Repercussions

The Treaty of Breslau (1742) and Treaty of Dresden (1745) transferred Silesia — one of the wealthiest provinces in Central Europe, with textile industries, mining, and over a million inhabitants — from Austria to Prussia. It remained Prussian until 1945. The acquisition doubled Prussian revenues and made the kingdom a genuine great power alongside France, Austria, Britain, and Russia.

Against all odds, Maria Theresa preserved the Habsburg empire through personal determination, the loyalty of Hungary, and the incompetence of her enemies. Austria lost Silesia but retained Bohemia, the Austrian Netherlands, and its Italian possessions. Her survival transformed the war's narrative: what began as an attempted partition of the Habsburg lands ended as proof that the dynasty could endure even the most coordinated attack.

Maria Theresa's humiliation at Aix-la-Chapelle set Kaunitz on a decade-long project to reverse the traditional alliance system. In 1756 he succeeded: France and Austria signed a defensive treaty — a stunning reversal of 250 years of Franco-Habsburg rivalry. The Diplomatic Revolution reorganized European power politics around the Prussia-Britain axis versus the France-Austria axis, creating the alignment that defined the Seven Years' War.

Aix-la-Chapelle resolved none of the war's underlying tensions. Austria wanted Silesia back; France was humiliated by returning all its conquests; Britain and Prussia were uneasy allies. When war resumed in 1756, it spread across five continents in the first truly global conflict — the Seven Years' War (called the French and Indian War in North America), in which Frederick nearly destroyed and was nearly destroyed, and which ended British supremacy in India and North America.

Britain's involvement in the War of the Austrian Succession extended to North America, where it became King George's War (1744–1748). New England forces captured the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island — a major strategic achievement — only to have it returned to France at Aix-la-Chapelle in exchange for Madras. The colonial dimension of the war established patterns and grievances that exploded into the French and Indian War a decade later.

Maurice de Saxe's victories — especially Fontenoy — demonstrated that thin, disciplined lines of infantry maximizing musket fire, supported by coordinated artillery, could defeat almost any opponent. His Mes Rêveries, published posthumously, codified these lessons. Frederick's Silesian victories added the dimension of speed, surprise, and the oblique order. Together, Saxe and Frederick defined 18th-century European warfare in its mature form.

Frederick entered the war as an untested king with a well-drilled army inherited from his father. He emerged as Europe's most feared commander, with a military system — oblique order, rapid marching, disciplined volley fire, aggressive cavalry — that every European power attempted to copy. The Prussian military model influenced armies from Russia to France to Austria for the rest of the century and beyond.

France's war with Britain enabled the last serious Jacobite rising: Charles Edward Stuart landed in Scotland in July 1745, raised an army, and reached Derby before retreating. The rising was crushed at Culloden in April 1746. The British government's response — dismantling the Highland clan system, banning tartan and Gaelic, systematic disarmament — effectively ended Highland culture as it had existed. The '45 and Culloden became foundational events in Scottish national memory, still resonant today.

The treaty was widely understood by contemporaries as a pause, not a resolution. France returned everything it had won militarily. Austria accepted losses it was determined to reverse. Prussia's gains were confirmed but contested. Britain's colonial interests were sacrificed for European balance. Voltaire called it 'bête comme la paix.' The war's unresolved grievances generated the Seven Years' War within a decade — a conflict so much larger that it dwarfed the conflict that produced it.