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| 1708, July 11 |
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| Victory of Marlborough and Eugene at Oudenarde over Vendôme and the duke of Burgundy. Siege and surrender of Lille. | 1 |
| Negotiations for peace broke down when the Allies demanded that Louis XIV drive his grandson from Spain with French weapons. | 2 |
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| 1709, Sept. 11 |
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| Battle of Malplaquet. French defeat and the bloodiest battle of the war. In Spain, Philip, with the aid of Vendôme, had the advantage over Charles. The Spanish people favored Philip. Renewal of the negotiations at Gertruydenburg. Louis offered to pay subsidized troops against his grandson. The allies demanded he send his armies against Philip. Renewal of the war. | 3 |
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| 1710 |
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| French victories over the British (Brihuega) and the empire (Villa Viciosa, in Spain). | 4 |
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| 1710–11 |
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| War with the Ottoman Empire, owing to pressure from the Swedish Charles XII (a refugee in Turkey) and France. The Russians were surrounded by the Ottoman forces on the Pruth River and Peter had to buy himself off. By the Treaty of the Pruth (July 21, 1711), he was obliged to return Azov to the Ottomans. | 5 |
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| 1711 |
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| Death of the emperor Joseph, whereby Charles VI became heir to all the Austrian possessions, so that the Habsburgs would have been restored had the Spanish inheritance also devolved upon him. These events completely altered all political relations in favor of Louis XIV, as the other powers feared a Habsburg hold over Spain as well as Austria. | 6 |
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| 1712 |
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| Victory of the French at Denain; recapture of Douai, Le Quesnoy, and Bouchain. Opening of the Congress at Utrecht. Dissensions among the allies caused the conclusion of separate treaties of peace under the name of | 7 |
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| 1713, April 11 |
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| TREATY OF UTRECHT, which ended Louis XIV's wars. | 8 |
| (1) Britain: Recognition of the Protestant succession in England; confirmation of the permanent separation of the crowns of France and Spain. France ceded to Britain Newfoundland, Nova Scotia (Acadia), and the Hudson Bay territory but retained Quebec; Spain ceded to Britain Gibraltar, the island of Minorca, and the asiento. | 9 |
| (2) Holland: Surrender of the Spanish Netherlands to the Republic of Holland, to be turned over to the Austrians after a barrier treaty agreed to regarding fortresses along the French border from Furnes to Namur, garrisoned by the Dutch. Lille restored to France. Demolition of the fortifications of Dunkirk. | 10 |
| (3) Savoy received the island of Sicily as a kingdom and an advantageous change of boundary in upper Italy and renounced its claims upon Spain, reserving, however, its right of inheritance in case the house of Bourbon should become extinct. | 11 |
| (4) Prussia received recognition of the royal title (See 1701, Jan. 18) and possession of Neuchâtel and the upper quarter of Guelders. Prussia's claim upon the principality of Orange, on the Rhône, was transferred to France. | 12 |
| (5) Portugal obtained a correction of boundaries in South America (See 1701–13). | 13 |
| Philip V (founder of the Spanish branch of the Bourbons) (See 1713, April 11) was recognized as king of Spain and the colonies. | 14 |
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| 1713 |
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| The emperor and the empire continued the war, but, after defeats at Landau and Freiburg, concluded peace with France in his own name at Rastatt and in that of the empire at Baden (in Switzerland). | 15 |
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| 1714 March–Sept. |
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| Treaty of Rastatt and Baden. Austria took possession of the Spanish Netherlands, after the barrier for Holland had been agreed upon, and retained Naples, Sardinia, and Milan. The electors of Bavaria and Cologne, who had been placed under the ban of the empire, were reinstated in their lands and dignities. Landau was left in the hands of France. No peace between Spain and the emperor, who did not recognize the Bourbons in Spain. | 16 |
| After Utrecht, with French strength reduced, major 18th-century diplomacy revolved around Anglo-French rivalry in Europe and colonial areas and Austrian-Prussian rivalry in Central Europe. Russian, Spain, Holland, Sweden, and some smaller German states fit variously into the resulting alliances and wars. | 17 |
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| 1718, Aug. 2 |
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| Quadruple Alliance for the maintenance of the Treaty of Utrecht, among France, Britain, and the emperor, and (1719) the Republic of Holland. After a short war and the fall of Alberoni, who went to Rome, the agreements of the Quadruple Alliance were executed in 1720: (1) Spain evacuated Sicily and Sardinia and made a renunciation of the appanages forever, in return for which the emperor recognized the Spanish Bourbons; (2) Savoy was obliged to exchange Sicily for Sardinia. After this time the dukes of Savoy called themselves kings of Sardinia. | 18 |
| The emperor Charles VI was without male offspring (See 1712–23). His principal endeavor throughout his reign was to secure the various lands that were united under the scepter of Austria against division after his death. Hence he established an order of succession under the name of the Pragmatic Sanction, which decreed that (1) the lands belonging to the Austrian empire should be indivisible; (2) in case male heirs should fail, the lands should devolve upon Charles's daughters, the eldest of whom was Maria Theresa, and their heirs according to the law of primogeniture; (3) in case of the extinction of this line the daughters of Joseph I and their descendants were to inherit. | 19 |
| Securing the assent of the various powers to the Pragmatic Sanction was the object of numerous diplomatic negotiations. The Hungarian Diet accepted it in 1723 (See 1712–23). A special agreement between Austria and Spain (1725) in regard to this measure produced the alliance of Herrenhausen in opposition, in the same year, between Britain, France, and Prussia. Prussia soon withdrew from the alliance and joined Austria by the Treaty of Wusterhausen. The alliance between Austria and Spain was also of short duration. | 20 |
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| 1720–21 |
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| Conclusion of Northern War by Treaties of Stockholm (prewar boundaries among Sweden, Saxony, Poland restored; cession of Swedish territory to Hanover and Prussia; Denmark yields conquests in return for Swedish payment) and | 21 |
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| 1721, Aug. 30 |
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| Treaty of Nystadt between Russia and Sweden. Russia acquired Livonia, Estonia, Ingermanland, part of Karelia, and a number of Baltic islands. Thus Peter had achieved his great purpose of acquiring a window on the Baltic which would open up connections with the west. | 22 |
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