Introduction: Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe

Stanisław Grodź, Radu G. Păun and Cornelia Soldat

In the 18th century, the region covered in this volume – , Eastern Europe and South-Eastern Europe – was controlled by the Habsburg Empire, the Russian Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Com- monwealth and the , though with strong Swedish involvement. Of the four powers, the Habsburg and Russian Empires were gain- ing in prominence, while the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Ottoman Empire were in decline. At the beginning of the century, the Habsburgs and the Russians were supporting each other against the ‘Ottoman threat’, though each was also wary of the growing strength and expansionist interests of the other. Russia was in the more advanta- geous situation, having the Ottomans as their only main adversary and the Habsburg Empire as an ally, although one that needed to be watched. Neighbouring states, with the exception of Prussia, were not strong enough to withstand Russian expansion during the course of the cen- tury. The Habsburgs, apart from keeping guard along their eastern fron- tier with the Ottomans, also had to watch their western borders, where France was often the main challenger to their interests. In the course of the century, the position of the Habsburgs in the German-speaking part of Central Europe was increasingly contested by Prussia, which gradu- ally gained strength and prominence under King Frederick II (r. 1740-86) and rose to become a major political player in Central Europe, replacing Sweden. The other German-speaking lands were divided into a num- ber of comparatively small political entities. The death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 led to the war of the Spanish Succession, which brought the Habsburg Empire and the Holy Roman Empire1 into contention with France.

1 Lands in Western and Central Europe ruled first by Frankish then German kings between 800 and 1806. With the passing of time, the title of emperor became largely hon- orary, though various German rulers still strove to acquire it. During the 18th century, it was held by the Habsburg rulers (with the exception of Charles VII of the House of 2 introduction

Central Europe

The beginning of the century in the region was marked by the (1699), which curbed Ottoman expansion in Europe. The Ottomans resented it, but they were unable to reverse the balance of power, even though they managed to regain some areas for a time as the century progressed. The Great Northern War (1700-21) put an end to Swedish military domination in Central Europe, when the Russians defeated the Swedish army at Poltava (today in Ukraine) in 1709. The wounded King Charles XII (r. 1697-1718) and the remnants of his army crossed into Ottoman ter- ritory and were detained there; Charles only returned to Sweden in 1714.2 Swedish diplomats in Istanbul continued to undermine the position of one of Charles’s adversaries, Augustus II the Strong, prince-elector of Saxony (r. 1694-1733) and king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1696- 1704, 1709-33), and pressed support for his rival, Stanisław Leszczyński (r. 1704-9, 1733-6). The Ottomans stepped into the Great Northern War in 1710 on the side of the Swedes and surrounded the pursuing Russians at the River Prut. The defeated Russians managed to negotiate a truce by conceding their earlier gains (1711).3 The War of the Spanish Succession came to an end in 1714 with a series of treaties concluded over successive years that are jointly known as the Treaty of Utrecht.4 In 1715, King Louis XIV of France (r. 1643-1715), a powerful long-time adversary of the Habsburgs, died. At this point, war between the Ottoman Porte and the broke out in con- sequence of the Ottomans’ indignation at being deprived of the Morea in the Treaty of Karlowitz. The Habsburgs came to the support of Venice, and defeated the Ottomans and captured . The war ended with the (1718), which secured Habsburg territorial gains

Wittelsbach, r. 1742-5). See P.H. Wilson, ‘The Empire, and Prussia’, in P.H. Wilson (ed.), A companion to the eighteenth century, Chichester, 2014, 260-75, pp. 261-6. 2 K.A. Roider, Austria’s , 1700-1790, Princeton NJ, 1982, pp. 35-6. 3 V. Aksan, Ottoman wars, 1700-1870. An empire besieged, Abingdon, 2014, pp. 90-8. 4 ‘The Treaty of Utrecht of 1714, which ended Louis XIV’s drive for European hege- mony, was the last international peace to refer to the continent as the Republic of Chris- tendom. Pacts that followed referred simply to “Europe”, particularly in agreements struck with the Porte’ (P.S. Fichtner, Terror and toleration. The Habsburg Empire confronts Islam, 1526-1850, London, 2008, p. 88).