When King Charles II of Spain died in 1700 with no children, two powerful families claimed the throne. The Bourbon family from France and the Habsburg family from Austria each wanted the throne. The war that followed lasted thirteen years and pulled in most of Europe. On April 11, 1713, leaders from many countries met in a Dutch city called Utrecht to sign a peace treaty. The agreement reshaped the map of Europe and beyond. France kept its candidate on the Spanish throne. But France and Spain could never be ruled by the same king. Britain gained territory on both sides of the Atlantic. It received Gibraltar and the island of Minorca in the Mediterranean. In North America, France gave Britain control of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Spain lost land in Italy and the Netherlands. The treaty also gave Britain the exclusive right to sell enslaved African people to Spanish colonies. A right called the Asiento. This detail reveals how European powers treated the slave trade as a commodity to be negotiated alongside land and borders. The treaty established a balance of power in Europe that lasted for decades.