>War of the Spanish Succession, Conclusion – Treaty of Utrecht

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After Mons fell, the Allies made no significant advances into France. Marlborough soon realized that his powerbase in England was crumbling. Marlborough gained power mostly because of his wife’s close relationship to Queen Anne. As the War unfolded, Queen Anne’s patience was tried often by the Duchess of Marlborough. A quarrel ensued concerning mutual friends (or enemies depending on how one looks at it), and the Duchess would not back down. After Malplaquet, support to continue the War was lagging. Queen Anne, who had previously praised Marlborough’s previous triumphs did not even acknowledge the victory at Malplaquet or Mons. All that Marlborough had achieved was on the brink of failure. When the Whig government, which supported the War, was replaced by Tories, who were against the War, Marlborough’s days were numbered. His wife was dismissed on charges of embezzlement, and the Marlborough’s left England to travel Europe.

England’s ally, the Holy Roman Empire, underwent changes as well. Emperor Joseph died, and the next in line was Archduke Charles, the same man championed as King of Spain. Charles became Emperor Charles VI, but all were not happy. Such a uniting of Spain and Austria would also upset the European power balance. While this was occurring, Marlborough was winning his last few battles, and was to be recalled late 1711. The Duke of Ormonde assumed Allied control, but he was no Marlborough. British diplomats also began to secretly negotiate with Louis’ minister Marquis de Torcy, unbeknownst to the Dutch and Austrians. Due to Ormonde’s ineptness, and cowardice it must be said, French losses were quickly recovered as Marechal Villars re-conquered lost lands by 1712. With the Battle of Denain, all Allied will to continue fighting was broken. The British insolently ordered troops to leave Denain as fighting began. This left Prince Eugene alone against the French, and he was crushed. French power grew from victory to victory. Barcelona was subsequently taken in the face of Allied collapse.

The War was all but over when Great Britain and the Netherlands agreed to the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. All counter-warfare ended in Barcelona on September 11, 1714, which is today celebrated as the National Day of Catalonia. Austria continued fighting France until the Treaties of Rastatt and Baden were signed. Spain continued conflict with Austria until 1720 when Spanish power was defeated during the War of the Quadruple Alliance.

Other points of note from this war include fighting in the New World. The War was called Queen Anne’s War in North America, as British and French colonies often raided one another, though with little success. Piratical affairs also became the norm throughout the Caribbean Sea, as the Spanish, Dutch, French, and English held many colonies. The only successful raid came upon St. Kitts when the English under Christopher Codrington pushed the French off of the island in 1702. Outside of this action, treasure ships were captured, or sunk, as fleets tried to destroy opposing economies.

With the Treaty of Utrecht war ended, and Europe entered a new era, the Balance of Power or Concert of Europe period. France saw Phillip V crowned King of Spain, but Phillip had to renounce any claims upon the French throne, which he did renounce. Phillip gained not only Spain, but also the Spanish colonial empire; however, he had to part with Milan, Naples, and Belgium, which became Austrian. Gibraltar and Minorca, one of the Balaeric islands, were officially awarded to the British after their conquests earlier in the War. Slave trading rights were also awarded to the British in Spanish American colonies, the infamous Asiento.

Phillip began to rule Spain along the same pattern that his grandfather, Louis XIV, ruled France. Future Spanish history would illustrate the folly of Phillip’s decision. He tried to centralize all Spanish Kingdoms under the throne’s power, but the proud nationalities scoffed at this action, laying the seeds for the future Spanish Civil War. Allied pre-war desires to push French borders back to 1648 status were not realized, as the borders were maintained. France agreed to end support for the Jacobites, and recognized Queen Anne as the legitimate English Monarch, though she would be the last Stuart leader of England and succession again became an issue after her death. Louis would also soon pass in 1715, and with his death, his era ended. Louis’ legacy did not end; however, as Europe would forever be changed. Louis altered French history, which became a central and pivotal nation during the Modern Age.

 

>Irrational Exuberance

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Mankind is typically irrational. One person has no problem spending 500,000 dollars for a car, another would think this is foolish. Many spend 100 dollars for one meal, while most would spend much less than this for an entire family to eat out. History is certainly filled with outrageous stories illustrating absurd, and in some cases aberrant purchases. In contemporary times people paid millions for website stocks, that soared dizzyingly, and plummeted even faster. It is certain, humanity is constantly duped into believing it can get rich at any turn. Economist Ben Stein often writes in his columns that the best way to get rich is painfully and over time. Get rich quick schemes are just that, schemes. The Dutch famously learned this truth in the late 1630’s with… tulips.

This odd chapter during the Dutch Golden Age reaches a few centuries back into the Medieval Crusades. When crusaders returned from the Holy Land an economic explosion occurred that helped pay for the Renaissance among other things. It made many rich, and brought the peasant from the farm into the newly forming burgs throughout Europe. Trade guilds and leagues formed, as well as banks to fund various ventures. Mercantilism was giving way for Capitalism. Such a transition was not always smooth, and the powers that were did not relish the fact that their feudal controls were slipping.

Iberian nations Spain and especially Portugal, ruled by the Habsburg family, established some of the earliest trade routes to the Ottoman held Holy Land. Spices, gold, silk, jewels, exotic animals, and exotic flowers soon appeared in Europe. Only the rich could afford such opulence at first, however, a rising merchant class soon arrived with its own self-made wealth. Riches were now being measured in golden units called florins due to their being created in Florence, Italy. Medici banks were established throughout major trade centers to store ever increasing wealth. Other rival banks were also formed, some by the returning Templar Crusaders, and others by the European Jewish population.

Spain and Portugal had a well established Jewish population. These Jews became the backbone of the Iberian economy, funding navigation and exploration ventures for decades. The subsequent reconquest of Iberia from Islam brought with it the now infamous Inquisition. Catholicism would not tolerate heretics, and part of the Reconquista, as the Spanish term it, was a forced conversion, or death sentence. Accounts show that many were tortured, and many more died. Jewish fortunes were absconded and lands were stolen. Such putrefying actions forced a large Jewish population to emigrate northward to the tolerant Netherlands.

The Jews settled in Amsterdam, at the time a backwater provincial capital, still owned by the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. Trade was about to change all of this. No change would have been possible without the two previous connections. The Netherlands needed the Jews, as well as the new goods flooding Europe from the Crusades. Together, Amsterdam wrested control of world trade by the late 1500’s. Amsterdam quickly became the main port of call for all aspiring and established merchants. Interestingly enough, after the Jews fled Iberia, Dutch forces took most of Portugal’s overseas empire, which included South Africa, Indonesia, portions of India, and Japan. Spain also fell from it’s zenith, eventually losing a number of wars, including the Dutch War for Independence. Both nations were bankrupt without Jewish capital. Effectively, Catholicism’s Inquisition destroyed both proud nations.

With a newfound economic hotbed, the world watched in wonder as the little swampy region ruled supreme. While the rest of Europe was embroiled in the Thirty Years’ War, the Dutch produced Rembrandt, Vermeer, the VOC (the world’s first stock market of sorts), and obscene wealth. By the 1630’s the strictly Calvinist Dutch were now paying for a new fad, the Tulip.

Tulips are, surprisingly, not native to the region. The first tulips were imported from Turkey, and quickly became fashionable accessories in France. Once French aristocrats were wearing these amazing flowers, Dutch entrepreneurs saw a chance to make money. A market was quickly set up and bulbs were traded. At first bulbs were sold slightly above reason, but within a few months one bulb was sold for 5,200 guilders, about 20 years salary for the average Dutchman! Some merchants sold completely stocked ships and houses for a few of these overly priced flowers. One doctor, who Rembrandt famously painted, even changed his name to Dr. Tulp, Dutch for Tulip.

Then it all came crashing down, to use a trite phrase. People came to their senses one morning in the 1640’s and stopped bulb trading. Huge sums were left on the table with no buyers. The flower lost it’s societal status for the Hyacinth. Merchants were broken, fortunes were lost, and hysteria did show briefly. Stunningly, the panic did not ruin Dutch ventures. That ruin would come later as a faulty diplomacy saw the Dutch trade Manhattan to the English for three spice islands in the East Indies.

Since then, Tulipomania has held a fascination with economic students for it’s implausible stupidity. Funny enough, society still purchases the “next best thing” for ridiculous sums only soon to find out it was all a sham, as fortunes are vainly spent. It is as Mr. Greenspan once called, Irrational Exuberance.