Whereas the French war efforts in North America, Italy, and the high seas had generally been unsuccessful, these reverses had been counterbalanced by the considerable gains made in the Low Countries by the French armies commanded by the prodigious and brilliant Maurice de Saxe.

Consistently demonstrating his aptitude both for the open field battle and the war of posts, Maurice had overrun a significant portion of the Austrian Netherlands, mauling a combined army of English, Hanoverians, Dutch, and Austrians at the battles of Fontenoy, Rocoux, and Laffeldt. In addition, he had successfully besieged dozens of outposts and fortified towns and now stood on the verge of invading the heartland of the Dutch Republic itself. In India, the British-held town of Madras had been taken by the French under Mahe de la Bourdonnais and Joseph-Francois Dupleix, Commandant-General of India, after a short siege in September, 1746. A war-weary England and France were both looking for a way out of an increasingly expensive and unpopular conflict.

After a lengthy series of Byzantine negotiations, hostilities were finally brought to a halt by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed by France, England, and Holland on the 18th of October, 1748, nearly eight years to the day after Charles VI's death. The upshot of the treaty for France and Britain was a return to the status quo ante bellum. France abandoned her conquests in the Low countries in return for dynastic considerations for her ally, Spain. Louisbourg was exchanged for Madras.

All was as before, but those tensions at the heart of the AngloFrench rivalry remained unchanged. Within ten years another more intense and sanguinary conflict would engulf North America. This war would finally put an end to French influence, but only after many battles and sieges and much loss of life. The Provincials, embittered by the return of Louisbourg to the French, would prove to be less enthusiastic to take up the musket in this war, and those who did were often shunted to the side as the brunt of the fighting was borne more and more by British regulars. Already the seeds of mutual misunderstanding that were ultimately to irrupt in 1776 were being planted. In Nova Scotia, the British remained masters of their domain, but suspicions of the local French inhabitants remained.

Although their support of the French armies in the late conflict had been luke warm at best, it was nevertheless enough to result in a lingering distrust which, upon the commencement of the Seven Years War in North America, resulted in the Acadian diaspora. As to the French home government, no lessons were learned at all considering the vulnerability of Louisbourg. It would fall, in 1758, once again to the English using a plan of attack virtually identical to that of 1745.

King George's War 1744-1748

Declaration of War
The Siege of Louisbourg
The Capitulation of Louisbourg
Plans for Further Conquests
The Border Wars
The Peace of Aix-La-Chapelle
Conclusions and Critique