Diplomatic Revolution of 1756

Examples of Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 in the following topics:

• The Diplomatic Revolution

  • 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, when Austria went from an ally of Britain to an ally of France, and Prussia became an ally of Britain.
  • The collapse of that system and the aligning of France with Austria and of Great Britain with Prussia constituted what is known as the “diplomatic revolution” or the “reversal of alliances.”
  • This map shows Europe in the years after the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 1748 and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).
  • The fragile peace eventually resulted in the diplomatic revolution and collapsed when the Seven Years' War began only eight years after the treaty was signed.
  • Recall the parties involved in the Diplomatic Revolution and what changed between them as a result of this event

• Marriage to Marie-Antoinette

  • Following the Seven Years' War and the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, Empress Maria Theresa decided to end hostilities with her longtime enemy, King Louis XV of France.
  • Eventually, in spite of their early difficulties, the royal couple became the parents of four children.
  • Upon the death of Louis XV in 1774, the Dauphin ascended the throne as King Louis XVI of France and Navarre, and Marie Antoinette became Queen of France and Navarre.
  • The queen played a very important role in supporting the American Revolution by securing Austrian and Russian support for France, which resulted in the establishment of a neutral league that stopped Great Britain's attack, and by weighing in decisively for the nomination of Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur, as Minister of War and Charles Eugène Gabriel de La Croix, marquis de Castries, Secretary of the Navy in 1780.
  • By the time of the Flour War of 1775, a series of riots against the high price of flour and bread, her reputation among the general public was damaged.

• Territorial Losses

  • Sensing the vulnerability of Maria Theresa's position, King Frederick the Great of Prussia invaded the Austrian province of Silesia in hopes of annexing it permanently.
  • Renewing the cycle of conflicts typical of Louis XIV's reign, the king entered the war in 1741 on the side of Prussia in hopes of pursuing its own anti-Austrian foreign policy goals.
  • A few months later, Great Britain and Prussia, enemies in the War of the Austrian Succession, signed a 1756 treaty of "neutrality."
  • In what is known as diplomatic revolution, the king overruled his ministers and signed the Treaty of Versailles with Austria in 1756, putting an end to more than 200 years of conflict with the Habsburgs.
  • In 1756, Frederick the Great invaded Saxony without a declaration of war, initiating the Seven Years' War, and Britain declared war on France.

• Events of the War

  • Conflict between Great Britain and France broke out in 1754–1756 when the British attacked disputed French positions in North America and seized hundreds of French merchant ships.
  • In 1756, the major powers shifted their alliances and Prussia allied with Britain while France allied with Austria - a change known as the diplomatic revolution.
  • Realizing that war was imminent, in 1756 Prussia preemptively struck Saxony and quickly overran it.
  • Despite the huge disparity in numbers, 1756 had been successful for the Prussian-led forces on the continent.
  • British operations in 1755, 1756 and 1757 in the frontier areas of Pennsylvania and New York all failed, due to a combination of poor management, internal divisions, effective Canadian scouts, French regular forces, and Indian warrior allies.

• A Global War

  • The Seven Years' War was a world war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763.
  • Although Frederick the Great's preemptive invasion of Saxony in 1756 marks the conventional beginning of the Seven Years' War, key developments in North America preceded the outbreak of the war in Europe.
  • In response, France concluded an alliance with its long-time enemy Austria, an event known as the diplomatic revolution.
  • When the Seven Years' War between France and Great Britain started in 1756, Spain and Portugal remained neutral but everything changed when Ferdinand VI died in 1759 and was succeeded by his younger half-brother Charles III of Spain.
  • When later France went to war with Great Britain during the American Revolution, the British found no support among the European powers.

• The Triumphs of Tsarina Elizabeth I

  • This triumph was credited to the diplomatic ability of the new vice chancellor, Aleksey Bestuzhev-Ryumin, the head of foreign affairs.
  • The critical event of Elizabeth's later years was the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).
  • Elizabeth regarded the 1756 alliance between Great Britain and Prussia as utterly subversive of the previous conventions between Great Britain and Russia and sided against Prussia over a personal dislike of Frederick the Great.
  • During the first six years of the war, Elizabeth focused on diplomatic (both covert and overt) and military efforts that aimed to deprive Frederick the Great and Prussia of their position as a the major European ruler and power.
  • This turn of events has become known as "the Second Miracle of the House of Brandenburg."

• Napoleon and the New World

  • Napoleon's decisions to reinstate slavery in French colonies and sell the Louisiana territory to the United States, together with the triumph of the Haitian Revolution, made his colonial policies some of the greatest failures of his rule.
  • The Seven Years' War (1756-63) particularly saw a French defeat, with the numerically superior British conquering not only New France (excluding the small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon), but also most of France's West Indian (Caribbean) colonies and all of the French Indian outposts.
  • Modest recovery of the French colonial empire was made during the French intervention in the American Revolution, with Saint Lucia being returned to France by the Treaty of Paris in 1783.
  • The end of what remained of France's first colonial empire began in 1791 when Saint Domingue (the Western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola), France's richest and most important colony was riven by a massive slave revolt (Haitian Revolution).
  • During the Revolution, the National Convention voted to abolish slavery in 1794.

• The French and Indian War

  • The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines.
  • In some countries, the war is alternatively named after combats in the respective theatres: the French and Indian War (North America, 1754–63), Pomeranian War (Sweden and Prussia, 1757–62), Third Carnatic War (Indian subcontinent, 1757–63), and Third Silesian War (Prussia and Austria, 1756–63).
  • In 1756, the war erupted into a worldwide conflict between Britain and France.
  • In 1756 and 1757, Britain suffered further defeats with the fall of Fort Oswego and Fort William Henry.
  • For France, the military defeat and the financial burden of the war weakened the monarchy and contributed to the advent of the French Revolution in 1789.

• International Diplomacy

  • Europe in the 1860s was more fragmented than it had been since before the American Revolution.
  • Navy's boarding of a British mail steamer to seize two Confederate diplomats.
  • Recognition of the Confederacy seemed at hand, but Lincoln released two detained Confederate diplomats, tensions cooled, and the Confederacy gained no advantage.
  • During the four years of its existence, the Confederate States of America asserted its independence and appointed dozens of diplomatic agents abroad.
  • Several European nations maintained diplomats in place who had been appointed to the United States, but no country appointed any diplomat to the Confederacy.

• The Iranian Crisis

  • The Iranian hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States in which 52 Americans were held hostage for 444 days.
  • In 1953, the United States had assisted Great Britain in the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, a rival of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the shah of Iran.
  • In February of 1979, the shah was overthrown when revolution broke out, and a few months later, he departed for the United States for medical treatment.
  • In Iran, the taking of hostages was widely seen as an act of resistance against U.S. influence in Iran, its attempts to undermine the Iranian Revolution, and its longstanding support of Shah Pahlavi of Iran, recently overthrown by the revolution.
  • In the United States, the hostage situation was seen as an outrage that violated international law granting diplomats immunity from arrest and diplomatic compounds' inviolability.