Reconciled Habsburg and Bourbon Spain after decades of rivalry, reshaping European alliance structures and triggering formation of the rival Hanoverian Alliance.
Key Facts
- Treaties signed
- Four separate treaties
- Date range
- 30 April – 5 November 1725
- Key trade concession
- Spanish recognition of Ostend East India Company
- Habsburg concession
- Renounced all claims to Spanish throne
- Spanish territorial renunciation
- Claims to southern Netherlands and other territories
- Military consequence
- Led to limited Fourth Anglo-Spanish War in 1727
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Following the War of the Spanish Succession, Habsburg Austria and Bourbon Spain remained formal rivals with overlapping dynastic claims. By the mid-1720s, both powers sought to resolve these tensions and establish a new cooperative relationship, particularly around trade and territorial recognition.
Between April and November 1725, the Habsburg Monarchy and Bourbon Spain signed four treaties in Vienna. The Habsburgs formally relinquished claims to the Spanish throne; Spain renounced claims to the southern Netherlands. Trade agreements were concluded, Spain recognised the Ostend East India Company, and a secret general alliance was concluded alongside a public defensive pact.
The new Austro-Spanish alliance prompted Austria to withdraw from the Quadruple Alliance and caused rival powers—including Britain, France, and Prussia—to form the Hanoverian Alliance in September 1725. Russia joined the Viennese alliance in 1726. Tensions between the opposing blocs eventually produced the limited Fourth Anglo-Spanish War of 1727.
Political Outcome
Habsburg-Bourbon reconciliation; mutual renunciation of dynastic territorial claims; trade and alliance treaties concluded; European alliance system realigned
Habsburg Austria aligned with the Quadruple Alliance; Spain isolated after War of the Spanish Succession
Austria withdrew from Quadruple Alliance; Austro-Spanish-Russian bloc faced the rival Hanoverian Alliance