The Fractured Peace: Europe After Westphalia

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 marked not an end but a transformation of European conflict. While formally concluding the devastating Thirty Years’ War, the treaties created a new geopolitical landscape where France emerged as the primary beneficiary. Though territorial gains appeared modest – ten Alsatian towns and the fortress of Breisach – the strategic implications were profound. Spain’s recognition of Dutch independence partially lifted the Habsburg encirclement that had haunted French monarchs since the late 15th century.

More crucially, the settlement ensured German fragmentation. Emperor Ferdinand III’s dreams of transforming the Holy Roman Empire into a centralized monarchy lay in ruins, leaving what one French diplomat would later call “the soft underbelly of Europe” permanently vulnerable. As guarantor of the peace alongside Sweden, France gained legal justification for future interventions in German affairs. Geoffrey Barraclough’s assessment that Germany became “virtually a French protectorate” captures the imbalance that would shape coming decades.

The Sun King Ascendant: Louis XIV’s Early Campaigns

Louis XIV’s personal rule beginning in 1661 inaugurated an era of French expansionism rooted in both strategic calculation and the pursuit of gloire. His marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain, though including her formal renunciation of inheritance rights, planted seeds for future claims. When Philip IV of Spain died in 1665, Louis invoked obscure inheritance laws to demand chunks of the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comté, launching the War of Devolution (1667-68).

Despite swift military successes, diplomatic isolation forced concessions at Aix-la-Chapelle. The lesson Louis took wasn’t restraint but the need to neutralize potential coalitions. His subsequent maneuvers – the 1670 secret Treaty of Dover with England, occupation of Lorraine, and bribing German bishops – demonstrated ruthless realpolitik. By 1672, France fielded a 130,000-man army, outnumbering Dutch forces four-to-one as Louis sought to punish the “ungrateful” republic that had dared resist him.

The Limits of Power: The Dutch War and Its Aftermath

The Dutch War (1672-78) revealed both the zenith and limits of French hegemony. Initial victories saw 40 towns fall in 22 days, bringing French troops within striking distance of Amsterdam. But Louis’s draconian peace terms – including annual humiliation rituals and Catholic worship in Utrecht – galvanized Dutch resistance. The iconic flooding of the “Water Line” defenses bought time for William III’s political ascent.

More significantly, the war triggered the first major anti-French coalition. By 1673, Brandenburg, the Emperor, and Spain had joined the Dutch, forcing France into multi-front warfare. Though French armies generally outperformed opponents, the Peace of Nijmegen (1678-79) produced mixed results. While Louis retained Franche-Comté and Flanders fortresses, he had to return other conquests. Most strikingly, Sweden – despite catastrophic defeats against Brandenburg – recovered most German territories through French diplomatic pressure, leaving Elector Frederick William bitterly resentful.

The Palatinate Devastation: A Turning Point in European Opinion

The 1680s saw Louis employ “reunions” – legalistic land grabs along France’s borders. The 1681 seizure of Strasbourg, accompanied by its cathedral’s re-Catholicization, demonstrated French power without major war. However, the 1688-89 devastation of the Palatinate proved a strategic blunder. Methodical destruction of Heidelberg, Mannheim, and dozens of smaller communities – justified as creating a buffer zone – backfired spectacularly.

German pamphleteers depicted Louis as a new Attila, with one cataloging French troops who “tortured, broke limbs, sawed people apart, roasted, fried, burned, executed, pierced, beat, crushed, dismembered…” The Emperor Leopold I skillfully harnessed this outrage, declaring France the “common enemy of all Germans.” Versailles’ glorification of these campaigns through medals bearing inscriptions like “Heidelberga deleta” (Heidelberg destroyed) only deepened antagonisms.

The Nine Years’ War: The High Water Mark Recedes

Louis’s miscalculations compounded in 1688. Expecting William III to be bogged down in England, he launched what was meant to be a short Rhine campaign. Instead, the Glorious Revolution freed William to focus on continental warfare while French actions cemented German hostility. The resulting Nine Years’ War (1688-97) became a grinding stalemate, with France increasingly isolated after the 1685 revocation of the Edict of Nantes drove Protestant states toward William.

Though the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) preserved Alsace and Strasbourg, France had to return other reunions and Luxembourg. More importantly, the war revealed shifting military balances. French commanders like Luxembourg remained formidable, but lacked successors of equal caliber. Meanwhile, the alliance’s improved coordination – especially between England’s emergent fiscal-military state and Dutch/Austrian forces – foreshadowed future struggles.

The Spanish Succession: Hegemony’s Final Test

The War of Spanish Succession (1701-14) decisively revealed French overextension. Though Louis secured his grandson Philip V’s Spanish throne, the cost proved staggering. Marlborough and Eugene’s victories at Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), and Oudenarde (1708) demonstrated allied tactical superiority, while France’s demographic and financial exhaustion became acute after Malplaquet (1709).

The Utrecht settlement (1713-14) marked a watershed. While preserving Bourbon Spain, France accepted the Protestant succession in Britain and lost significant colonial possessions. Austria gained the Spanish Netherlands and Italian territories, establishing itself as Western Europe’s new counterweight. Most fundamentally, the treaty institutionalized balance-of-power principles over French hegemony.

The Northern Wars: Eastern Europe’s Transformation

Parallel to Western conflicts, the Great Northern War (1700-21) reshaped Eastern Europe. Charles XII’s early victories at Narva (1700) gave way to disaster at Poltava (1709), where Peter the Great’s modernized army destroyed Swedish field forces. The subsequent Russian occupation of Finland and landings in Sweden proper forced the Treaty of Nystad (1721), transferring Estonia, Livonia, and Ingria to Russia.

This northern settlement complemented western changes. Sweden’s eclipse removed France’s traditional eastern counterweight to Austria, while Russia’s arrival as a Baltic power introduced a new variable into European politics. Peter’s 1717 offer to replace Sweden as France’s eastern ally – rejected by Versailles – highlighted French diplomatic inflexibility in adapting to these shifts.

Legacy: The Long Shadow of Louis’s Wars

The period 1648-1721 established patterns enduring through the Napoleonic era. French administrative and military innovations became models for emerging states, while anti-hegemonic coalitions anticipated later alliances. The fiscal-military states born in these conflicts – especially Britain’s – would dominate 18th-century warfare.

Culturally, the era’s propaganda battles forged enduring national stereotypes. German “Erbfeind” (hereditary enemy) narratives and Dutch anti-French imagery outlasted their creators. Most significantly, the treaties institutionalized multilateral diplomacy and equilibrium concepts that, however imperfectly, sought to restrain unilateral conquest. In this sense, the age of Louis XIV both perfected and ultimately discredited the pursuit of European hegemony through dynastic warfare.