<Li> The Treaty of Nijmegen, signed 10 August 1678, ended the Franco - Dutch War . The great loser in the war was Spain, ceding to France a list of places - Franche - Comté, the forts on the Aire and Saint - Omer, Cambrai, Valenciennes and Maubeuge in Hainaut . From the time of the Revolution, these French lands in Flanders and Hainaut would become the département of Nord . </Li> <P> From 1680 to 1697, Louis XIV emboldened by his early successes, adopted a policy of unilateral annexations and groupings . The French even took part during the temporary conquest of Habsburg - ruled Luxembourg from 1684 to 1697 . </P> <P> By the Treaty of Rijswijk in 1697, which concluded the Nine Years' War, he had finally to renounce most of these newly - taken lands but retained Saarlouis and Lower Alsace, with the town of Strasbourg . The bulk of Alsace was thenceforward, entirely French . The exceptions were Mulhouse and some territories held by German princes . </P> <P> At the end of Louis XIV's reign, a balance seemed to have been achieved . The other European powers were no longer disposed to accept a new French expansion and were prepared to form alliances to oppose such a thing . The borders had been pushed out far from the French capital . On top of this, they were thenceforward defended by a network of modern fortresses constructed by Vauban . Fortified towns to the north of Lorraine (Montmédy, Thionville, Longwy, Saarlouis) isolated the Duchy from other states of the German (Holy Roman) Empire so as to weaken the independence of the duke . </P>

What restored france to its pre revolutionary borders