The origins of the Seven Years War lie in the murky waters at the end of the War of Austrian Succession and the subsequent Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. The main protagonists in this political melodrama between the end of the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War are Great Britain, who wished to expand her colonial possessions at the expense of France, and Austria, who wished for revenge on Prussia for the loss of Silesia. The other major players, France, Russia, Saxony, Hannover and Prussia, it would be fair to say, merely reacted to the ever shifting dynamics in international relations as the British and Austrians engaged in riotous duplicity and intrigue to further their own ends.
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed in October, 1748, as well as being party to many less significant clauses and articles, had two highly controversial and explosive articles central to the events leading up to the Seven Years Wars.
The ceding of Silesia to Prussia by Austria, unconditionally.
The designation of a boundary commission to sort out the claims of France and Great Britain to disputed frontier territory in North America.
The first article was clear and completely unambiguous, but was so exceedingly galling to Austrian interests. Silesia was a very populous and wealthy territory of the Austrian Empire. Although, at the time of signing the treaty, Austria was powerless to resist the terms of the treaty, Maria Theresa, the ruler of Austria, immediately set about the task of undermining and isolating Prussia’s dominant position in Europe diplomatically. Austria also began instituting military and economic reforms in preparation for war in the future. In short, from the moment Austria signed the treaty, revenge for the loss of Silesia was foremost in the hearts and minds of Austria’s empress and ruling nobility.
The second article of note was extremely murky and contentious and the way forward to seeing a successful resolution by the committee in regards to the border disputes was filled with many heated arguments. Furthermore, the actual title deeds and resolutions made no attempt at taking into consideration the language, cultural and ethnic heritage of the settlers. Naturally the settlers had their own opinions as to what territories belonged to whom. Despite an official ending of hostilities between France and Britain through the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, fighting in the disputed territories continued almost unabated between French and English settlers.
THE COLONIAL QUESTION
In 1754, the British Government, in an effort to expand her influence in the colonies, agreed to support British settlers in the conquest of Fort Duquesne and certain territories around Lake Ontario, Erie and Lake Champlain. Unfortunately for the English Government details of the planned invasion leaked out to the British media. France was naturally outraged by these press releases and demanded a response from the British Government. The British ambassador to Paris quickly denied all knowledge of the secret dispatches, but the French intelligence service soon managed to obtain a copy of the secret documents. France reacted strongly, sending six first class French line battalions to reinforce her position in North America and declaring that the whole of the disputed territories in North Scotia and the Ohio valley should be granted to France.
The British cabinet’s response was to send Vice Admiral Edward Boscawen with a Squadron of the Royal Navy to go and hunt down these reinforcements and intercept them before they reached the American coast. On the 10th of June, 1755, Boscawen finally caught up with the French fleet off the coast of Newfoundland and vigorously fell upon them capturing two of the three French ships.
The action, though not greatly significant in terms of loss of manpower and ships was very significant in isolating Britain diplomatically. Many nations in Europe viewed England as the aggressor and would not support her expansionist goals. It also sent France into a state of war frenzy.
France broke off diplomatic ties with Britain and although continued peace talks sporadically, with England, was now intent on boosting her naval might in order to protect her own colonial territories. France first called upon her ally Spain to assist in naval operations against the British and when Spain refused to get dragged in to a war with England, France turned to her other ally Prussia for military assistance in Western Germany instead. Prussia cagily refused any direct help to France. France less favoured on the whole as to matters political, (both her allies abandoning her to her own fate) decided to go it alone and began vast scale preparations for an invasion of England.
THE CONVENTION OF WESTMINSTER
Great Britain, presented with the very real threat of invasion, with only a small force to defend the south coast of England, realised they had pushed too hard too fast and needed to reassess how they were going to take advantage of their position in the colonies. Britain needed allies and fast. England knew she would receive no help from Austria as the Austrians were too intent on revenge against Prussia and Holland refused to support Britain or send troops to help defend Britain’s shores. The only allies left to Britain were Hannover and Hesse-Kassel. Both these states agreed to aid their “Island” ally and sent 21 battalions to defend England’s southern shores. Now that England’s own borders were secure, her ally’s borders were extremely vulnerable to attack from both France and Prussia. Britain needed some leverage and in true Machiavellian style opened up dialogue with both Russia and Prussia.
England commenced negotiations with Russia in order to ensure that Prussia remained focusing on the east and not the west. Late in September 1755, a subsidy arrangement was signed between Russia and Great Britain. Russia agreed to maintain an army of 55 000 men on the East Prussian border and prepare a flotilla of landing craft in the Baltic in order to threaten Prussia’s northern shores with amphibious operations, should war ensue. Britain for her part agreed to send Russia an annual subsidy of 100 000 pound per year.
Next, England opened up dialogue with Prussia through the offices of the Duke of Brunswick, formally asking Prussia NOT to invade Hannover or Hesse- Kassel or encourage France to do so. Underlying this dialogue was a veiled threat of Russian intervention should Prussia reject Britain’s formal request out of hand. England’s approach to discussions with Prussia was in every detail, out and out political blackmail.
However, Frederick the Great was a realist, pragmatist and opportunist and after further discussions realised the usefulness of an English ally and most importantly English gold. Prussia was becoming increasingly isolated. France was courting Saxony as a potential ally in her war with Britain and Saxony was pro Austrian. Austria was now actively looking for military allies as she moved closer to exacting revenge on Prussia. Austria had opened discussions with Saxony, Russia and even Sweden as she plotted and planned for the reconquest of Silesia. Prussia considered Saxony would make a great launching board for an invasion of Austria, should Austria continue her military build up. If Saxony became a French ally then Prussia would have to abandon his alliance with France in order to invade Saxony and risk further enemies to be thrown against Prussia.
So Frederick, with no other allies to speak of and the threat of war in central Europe looming decided to ally with Great Britain. On the 16th of January, 1756, Great Britain and Prussia signed the Convention of Westminster. The Convention of Westminster in essence was defensive alliance for the mutual protection of each nation’s dominions in Europe, but with the provision for military aid or subsidies should either nation’s dominions be threatened with invasion.
THE AUSTRIAN COALTION
The convention rocked the very foundations of Europe and solidified the various European nations into their respective war camps. Russia, disgusted by England’s duplicity immediately entered into a military alliance with Austria. France, now completely isolated, felt compelled to ally with Austria and Russia. On the 1st of May, 1756, France and Austria signed the Treaty of Versailles. This was a diplomatic alliance of nonaggression and mutual defence of each others borders. With Russia and France now Austria’s allies and with Saxony and Sweden soon to follow, Austria’s revenge plans were all but complete. Documents were drawn up for the planned invasion of Prussia by the Austrian coalition for the spring of 1757. Unfortunately for the Austrian coalition the invasion plans were discovered by Prussian agents.
Frederick threatened with an overwhelming array of military might rampaging into Prussia in less than six months, had no choice but to strike first and strike as hard as he could. On the 28th of August, 1756, Prussia invaded Saxony thus officially beginning the Seven Years War.
