A childless king's will tipped Europe into world war
Charles II of Spain died in November 1700; naming Louis XIV's grandson Philip of Anjou threatened to fuse Bourbon power. From 1701 to 1714, coalitions fought across Europe and the oceans until Utrecht left Philip on Spain's throne—minus Italy, the Netherlands, Gibraltar, and Menorca.
Spain was no longer Europe's top power, yet still held swaths of Italy and the Americas, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Philippines. An undivided inheritance for either France or Austria would smash the balance of power, so partition schemes proliferated. Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria was briefly named heir in 1698 before dying of smallpox in 1699. Charles's final will offered the whole monarchy to Philip of Anjou, then the Duke of Berry, then Archduke Charles. Louis accepted; Philip was proclaimed on 16 November 1700.
War became inevitable after Louis registered Philip's French succession claim, sent troops into Milan and Mantua, and replaced Dutch Barrier garrisons in the Spanish Netherlands—threatening the Scheldt and Channel trade. Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Emperor Leopold renewed the Grand Alliance at The Hague on 7 September 1701. Louis then backed Jacobite James Francis Edward Stuart after James II died. The Dutch declared war on 8 May 1702; Britain and the Emperor followed on the 15th. Mercantilist logic mattered as much as dynastic pride: markets were treated as fixed pies seized by tariffs and colonial raids.
Field armies in the Southern Netherlands grew from 60,000–80,000 (1702–07) to over 120,000 after 1708, straining preindustrial supply along rivers like the Rhine and Scheldt. Spain itself began nearly bankrupt, with fewer than 15,000 troops at home and about twenty warships. By 1709 Philip was secure in Spain even as France staggered; when Archduke Charles became emperor in 1711, Britain negotiated out. Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt and Baden (1714) confirmed Philip after he renounced French succession rights, handed most Italian holdings to Savoy or Austria, and left Britain with Gibraltar and Menorca as Europe's rising naval-commercial power.
Source: War of the Spanish Succession
