The Austrian Alliance, the Seven Years’ War and the Emergence of a French ‘National’ Foreign Policy, 1756–1790
The Austrian Alliance, the Seven Years’ War and the Emergence of a French ‘National’ Foreign Policy, 1756–1790
When during the French Revolution the deputies of the National Assembly pondered the reasons for France's decades-long decline as a world power, many attributed it to the Franco-Austrian alliance of 1756, which had allegedly produced the humiliating outcome of the Seven Years' War. This chapter demonstrates how, why, and with what political effects the alliance was represented by its critics from its inception as the work of a powerful pro-Austrian ministerial lobby willing to sacrifice the interests of the nation to those of the dynasty and the Habsburgs. Reinforcing this view was the repeated appointment of incompetent military commanders loyal to the lobby supporting the alliance. At a time of rising national consciousness, the tale of infidelity, defeat, and impotence told by the alliance's many critics helped convince the general public that France was in desperate need of a new, nationally centred foreign policy as part of its general regeneration.
Keywords: battle of Rossbach, Dévot faction, Duc de Choiseul, Franco-Austrian Alliance, Jean-Louis Favier, Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour, Maria-Theresa, Prince de Soubise, Seven Years' War
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