From the end of the 13th century onwards, hundreds of independent small vassal states appeared within the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation, and the Empire had become a loose political alliance in the name of the state.
The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was originally elected by the Seven Electors. In the middle and late period of the empire, the Habsburg dynasty of the Grand Duchy of Austria monopolized the throne of the Holy Roman Empire for 400 years through royal marriages and money bribes, and Vienna, the capital of Austria, became the de facto capital of the empire. The actual scope of the emperor's jurisdiction was only Austria.
But Austria was much larger then than Austria is today. Austria also held Bohemia (Czech Republic) and Southern Netherlands (Belgium) at the time, while hungary and some territories in northern Italy were held outside Germany. The Habsburgs occupied a large area of territory abroad, which was extremely large, and became the target of many feudal dynasties in Britain, France and Europe.
In the 1730s, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, had a difficult problem with heirs. He had only two daughters, and daughters could not inherit the throne. In order to allow his daughter to inherit the throne. He made some concessions to several major states in Germany in order to gain their support. Prussia, for example, promised some territory. But then Charles VI broke his promise, and King Frederick I of Prussia was greatly dissatisfied, claiming that his son would become the "avenger" of this humiliation. His son was the famous Frederick the Great, Frederick II, a figure who was worshipped by Napoleon and Hitler.
Frederick the Great
In 1740, Charles VI died, and his 23-year-old eldest daughter Maria Theresia succeeded to the throne of the Duchy of Austria and the Throne of the Holy Roman Empire. Queen Theresia is very beautiful and passionate. During the reign of Charles VI, there was no early participation of Theresia in his reign. After succeeding to the throne, Theresia said: "My father never liked to ask me to help with foreign and domestic affairs, and did not inform me, so I suddenly found that there was no money, no army, and no means." But later developments proved that the queen was not only beautiful, but also shrewd and capable.
Infant Theresia
On December 13, 1740, in the middle of winter, Frederick II, who had also just succeeded to the throne, personally led an army of 25,000 men across the border into Silesia, the territory of the Habsburgs, on the grounds that the Habsburg succession to the throne lacked sufficient evidence. (Silesia is mostly in Poland, with parts in northeastern Czechia and eastern Germany.) Frederick the Great said in his memoirs in his later years that when he was young, he longed for honor and wanted others to know his name, which prompted him to start this war.
The Habsburg army was overwhelmed by surprise, and the Prussian army made rapid progress. At that time, Queen Theresia had just given birth to a son, but she was not afraid of danger and calmly fought. The eight-year-long War of the Austrian Succession, in which most of Europe was involved, began.
Childhood Theresia
In the spring of the following year, Queen Theresia sent nearly 20,000 Austrian troops to quietly pounce on the Prussian rear, cutting off the opponent's supply line. Frederick II led his army into a fierce battle with it and won the victory. The Austrian army collapsed completely, and almost all of Silesia fell into the hands of the Prussian army.
Austria's defeat led other countries to take advantage of the opportunity. France allied itself with a number of principalities in Germany, led by Bavaria, and Prussia, for the purpose of dividing up Austria. Britain, the Netherlands, and Russia supported Austria in their respective interests.
Young Theresia
Bavaria and France sent troops to invade Austria from the north, occupying Bohemia (Czech Republic), and the anti-Austrian forces, organized by france, elected the Grand Duke of Bavaria, Albrecht, as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, called Charles VII, on the grounds that women could not serve as emperors. Thus, in the 350-year reign of the Habsburgs, a three-year period of dynasties that did not belong to them was inserted.
Now that Austria was isolated, The diplomatic strategy of Queen Maria Theresia played an important role, and she temporarily relinquished her sovereignty over Silesia and took the initiative to negotiate peace with Prussia. On July 28, 1742, with the help of the British, Prussia secretly signed a peace treaty in Berlin, and Austria temporarily ceded almost all of Silesia to Prussia, and in exchange, Prussia recognized Maria Theresia's succession to the throne and withdrew from the war. Why secretly, for Prussia also had a contract with its ally France and other principalities, and could not make peace with Austria alone.
Prussia's withdrawal gave Austria a chance to breathe. Queen Theresia personally lobbied Hungary, obtaining Hungary's oath of allegiance with her eloquent speech, and the Austrian army grew in strength. The Queen arranged 100,000 Hungarian troops, led by the famous general Andreas, after a long raid, to capture Munich, the capital of Bavaria. At the same time, it cut off the supply lines between the Bavarian army and the French army in Bohemia.
The victory of the Austrian army in the capture of Munich showed the princes of the Holy Roman Empire the power of the queen, and many of the princes who had been attached to the new emperor Charles VII at this time turned to the Habsburg family and formed an alliance with the Austrian army.
With some financial support from Britain, Russia, and the Netherlands, the Queen of Theresia expanded her army and launched a counterattack against the French and Bavarian armies. At the end of 1742, the Austrians occupied Bohemia and Bavaria, expelling the French allies from Bohemia.
In June 1743, 40,000 British, Austrian, and Dutch troops fought a fierce battle against 60,000 French troops in Göttingen, Bavaria. The French were forced to retreat after inflicting heavy casualties. The French army broke out of the encirclement and fled back to France. The new Emperor Charles VII had to go into exile in Frankfurt, where he became the Empty Emperor.
The Austrians won victories everywhere, defeating Spain and simultaneously advancing on the Italian kingdom of Naples. Now the Queen wants not only to retake Silesia, but also to incorporate Bavaria, Alsace and Lorraine into the Austrian monarchy.
King Louis XV of France discovered that France was now under siege by England, the Netherlands, and Austria. Louis XV hastened to send the envoy, Voltaire, to Prussia to persuade Frederick II to rejoin the war. Frederick was shocked by the victory of the Austrian army, because he understood that the victory of the Austrian army would be enough to lead to the decline of Prussia, and he promised to send troops at once. In August 1744 Prussia rejoined the war, invaded Bohemia, and captured Prague. At the same time, Louis XV was also preparing to personally lead an army to conquer Austria.
In the face of the Faus-Austrian coalition, Theresia showed unusual composure and calmness. Under the command of the Queen, successive victories in battle put the Prussians in a difficult situation. Frederick had to lead his army to retreat north from Prague, and the Austrian army pursued and killed all the way, and after returning to Berlin, more than half of the men and horses had been lost.
At this time, Louis XV fell ill, and the Prussians had to fight alone. Frederick again mobilized troops from within the principality and ordered that the valuable silverware in the palace be minted into silver coins to supplement the weight.
In May 1745, the Austrian army fought a fierce battle with frederick's 58,000 Prussian army, and the Austrian army was defeated. In the second half of the year, the Prussians fought two more battles with the Austrians, both of which were won by the Prussians. The characteristics of Frederick's command of combat began to take shape, and his original slash tactics that shocked Europe were also used for the first time in these two battles.
Frederick the Great
Theresa had no choice but to ask Prussia again for peace, which was in keeping with Frederick's intentions. In order not to let France reap the benefits of the fishermen, he did not want to seek complete victory over the Austrians. The two sides agreed, and Austria formally ceded all of Silesia to Prussia, and also paid huge war reparations. Frederick supported Theresia's succession.
Since there was no precedent for a woman to be emperor in the history of the empire, Theresia plotted to make her husband emperor and exercise actual power as empress herself, and she herself held three thrones: Grand Duke of Austria, Queen of Hungary, and Queen of Bohemia. Thanks to her efforts, her husband Franz Stefan was successfully elected emperor at the Frankfurt Turkdi Conference for Franz I. The crown, which had been interrupted for three years, finally returned to the Habsburgs. Theresia then added another title: Empress of the Holy Roman Empire.
Signature of Maria Theresia
Despite the busy and imminent war, Theresia personally rushed to Frankfurt to attend her husband's coronation. In order not to steal the limelight from her husband, she did not come to the public, but only appeared on the balcony of the "Roman Emperor" hotel. In his book, Goethe vividly describes Theresa coming to the scene amid cheers and salutes:
At this time her husband, dressed in a peculiar costume, had returned from the cathedral, and she felt that he was almost like the ghost of Charlemagne. Her husband, jokingly, raised his hands and pointed out to her the golden apple scepter and the extraordinary gloves, a symbol of imperial power, to which she laughed incessantly, and the laughter made the people present feel the greatest joy and excitement, and they had the privilege of witnessing first-hand the good and natural relationship between one of the noblest couples in Christendom. When the Queen greeted her husband and waved a handkerchief and shouted Long Live, the enthusiasm and cheers of the people rose to a climax, so that the cries of joy endured. ”
The three-piece set of imperial emblems of the Holy Roman Empire, such as the "crown, golden apple, scepter", and other imperial relics are now preserved in Austria. god
Franz I knew his wife's mind well, and he was crowned empress. When he became the "emperor of the hands", he did not ask about state affairs and concentrated on the study of currency and precious stones.
Prussia withdrew from the war, and the throne was established, but the war dragged on for another three years. France, Austria, Italy, Sibán and Russia fought each other. In the end, all the belligerents were tired of financial exhaustion, so between October and November 1748, representatives of the participating countries gathered in Aachen to sign a general contract ending the war of the Austrian succession, the Treaty of Aachen. The contract recognized the throne of Franz I, stipulated that France would return the Netherlands to Austria, that Austria would cede certain possessions in Italy to Spain and Sardinia, and that Prussia would be in Silesia. The Habsburgs sacrificed their territories in exchange for the recognition of their succession to the throne.
The Great Powers temporarily truce the war, and the people recuperate themselves to recharge for the larger seven-year battle eight years later, and to replenish the troops needed for the next competition.
Theresia's coffin
In 1740, when Theresia first ascended to the throne, the Habsburgs were in a precarious situation, in danger of being destroyed, and after the end of the war of Theresia's efforts and struggles, they finally survived as a great power, and the Habsburgs regained control of the traditional foundations of their authority. The Queen has proven that she is a great ruler.
After the war, Theresia was determined to turn the tide, and he carried out radical reforms at home, imitating Frederick of Prussia in implementing an "enlightened monarchy". Theresia's reforms were comprehensive and productive. Queen Maria Theresia revived and revitalized the ancient Habsburg dynasty and laid the foundation for the Grand Duchy of Austria to become the modern state of the Austrian Empire.