The role of France in the European continent wars during the reign of King Louis XIV

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Abstract

The reign of Louis XIV is the longest in French history and represents the golden era of the Bourbon dynasty in which France became the greatest and most beautiful European country, and in this era where  the secular state gained its independence from ecclesiastical exploitation, in which absolute rule triumphed and Louis XIV proudly declared (I am the state). With France seizing Spain's position in the leadership of political affairs, it has overtaken Italy in artistic and cultural issues.
During the reign of Louis XIV, France occupied the first place among the European countries and the most powerful kingdom and a center of  public policy, and when the name (the King) was mentioned outside it, that meant the King of France and no one else. The importance of studying the era of Louis XIV is due to the political, military, scientific and cultural events that resulted from that era, the results of which were directly reflected on the historical march of the peoples of the world as a whole.
  The foreign policy of Louis XIV was characterized in the wars he fought, the purpose of which was to achieve the glory and greatness of France and to reach the natural borders of France by regaining  the lands that were separated from France within these borders. Although Louis XIV's ambitions were manifold and were not limited to Europe alone, He wanted to control it first of all, so he directed his sight  to expand the scope of his possession in it, especially since there was no one among the kings of Europe who could fight France alone, so he had no objection to preventing him from going to war. Louis XIV was also seeking in his foreign policy to achieve superiority over the Habsburg dynasty in Austria and Spain and the annexation of the Low Countries to France, and the elimination of the Dutch Empire outside Europe in favor of France.
 Louis XIV relied on diplomacy and negotiations at times, and threats and bribery to seize and annex countries at other times, war remained the preferred means of obtaining regional gains and he plunged Europe into a long series of wars whose first goal was regional expansion and achieving the greatness of France. For this purpose, Louis XIV fought a series of wars between 1667-1713, which are four major wars:
 The War of Succession in the Spanish Lowlands (1667-1668), the Dutch War (1672-1678), the War of the League of Augsburg (1689-1697), and the War of the Spanish Succession (1702-1713)                                                                                                                             

Main Subjects