Augsburg, League of, defensive alliance formed (1686) by Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I with various German states, including Bavaria and the Palatinate, and with Sweden and Spain so far as their German interests were concerned. It was an acknowledgment of a community of German feeling against French expansion. The war that broke out after the French attack on the Palatinate in Oct., 1688, is sometimes designated the War of the League of Augsburg. In 1689 a new coalition against the French, the Grand Alliance, was formed by Austria, England, and the Netherlands. Savoy and Spain later joined the Alliance, and the war of 1688–97 is more properly known as the War of the Grand Alliance (see Grand Alliance, War of the).
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