War of the Bavarian Succession

European history

Also known as: Potato War

Written and fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

History

War of the Bavarian Succession, (1778–79), conflict in which Frederick II the Great of Prussia blocked an attempt by Joseph II of Austria to acquire Bavaria.

After losing Silesia to the Prussians in the 1740s (see Austrian Succession, War of the), the Austrian emperor Joseph II and his chancellor Wenzel Anton, Prince von Kaunitz, wished to acquire Bavaria in order to restore Austria’s position in Germany. When the Bavarian electoral line of the Wittelsbachs failed on the death of Maximilian Joseph on Dec. 30, 1777, a treaty was signed with his successor, Charles Theodore, the elector palatine, ceding Lower Bavaria and the lordship of Mindelheim to Austria. However, Frederick II of Prussia declared war on July 3, 1778, in support of the claims to Bavaria made by Charles, duke of Zweibrücken. Austria’s ally France refused to give aid, and Frederick with Saxony as his ally entered Bohemia, where he was opposed by an imperial army led by the emperor himself. There was little fighting, because each force was concerned with cutting its opponent’s communications and denying it supplies. Hence contemporaries nicknamed the war the “potato war” (Kartoffelkrieg).

Maria Theresa, whose consent to the occupation of Bavaria had been given very unwillingly, made peace proposals to Frederick II against Joseph II’s wishes. With France and Russia acting as intermediaries between Austria and Prussia, the representatives of the two powers met at Teschen on March 10, 1779. On May 13, 1779, they reached an agreement whereby Austria was to receive the Inn district, a fraction of the territory originally occupied.