Rebalancing the System: Changes and Continuity in Italy 1706-1720. Some remarks

Abstract

The consequences of the Treaty of Utrecht in Italy were the definition of an ‘unstable’ equilibrium on the Peninsula, the results of the peace of 1713 until 1720, when, after a series of agreements, a treaty was signed in The Hague, and some territories were moved of domain. The War of Succession was also an opportunity for the Empire to get rid of some Italian nobles under the suspicion of treason. As a result of the exclusion of the Spanish rule and the simultaneous beginning of the presence in Italy of the Austrian power, relations between the Empire and the Italian imperial vassals were transformed. The Austrian Habsburg rule appeared respectful of the old social equilibrium and as an element of continuity between the present and the past, although both in Milan and in Naples there were also strong elements of discontinuity.