War of the Bavarian Succession

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War of the Bavarian Succession
Date 1778 to 1779 Location Largely in Bohemia and Bavaria Result Treaty of Teschen, much of Bavaria's previous territory restored.
Belligerents
Austria	Prussia Saxony Bavaria
Commanders
Maria Theresa	Frederick the Great

The War of the Bavarian Succession was a war that occurred between 1778 and 1779 involving Austria, Saxony, Bavaria and Prussia. The conflict is often known as the Potato War (Kartoffelkrieg) because of the extended time the Prussian and Austrian troops spent on manoeuvres in Bohemia securing food-supplies and denying them to the enemy.

It was fought largely to maintain the balance of power in Central Europe similar to the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War which preceded it.

[edit] Causes

When Elector Maximilian III of the junior branch of the Wittelsbach died in 1777, the Sulzbach line stood as heir to the Duchy of Bavaria. The Elector Palatine Charles IV Theodore was the actual heir who inherited the throne and he proceeded to cede Lower Bavaria to Austria by secret treaty with Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, in exchange for which he was to receive the Austrian Netherlands.

Maximilian's consort Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony started negotiations with Prussia to secure Bavaria's independence and the succession of the Wittelsbach branch Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld in Bavaria after Charles Theodore's death. The heir of the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld was Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken. Count Karl-Wilhelm Finck von Finckenstein, Prussian First Minister under Frederick the Great believed that Austria's acquisitions in Bavaria would rebalance the gain of Silesia to Prussia three decades earlier, thus re-establishing Austria's hegemony in German-speaking lands and undermining Prussia's own position. He therefore constructed an alliance with Saxony and both countries declared war on Austria, ostensibly to defend the rights of Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, Charles Theodore's heir.

[edit] Treaty of Teschen

The invasion of Bohemia was largely bloodless and ended in the Congress of Teschen (1779), mediated by France and Russia . According to the peace settlement, Maria Theresa of Austria, much to her son's and co-ruler's displeasure, gave all but the Innviertel back to Bavaria. Saxony received financial reward for their role in the intervention. It is notable as Frederick the Great's last war. When Emperor Joseph II tried the scheme again in 1784, Frederick created the Fürstenbund, allowing himself to be seen as a defender of German liberties.

One of the by-products of the war was that it lessened the chances of Austria or Prussia intervening on Britain's side during the American War of Independence, leaving the British to fight a French-led coalition alone.^[1] This was one of the major reasons the French foreign minister, Vergennes, was so anxious to secure a peace agreement, before it triggered a major European war, which might draw France into it.

[edit] Sources

• Simms, Brendan. Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the British Empire. Penguin Books, 2008.