrade again came into the hands of the imperial troops after a battle was won against a Turkish relief army. In the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), a frontier line was agreed upon that corresponded to the de facto situation. The Turks had to cede to the Austrians the Banat region, the Turkish part of Syrmia (Srem, now part of Vojvodina, Serbia), Walachia Minor as far as the Olt (Aluta) River, northern Serbia, Belgrade, and a strip of land along the frontier in northern Bosnia. A favourable trade agreement was also concluded.
During the Turkish war another crisis emerged. The Spanish minister Giulio Alberoni tried to initiate a policy of expansion in Italy. When Spanish troops landed in Sardinia and Sicily, the emperor formed an alliance with Great Britain and France, later joined by the Dutch Republic (the Quadruple Alliance). After the English defeated the Spanish fleet, Madrid recalled its troops from the disputed territories. Austria received the more prosperous Sicily in exchange for Sardinia, which fell to Savoy. Charles then agreed to recognize the Spanish Bourbons. The gains from the Quadruple Alliance plus those of the Treaty of Passarowitz gave the Habsburgs the largest territory they were ever to rule. Their domains were far from unified, however, with the individual provinces showing a wide national, economic, cultural, and constitutional diversity.
Trading interests soon interfered with the empire’s alliance with the maritime powers of Britain and the Dutch Republic. At first the attempts of the Ostend Company, which was backed by Charles VI, to enter into trade with India were quite successful. Because of the antipathy of the maritime powers, however, it seemed advisable to find an alternative to trade with Dutch and British colonial markets in the vast transatlantic empire of Spain. In 1725 Charles entered into an alliance with Spain, whereupon France, Great Britain, and Prussia formed a rival alliance. But soon after Russia was won over to the Habsburg cause, Prussia changed sides. As the outbreak of a European war seemed imminent, attempts were made at the Congress of Soissons to relax political tensions. Spain abruptly changed its alliances and concluded a treaty (1729) with England and France, the Dutch Republic joining later. When Russia also began to waver, Prince Eugene tried to fall back on the traditional alliance with the maritime powers. After prolonged and difficult negotiations, Britain in 1731 accepted the Pragmatic Sanction, the emperor in return giving a promise not to marry his daughter Maria Theresa, the Habsburg heiress, to a prince who was himself heir to important domains. Austria finally dissolved the Ostend Company, having already suspended its charter in 1727. Charles VI then invested a great deal of energy in his endeavours to secure the recognition and the guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction in the German diet. In this he was opposed by Bavaria and the elector of Saxony, but Austria finally obtained the guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction at the Regensburg Diet (1732).