War of Austrian Succession

A long European conflict, which from 1740 to 1748 opposed Prussia, France, Bavaria, Saxony and Spain to Austria and Great Britain. It began at the death of the emperor Charles VI, who after obtaining recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 by the great Powers of the period, had designated his daughter Maria-Theresa as his successor (the acceptance of which was the point of the Sanction. But the elector Charles-Albert of Bavaria – who would be elected emperor under the name of Charles VII (1741-1745) – said that the agreements involving acceptance of the Sanction were nothing but “scraps of paper”, and laid claim to the Habsburg dominions, while Prussia under Frederick II laid claim to Silesia. The war soon was transformed into a struggle between the Houses of France and Austria, while the various armies involved in the conflict shamelessly pillaged the residents of the areas contested.