Triple Alliance (1668)
As a triple alliance or triple alliance (dt. Triple Alliance ) is u. a. an alliance formed on January 23, 1668 between the United Netherlands, England and Sweden. This was preceded by the war of devolution between France and Spain, the end of which the Triple Alliance wanted to bring about. By this time France had already advanced to become a hegemonic power in Europe, whose power limitation was the public goal of the Alliance.
background
In the war of devolution (1667–1668) France under Louis XIV invaded the Spanish Netherlands with troops and had enormous successes. The States General, for their part, feared that France would gain too much power and wanted to keep the Spanish Netherlands as a kind of buffer between themselves and France. Although the Netherlands had been in a defensive alliance with France since 1662, they still wanted to force this into a peace with Spain. However, diplomatic efforts quickly proved unsuccessful in this regard, which is why an alliance with other states seemed necessary.
England and the Netherlands concluded the Peace of Breda in 1667, ending the Second Anglo-Dutch Sea War (1665–1667) . To the outside world, England also signaled its readiness to counteract France's expansion plans. The diplomats like William Temple in particular seemed convinced that the alliance would prevent France from expanding. In view of the further course of events, however, it is more likely that the English King Charles II only tried to spoil the good relationship between the Netherlands and France through this alliance.
Sweden was not yet founded by the underage Charles XI in 1667/68 . but ruled by his mother and the nobility. Here, too, too strong an expansion of France was not welcome, but Ludwig's expansion efforts played a rather subordinate role in joining the alliance. The promised subsidy payments by the Allies to Sweden and the payments that Spain was to make annually to Sweden after the conclusion of a peace were far more important.
content
The treaty members committed themselves in 1668 to move Spain and France to peace. Spain was supposed to cede territories, France to return part of the conquered areas to Spain. Either border areas in the Spanish Netherlands or Franche Comté should be ceded to France. In the event of a refusal on the part of France or Spain, the country in question should be militarily compelled to sign a peace treaty. Johan de Witt negotiated for the Netherlands, William Temple for England and Christoph Delphicus von Dohna for Sweden .
impact
The immediate effects of the Triple Alliance are difficult to assess today and were anything but clear even for contemporaries. Nevertheless, the subsequent peace of Aachen between France and Spain would hardly have come about without the threatening backdrop that the Netherlands, England and Sweden had built up through the alliance. However, France had already signed a secret partition treaty with the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I , according to which France should get a large part of the Spanish Empire after the Spanish line of the Habsburgs died out. Thus the losses that Louis XIV had to endure in the Peace of Aachen were by no means as bad as they appeared, because the Spanish King ( Charles II ) was considered constitutionally weak and had no heirs. Louis XIV could therefore count on a large part of the Spanish property in the foreseeable future.
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The fact that the Triple Alliance had no effect in the course of the process was already evident from the fact that Louis XIV was able to march unhindered into the Duchy of Lorraine in 1670 and had it occupied by military means. The alliance did not intervene here and thereby revealed its weaknesses. Secretly, the Triple Alliance collapsed as early as 1670 when England signed the secret Treaty of Dover with France . In this now England and France allied themselves against the Netherlands. By the Franco-Dutch War between France / England and the Netherlands in 1672, the triple alliance had been finally dissolved, because Sweden, too, had switched to France against subsidy payments. In return for an annual payment of 600,000 Reichstalers, Sweden undertook, in the event of an intervention by the emperor (or the German princes), " a permanent army of 10,000 on foot / and 6,000 on horseback / in the Duchy of Brehmen or Pomerania send ". At least since this secret agreement, the Triple Alliance no longer existed, on the contrary: England and Sweden had switched to France's side through clever tactics by the French.
literature
- Büsch, Johann Georg: Outline of a history of the strangest world trade, Hamburg 1810 (Volume 1).
- Emerton, Ephraim: Sir William Temple and the Triple Alliance from 1668, Berlin 1877.
- Manz, GJ: General world history. With special consideration of the history of the Church and States up to our times for all classes, Regensburg 1841 (Volume 5.)
- Ziegler, Hendrik: Stat Sol Luna Fugit. Hans Jacob Wolrab's Joshua Medal for Emperor Leopold I, in: Kampmann, Christoph: Bourbon, Habsburg, Oranien. Competing models in dynastic Europe around 1700, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2008, pp. 166–182.
swell
- [Unknown author]: "Bedencken over the Triple Alliantz", [o. O.] 1670, pp. 2f. [VD17 12: 194747Y]
- [Unknown author]: "Secret articles of the Bündnüß between France and Sweden", o. O. 1672, p. 2 [proper. Pag.]. [VD17 39: 154292C]
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Klueting, Harm: Das Reich und Österreich 1648-1740, Münster 1999 (= Historica profana et eclesiastica 1), p. 62.
- ↑ See Manz, GJ: Allgemeine Weltgeschichte. With special consideration of the history of the churches and states up to our times for all classes, Regensburg 1841 (Volume 5.), p. 24.
- ↑ Cf. [Unknown author]: Bedencken over the Triple Alliantz, [o. O.] 1670, pp. 2f. [VD17 12: 194747Y].
- ↑ See Ziegler, Hendrik: Stat Sol Luna Fugit. Hans Jacob Wolrab's Joshua Medal for Emperor Leopold I, in: Kampmann, Christoph: Bourbon, Habsburg, Oranien. Competing models in dynastic Europe around 1700, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2008, pp. 166–182, here p. 172.
- ↑ [Unknown author]: Secret article of the Bündnüß between France and Sweden, o. O. 1672, p. 2 [proper. Pag.]. [VD17 39: 154292C]