War of the Polish Succession

The War of the Polish Succession, fought from 1733 to 1735, was a major European conflict that began as a civil war in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth over who would succeed Augustus II the Strong, and that other European powers widened to serve their own interests. France and Spain, the two Bourbon powers, tested Habsburg Austria in western Europe, while Saxony and Russia backed the eventual victor, who took the throne as Augustus III. The main campaigns lay outside Poland-Lithuania. In the Rhineland France took the Duchy of Lorraine, and in Italy Spain regained Naples and Sicily, lost in the War of the Spanish Succession. Prince Eugene of Savoy commanded the imperial forces on the Rhine. A preliminary peace came in 1735 and the Treaty of Vienna of 1738 ended the war formally, confirming Augustus III as king, giving Stanislaw Leszczynski the Duchies of Lorraine and Bar, and passing Naples and Sicily to the Spanish Bourbons. The war confirmed that the great powers controlled the affairs of Poland-Lithuania, and one cited estimate counts 88,000 military deaths.