Treaty of Utrecht
From Freepedia
The Treaty of Utrecht was a series of peace treaties signed in Utrecht in 1713 that helped end the War of the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War)
By its provisions, Louis XIV's grandson Philip V of Spain was recognized as King of Spain, but Spain's European empire was divided up - Savoy received Sicily and parts of the Milanese, while Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI was to receive the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, and the rest of the Duchy of Milan. In addition, Spain ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to the British, and agreed to give the Asiento–a valuable exclusive slave-trading contract–to the British.
In North America, by Articles 10 to 13, France ceded to Great Britain its claims to the Hudson Bay Company territories (Rupert's Land), Newfoundland, and Acadia. France retained the island of St. Jean (now Prince Edward Island) and Cape Breton Island (upon which it erected the fortress of Louisbourg).
After the treaty, the French continued to be at war with Emperor Charles VI and with the Holy Roman Empire itself until 1714 with the Treaty of Rastatt and the Treaty of Baden. Spain and Portugal remained officially at war until the Treaty of Madrid in 1715, as did the Holy Roman Empire and Spain until 1720,
Thus, the Treaties of Utrecht were between Louis XIV of France and Philip V of Spain, on the one hand, and Queen Anne of Great Britain, the United Provinces, and the Duchy of Savoy on the other.
In spite of some doubts of the legality of such measures, Philip V was to renounce the French throne for himself and his descendants, while various French princelings - notably Louis XIV's youngest grandson the Duc de Berri and his nephew the Duc d'Orléans - renounced their claims to the Spanish throne.
The treaty did not go as far as the Whigs in Britain would have liked; John Wilkes contemptuously described it as like "The Peace of God, for it passeth all understanding." However, they had been replaced by the more pro-French Tory administration of Oxford and Bolingbroke, which persuaded the Queen to create new Tory peers to ensure ratification of the treaty in the House of Lords.
The concept of the Balance of Power was first mentioned in the Treaty of Utrecht. The importance of this treaty for the Dutch was relatively small, and their influence was insignificant. This sorry situation lead to the creation of the proverbial saying De vous, chez vous, sans vous, meaning: about you, in your surroundings, but without you.
