Question

Which war weakened the Habsburgs and strengthened the Bourbons?

a) Spanish War of Succession
b) Thirty Years' War
c) Franco-Spanish War
d) War of the Austrian Succession

Answer 1

The Spanish War of Succession weakened the Habsburgs and strengthened the Bourbons, with the Bourbons establishing their dynasty in Spain and the Habsburgs losing European territories.

Step-by-step explanation:

The war that weakened the Habsburgs and strengthened the Bourbons was the Spanish War of Succession (a). During the early 1700s, the death of Charles II of Spain, a Habsburg, led to a crisis over the succession of the Spanish crown, as he left no direct heir. The French Duke of Anjou, grandson of Charles II's half-sister and part of the Bourbon family, was named his successor, but the Austrian Habsburgs challenged this, believing they had rights to the Spanish territories. The ensuing conflict, which lasted from 1701 to 1714, resulted in the rise of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain and a relative decline in Habsburg power, as the Treaty of Utrecht, which ended the war, removed many European territories from Habsburg control and affirmed the Bourbon's dynasty in Spain.