AHC/WI: Decisive French Victory in War of Spanish Succession

Anaxagoras

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How might France have won a decisive victory in the War of Spanish Succession? Also, what would have been the implications of Spain being united under a single Bourbon monarch?
 
Waving aside the fact that Philip V is not the heir to Louis XIV as he was the younger brother of Louis XV's father.

Let's assume this.

The French won decisively and there isn't any barrier to Philip V becoming king of France as well as Spain.

Louis XV becomes king, and Philip V waits in Spain.

If Louis XV has a son, then nothing much changes. Except that French prestige would be even greater.

If Louis XV dies without a son, Philip V rushes to Paris, and is crowned Philip VI. His younger son Ferdinand would be crowned king of Spain, while his oldest son Louis becomes dauphin. If Louis dies in 1724, then Ferdinand would become dauphin and Charles III would be king of Spain early. If Ferdinand died without sons, then Charles III of Spain becomes Charles X of France, and his younger brother Philip the Duke of Parma in OTL would become king Philip VI of Spain.

The reason for this is that I don't think the Spanish would want an absentee monarch and to be ruled from Paris. Charles II selected Philip of Anjou as heir because he was the younger son. The true heir was supposed to be his father, the Grand Dauphin, but he chose the younger son to avoid a personal union with the French.
 
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How might France have won a decisive victory in the War of Spanish Succession? Also, what would have been the implications of Spain being united under a single Bourbon monarch?

Do you Mean Spain and France being united? KIll Eugene, Kill Marlborough, and Kill Joseph in the first year of war.
 
I don't think it possible. France and Spain had been enemies for 2 centuries.

You can't compare the union between England and Scotland with an union between France and Spain.

Scotland was a minor player and by geography and demography a satellite of England.

Spain had been a major power and held the biggest empire in the world at the time.
 
I spent two months doing research to find a plausible way that France comes out of the war of Spanish succession significantly better than it started... damn near impossible.
 
I think a major problem is that if France wins decisively in Europe, Britain has every incentive to pillage and divide up the Spanish and French colonial empires. Britain will likely increase its efforts in the Americas to compensate for any French hegemony in continental Europe. I could easily see Britain get much of the West Indies, Florida, New Orleans, Acadia, and even Canada as its price to accept French victory in Spain.
 
As long as both Philip V and Louis XV survive and have sons, then there won't be a personal union, regardless of how many victories the Franco Spanish forces have.

The only change would be the Spanish Netherlands remain Spanish, or become French, and that Naples and Sicily would remain in personal union with Spain.
 
As long as both Philip V and Louis XV survive and have sons, then there won't be a personal union, regardless of how many victories the Franco Spanish forces have.

The only change would be the Spanish Netherlands remain Spanish, or become French, and that Naples and Sicily would remain in personal union with Spain.

Ok before you can figure that out if have to figure out the victory itself
 
I spent two months doing research to find a plausible way that France comes out of the war of Spanish succession significantly better than it started... damn near impossible.
I recall a timeline called Drunk on Bourbon based on a (successful) Franco-Bavarian march on Vienna.
 
I think a major problem is that if France wins decisively in Europe, Britain has every incentive to pillage and divide up the Spanish and French colonial empires. Britain will likely increase its efforts in the Americas to compensate for any French hegemony in continental Europe. I could easily see Britain get much of the West Indies, Florida, New Orleans, Acadia, and even Canada as its price to accept French victory in Spain.

Is the Royal Navy strong enough in 1700-10 to achieve this?
 
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