Treaty of Utrecht

The treaty recognised Louis XIV's grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, as King of Spain (as Philip V),
thus confirming the succession stipulated in the will of the Charles II of Spain who died in 1700.
However, Philip was compelled to renounce for himself and his descendants any right to the French
throne, despite some doubts as to the lawfulness of such an act. In similar fashion various French
princelings, including most notably theDuke of Berry (Louis XIV's youngest grandson) and the Duke
of Orlans (Louis's nephew), renounced for themselves and their descendants any claim to the
Spanish throne.
Also, Spain's European territories were apportioned: Savoy received Sicily and parts of the Duchy of
Milan, while Charles VI (the Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria) received the Spanish
Netherlands, theKingdom of Naples, Sardinia, and the bulk of the Duchy of Milan. Portugal had its
sovereignty recognised over the lands between the Amazon and Oyapock rivers, in Brazil. In 1715,
the Portuguese also recovered Colonia del Sacramento, taken by Spain in Uruguay.
In addition, Spain ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to Great Britain and agreed to give to the British
the Asiento, a valuable monopoly slave-trading contract.
In North America, France ceded to Great Britain its claims to Newfoundland and to the Hudson's Bay
Company territories in Rupert's Land.[3] They also ceded the Acadian colony of Nova Scotia. The
formerly partitioned island of Saint Kitts was also ceded in its entirety to Britain. France was required
to recognise British suzerainty over the Iroquois and commerce with the Far Indians was to be open
to traders of all nations. France retained its other pre-war North American possessions, including leSaint-Jean (now Prince Edward Island), Saint Pierre and Miquelon, as well as le Royale (now Cape
Breton Island), on which it erected the Fortress of Louisbourg.
A series of commercial treaties were also signed.
After the signing of the Utrecht treaties, the French continued to be at war with Emperor Charles VI
and with the Holy Roman Empire itself until 1714, when hostilities were ended with the Treaty of
Rastatt and the Treaty of Baden. Spain and Portugal remained formally at war with each other until
the Treaty of Madrid of February 1715, while peace between Spain and Holy Roman Emperor
Charles IV, unsuccessful claimant to the Spanish crown, came only in 1720 with the signing of the
Treaty of The Hague.[4]

Responses to the treaties

The treaty's territorial provisions did not go as far as the Whigs in Britain would have liked,
considering that the French had made overtures for peace in 1706 and again in 1709. The Whigs
considered themselves the heirs of the staunch anti-French policies of William III and the Duke of
Marlborough. Indeed, later in the century the Whig John Wilkes contemptuously described it as like

"[the] Peace of God, for it passeth all understanding". However, in the Parliament of
1710 the Tories had gained control of the House of Commons, and they wished for an end to Great
Britain's participation in a European war; and Queen Anne and her advisors had also come to the
same position.
The party in the administration of Robert Harley (created Earl of Oxford and Mortimer on 23 May
1711) and the Viscount Bolingbroke proved more flexible at the bargaining table and were
characterised by the Whigs as "pro-French"; Oxford and Bolingbroke persuaded the Queen to create
twelve new "Tory peers"[5] to ensure ratification of the treaty in the House of Lords.
Although the fate of the Spanish Netherlands in particular was of interest to the United Provinces,
Dutch influence on the outcome of the negotiations was fairly insignificant, even though the talks
were held on their territory. The French negotiator Melchior de Polignac taunted the Dutch with
the bon mot De vous, chez vous, sans vous,[6] meaning that negotiations would be held "about you,
in your country, without you." The fact that Bolingbroke had secretly ordered the British
commander, the Duke of Ormonde, to withdraw from the Allied forces before the Battle of
Denain (informing the French, but not the Allies), and the fact that they secretly arrived at separate
peace with France was a fait accompli, made the objections of the Allies pointless.[7] In any case, the
Dutch achieved their condominium in the Austrian Netherlands with the Austro-Dutch Barrier Treaty
of 1715.[8]

Balance of power[edit]
The European concept of the balance of power, first mentioned in 1701 by Charles
Davenant in Essays on the Balance of Power, became a common topic of debate during the war and
the conferences that led to signing of the treaties. Boosted by 19 April 1709 issue of Daniel
Defoe's A Review of the Affairs of France, a periodical that supported the Harley ministry, the
concept was a key factor in British negotiations, and was reflected in the final treaties. This theme
would continue to be a significant factor in European politics until the time of the French
Revolution (and was to resurface in the 19th century).