Editing Kingdom of Great Britain (section)

===Queen Anne, 1702–1714===
{{Further|Anne, Queen of Great Britain}}
During the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] (1702–14) England continued its policy of forming and funding alliances, especially with the [[Dutch Republic]] and the [[Holy Roman Empire]] against their common enemy, [[King Louis XIV]] of France.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Falkner |first=James |title=The War of the Spanish Succession 1701–1714 |date=2015 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=978-1-78159-031-7 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=UX0ACwAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 22–25]}}</ref> [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]], who reigned 1702–1714, was the central decision maker, working closely with her advisers, especially her remarkably successful senior general, [[John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough]]. The war was a financial drain, for Britain had to finance its allies and hire foreign soldiers. Stalemate on the battlefield and war weariness on the home front set in toward the end. The anti-war Tory politicians won control of Parliament in 1710 and forced a peace. The concluding [[Treaty of Utrecht]] was highly favourable for Britain. Spain lost its empire in Europe and faded away as a great power, while working to better manage its colonies in the Americas. The First British Empire, based upon the [[English overseas possessions]], was enlarged. From France, Great Britain gained [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] and [[Acadia]], and from Spain [[Gibraltar]] and [[Menorca]]. Gibraltar became a major naval base which allowed Great Britain to control the entrance from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.{{Sfn|Hoppit|2000|loc=chapters 4, 8}} The war marks the weakening of French military, diplomatic and economic dominance, and the arrival on the world scene of Britain as a major imperial, military and financial power.<ref>{{Citation |title=Readers Guide to British History |date=2003 |volume=2 |pages=1219–1221 |editor-last=Loades |editor-first=David |editor-link=David Loades}}</ref> British historian [[G. M. Trevelyan]] argued:
:That Treaty [of Utrecht], which ushered in the stable and characteristic period of Eighteenth-Century civilization, marked the end of danger to Europe from the old French monarchy, and it marked a change of no less significance to the world at large,—the maritime, commercial and financial supremacy of Great Britain.<ref>{{Citation |last=Trevelyan |first=G.M. |title=A shortened history of England |date=1942 |page=363 |author-link=G. M. Trevelyan}}</ref>