War of the Spanish Succession (Humble Old Ironsides)

The War of the Spanish Succession began in 1701 with the outbreak of a three-sided war between the major European powers at the time. In the aftermath of the death of Charles II of Spain, Britain and the Dutch backed the Bavarian claim to the throne through Joseph Ferdinand, the French backed Philip, Duke of Anjou, and the Austrians backed Archduke Charles. The first few years of the war were fought primarily throughout the Spanish Netherlands and the vast states of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1704, with the defeat of the Austrians and their allies at the Battle of Blenheim, they agreed to switch sides and back the claim of Joseph Ferdinand to the Spanish throne as a way to keep the throne out of the hands of a Bourbon monarch. The war finally ended in 1712 with the Treaty of Utrecht, which allowed Philip, Duke of Anjou, to take the Spanish throne as Philip V, but required him to remove himself and his successors from the French line of succession in exchange for territorial cessions to the Austrian Habsburgs. The war was also fought in the New World in Dudley's War, named after the colonial Governor of Massachusetts and one of the prominent leaders of the British forces there. These events and the level of conflict in North America made the War of the Spanish Succession one of the first real "world wars" in history.