1700-1745 1777-1799







Bavaria, 1745-1777



In 1745 Duke Charles Albrecht died; he was succeeded by Max III. Joseph (1745-1777). Bavaria just had utterly failed with her policy to secure the Imperial crown. Max III. Joseph terminated the French alliance and signed a treaty with the Dutch Republic and the United Kingdom, which brought subsidies for Bavaria, but obliged her to contribute a Bavarian corps to the defense of the Netherlands. In 1746 the Wittelsbach Hausunion was confirmed. In 1748 the War of Austrian Succession formally was ended; in 1750 Bavaria renewed her subsidy treaty with Austria, the Dutch Republik and the United Kingdom.
Bavaria tried to escape such obligations toward others. In 1756 Bavaria signed a subsidy treaty with France, which obliged Bavaria to remain neutral in case of an Imperial war against France. In 1756 the Seven Years' War broke out; in 1757 an Imperial war against Prussia was decided upon. Bavaria reluctantly contributed her contingent, which was withdrawn already in 1758. Bavaria now strove for the Holy Roman Empire to take a neutral position. In 1762 an agreement of neutrality was signed by Bavaria and Prussia.
In 1771, Bavaria and Kurpfalz (Duke Karl Theodor) signed a treaty securing mutual inheritance. Max III. Joseph had no children; when he died in 1777, Bavaria became the object of yet another succession conflict.

In 1759, Duke Max III. Joseph founded the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In 1776, the Bavarian branch of the (secret, masonic) Order of Illuminates was founded in Ingolstadt, Bavaria. In 1771, Bavaria introduced mandatory elementary education.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Bavarian History, from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914 edition
Gründungsgeschichte (Foundation History), from Bavarian Academy of Science, in German
Churfürstlich-Baierische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Electoral Bavarian Academy of Sciences), English-language entry from Scholarly Societies Project
Karlheinz Scherr Bayern im Zeitalter des Fürstlichen Absolutismus (17./18. Jahrhundert) (Bavaria in the Era of Ducal Absolutism) in : Politische Geschichte Bayerns (Political History of Bavaria), posted by HDBG
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Territorien-Ploetz : Geschichte der Deutschen Länder (History of the German Territories), Vol.1, Würzburg 1964, in German
Andreas Kraus, Geschichte Bayerns von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (History of Bavaria, from the origins to the present day), München : Beck (1983) 2nd edition 1988, in German
Selma Stern, The Court Jew, A Contribution to the History of Absolutism in Europe, NY (1950) : Transaction Books 1985, especially pp.32-34, (on Seligman Loeb and Anschel Levy), pp.95-100 (on Samuel Wertheimer, Samuel Isaak Noe)


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on November 7th 2003, last revised on November 11th 2004

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