THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA 329 retired. Meanwhile the Elector of Bavaria had become emperor as Charles vn. It is not necessary to follow the fluctuating fortunes of the war. The really decisive event was the death of Charles vn. in 1745, which secured the Imperial succession to the Later Events husband of Maria Theresa, and in effect withdrew of the War. Bavaria from the struggle. An episode of great importance to Great Britain followed, in the enterprise of Charles Edward Stuart, who made a daring attempt to recover the British Crown. Its failure for ever removed the danger of further attempts at a Stuart restoration, and paved the way for making the union between England and Scotland a real unification of those kingdoms. The war dragged on chiefly because of Maria Theresa's vain hope of recovering Silesia. The general exhaus- tion brought it to an end in 1748 with the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Under it practically all parties resigned all conquests, and the European territories stood again as they had stood when the war began, except that Prussia retained its hold on Silesia. Francis 1. was acknowledged as emperor, and the Austrian succession in accordance with the Pragmatic Sanction was accepted. The war of the Austrian succession had been merely pre- liminary to another great war. It had sharpened the hostility of English and French colonists in America and of 4. Another War English and French in India. It had weakened imminent, the longstanding alliance of Great Britain with Austria, and had left Maria Theresa still determined to take vengeance on Prussia, and to recover Silesia; while Frederick's achievements had raised him to a position alarming to most of the other princes of Germany. Another war between Austria and Prussia and between France and Great Britain was inevitable, but how the opposing forces might combine was not equally clear. For a hundred years past English colonies had been develop- ing in North America from Florida on the south up to the St. Lawrence. France, by the treaty of Utrecht, had Rivalries in ceded Acadia, but had been developing her own America, colony of Canada north of the St. Lawrence; and she had planted another colony south-west of the English in Louisiana.
