The scope of Louis XIV's naval ambitions expanded significantly following the accession of Philip, duc d’Anjou and the king's grandson, to the Spanish throne in November 1700. With the Spanish empire stretching from the Spanish Netherlands, Milan, Naples, and Sicily to colonies in the Americas and east Asia, the Spanish inheritance vastly increased the French crown's territorial liabilities. In addition, years of under-investment in the Spanish navy had left it in a diminished state, and the French navy was therefore the only viable means by which Bourbon Spain could secure its possessions in Europe and its global trading and colonial network.

The reordering of the relationship between France and Spain therefore prompted an important shift in French naval policy. Under Jérôme Phélypeaux, Louis de Pontchartrain's son and successor as naval minister in September 1699, the focus on building up offensive naval firepower gave way to a type of defensive warfare that prioritised the protection of communication lines, particularly to Italy and the Americas, and sought to deny lucrative trade routes to the English and Dutch. When the Grand Alliance between England, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Emperor was reconstituted in 1701 to dispute Louis XIV's inheritance of the Spanish empire, the ensuing global conflict committed the French navy to multiple, simultaneous operations across the Mediterranean and in the Americas. Yet, as this chapter examines, the wide-ranging nature of these strategic commitments imposed a severe strain on the French navy from the outset of the war and contributed to its collapse.

In the western Mediterranean, the need to maintain the Habsburg position in Italy required a series of small-scale but strategically important naval operations throughout the war. When the French under René de Froulay, comte de Tessé, moved to secure their interests in the duchy of Milan in January to March 1701, twelve warships and three cargo vessels under the command of André, marquis de Nesmond, transported over 12,000 troops and their equipment and munitions from Toulon, Monaco, and Antibes to Finale and other neighbouring ports. French warships in the Adriatic were also essential in frustrating Imperial attempts to reinforce Austrian troops in the duchy of Milan, with the comte de Forbin successfully disrupting supply lines originating in Trieste and Fiume (now Rijeka, Croatia) with a small naval squadron in 1702.