This chapter covers the growing popular disillusionment with Continental interventionism. Moreover, irrespective of these issues, there were also developments in the international system that was of great importance. Most obviously, relations between Austria, France and Prussia created a context that was central to German politics, both in peace and war. As part of the Austro-French alignment, the Low Countries and Germany were in effect to be removed from the equations of international strife at least in so far as French expansion was concerned. In 1744, the Emperor Charles VII, Elector of Bavaria, who was allied to France, pressed for an invasion of Hanover as a means to oblige George II to seek peace. The optimism in action owed much to the combination of long-term hostility towards France, with the short-term burst of hope that followed the fall of the Walpole ministry in February 1742.