In the early 18th century, Europe entered the Enlightenment period, and the spirit of critical and inquiring began to spread. By the middle of the 18th century, the Enlightenment had reached a stage of maturity, and the critical spirit had inspired new ideas about the rational reconstruction of social and political life: secularism and humanity of reason, happiness, and freedom, replacing intolerance, irrationality, and despotism.
Enlightenment
As the Enlightenment spread across all sectors of society, there was widespread agreement in Europe that the development toward individual and civil liberties required the state to be governed according to the social contract and the natural laws of reason, although the leading philosophers of the time disagreed on the form in which the state should take.
But on Habsburg territory, the Catholic tenets of the Counter-Reformation fostered a "bizarre" environment that was clearly alien to progressive society, and kept the development and reform process of the Habsburg territories under the control of absolutist rulers.
Although the autocratic rulers of the Habsburg dynasty also tended to create a rational and orderly state, this "enlightened absolutism" "from above" was still diametrically opposed to the freedom and democracy "from the revolution below", and thus the Habsburg territory entered the era of Maria Theresa's reign and the subsequent period of "enlightened autocracy......
Scramble for Bohemia
In October 1740, 23-year-old Maria Theresa inherited the throne of her father Charles VI, who was originally a woman and did not have the crown at all, but the far-sighted Charles VI had early education that there was no male inheritance in the family after his death, so he issued a state edict of 1713 as early as possible, forcing the princes and princes in the territory to sign and recognize.
Maria Theresa
In this way, Maria Theresa began to rule the family domain as a female member of the Habsburg family. Growing up in the Baroque court, Maria Theresa was extremely devout in the Roman Catholic faith, but unfamiliar with the philosophical works of the Enlightenment.
However, as mentioned earlier, the general trend of Enlightenment thought forced even the recalcitrant Catholic autocracy to consider new social changes, so the realities of war and statecraft began to stimulate Maria to carry out reforms guided by the spirit of "enlightened absolutism".
Enlightened absolutism
The ultimate goal of the reforms under the influence of the Enlightenment was to create a more well-organized state and economic system as a means of facing external threats and internal problems. But in the process, Maria Theresa faced a direct challenge from Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria and son-in-law of Holy Roman Emperor and King Joseph I of Bohemia.
As early as 1713, Charles Albert refused to accept the Edict of State and claimed Austria and the Czech Republic for himself, and for this purpose he concluded an alliance with France in 1741. Later, King Frederick II of Prussia (i.e., Frederick the Great) also tried to seize the rich regions of Austrian Silesia and parts of southwestern Bohemia, which is known as the "War of the Austrian Succession".
Frederick II
The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) included the struggle for Austria, Czech territories, Italy, and the Austrian Netherlands, as well as hostilities between Britain and France in North America and other overseas territories. Together with Saxony's claims to Moravia and Upper Silesia, the claims of Bavaria and Prussia almost succeeded in dividing the territories of the Czech crown.
As a result, Charles Albert invaded Bohemia and marched into Prague in May 1741, where most of the Bohemian political blocs chose to recognize him as King of Bohemia. Maria Theresa, on the other hand, won the St. Stephen's crown in Hungary and asked for help from the Hungarians, eventually driving out Charles Albert.
Charlie Albert
In 1742, a reluctant Charles Albert left the Bohemian capital to attend his coronation as Holy Roman Emperor. The following year, however, a successful offensive by Maria Theresa's army drove the Bavarians and their French allies out of Bohemia.
Maria Theresa
Subsequently, Maria Theresa accepted the Bohemian throne in May 1743 at the church of St. Vitus. After the death of Charles Albert in 1745, Maria Theresa, unable to qualify for the imperial throne as a woman, managed to get her husband to vote for the imperial throne and become Holy Roman Emperor Franz I!
War of the Austrian Succession
The year 1740 was a year of crisis in Austrian history, as Maria Theresa had just succeeded to the throne, and the entire Austrian Habsburg treasury was empty, plague was rampant, and the army was demoralized. The European powers and the German princes regarded Teresa as weak and deceitful, and took the opportunity to carry out conspiracy activities to seize territory.
Maria Theresa
King Frederick II of Prussia then went to war against Austria. France, Bavaria, Saxony, Spain and other countries ignored the Edict of the Nation, refused to recognize Teresa's right to inherit the throne, and elected Albrecht (i.e., Charles Albert) as the heir to the Habsburg throne as the son-in-law of Joseph I.
For a time, the young Maria Theresa was left alone on all sides, and when the country was in danger, Teresa began to use her extraordinary talents to gradually become a prominent ruler. At only 23 years old, she solemnly declared: "Although I am a poor empress, I have a man's heart!"
Maria Theresa
First of all, Teresa arranged for her husband Franz to take charge of the court, retaining the politicians Baltenstein and Starheimberg as ministers to make up for her lack of experience in governing the country, and at the same time tried to ease internal contradictions.
At the Council of Brestburg on September 11, 1740, Teresa dressed up in the elaborate Hungarian national costume and presented her young eldest son, Joseph, to the Hungarian nobles, asking them to defend the future Hungarian king. Then the young new Queen of Hungary gave an impassioned speech:
"The survival of the Kingdom of Hungary is at its most dangerous! Our people, our children, our kings are at stake! O Hungarian people, abandoned by the whole world, our only weapons are our loyalty, our own army, and our time-tested heroic ....... ”
It was only after Maria Theresa made huge political concessions to the Hungarian nobility that these Hungarian nobles provided 50,000 troops. On June 25, 1741, Theresa was officially crowned Queen of Hungary in Brestsburg. Teresa then quickly took control of the situation in the country.
Maria Theresa
In terms of foreign policy, Austria allied itself with Russia and Great Britain, and secured a loan of 300,000 pounds from Great Britain, which temporarily coped with the urgent needs of the war in the face of extreme financial scarcity. In July 1742, by signing the Peace of Brestburg, she recognized Prussia's military occupation of most of the Duchy of Silesia and Graz, temporarily withdrawing Prussia from the anti-Austrian united front.
And Bohemia, which was occupied by Bavaria and France, later also announced military assistance to Teresa. On May 12, 1743, Teresa was crowned Queen of Bohemia in Prague. In this way, Teresa turned the tide of the war, and in 1742 the army from Hungary began to turn to a counteroffensive on the Western Front. French and Bavarian troops were driven out of Austria.
In January 1745, Charles VII (also known as Charles Albert) died in exile. This turn of events opened the way to peace. Theresa forced Charles VII's son, Maximilian III, to sign the Peace of Foshing, relinquishing his claim to the Habsburg throne in exchange for the return of his dominion to Bavaria.
Charles VII
On October 4 of the same year, the majority of the German electors recognized Theresa's right to inherit the throne and elected her husband Franz as emperor of the "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation", called Franz I. On 25 December, Friedrich II also announced the recognition of Franz Stefan to the throne.
Franz Stefan
Since then, Austria has negotiated peace with other countries. The Treaty of Dresden in December 1745 and the Peace of Aachen in October 1748 marked the end of the eight-year-long War of the Austrian Succession.
Although Teresa eventually lost most of its most economically developed provinces, Silesia, and its textile and metallurgical resources, she managed to maintain most of the territory of Charles VI's time and secure the re-election of the Habsburgs (or Habsburg-Lorraine after Theresa and Franz) to the Holy Roman Empire for more than 300 years.
House of Habsburg-Lorraine
And for Maria Theresa and her ministers, the war clearly demonstrated the military superiority of Prussia over the Austrians. Her response was to begin a process of reorganization and centralization in Austrian and Czech territories in order to modernize and strengthen the Habsburg administration and military institutions.
As a result of the aid given to Maria Theresa during the war, the Hungarians benefited from the fact that although they were encouraged to increase agricultural production, they were ultimately spared the centralization that took place elsewhere. And this was a key factor in the development of the Habsburgs' eastern and western territories before the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a dual monarchy in 1867.
The dawn of reform
The loss of Silesia drove Maria Theresa and her ministers to accept measures to improve the country's financial situation and to encourage the industrialization of Bohemia to compensate for the loss of Silesian industrial products. By 1754, the population of the Czech crown continued to grow so that the number of inhabitants in Bohemia reached 2.1 million, compared to 900,000 in Moravia.
Maria Theresa
The integration of Bohemia and other multi-ethnic Habsburg territories into a centralized and well-governed State became the primary goal of Maria Theresa's policy, along with the promotion of economic growth and the creation of a more stable and efficient state fiscal system.
In 1749, Maria Theresa dismissed the separate post of Minister of Law of Bohemia and Austria, and subsequently introduced a common joint Minister of Justice of Bohemia and Austria and a new Supreme Court for judicial matters. In addition, in 1753, regional affairs were brought under more direct control from Vienna.
At this time, Habsburg officials also became salaried civil servants in the regional bureaucracy, rather than the traditional governing body composed of members of political groups. Ten years later, power in the secession of Bohemia and Moravia was transferred from the Czech political blocs to royal officials known as "gubernias", who were appointed by Vienna and granted tax and military authority.
The establishment of a customs union between Austria and the Czech territories in 1775 brought the two regions closer together economically and contributed to the further loss of the independence of the Kingdom of Bohemia. However, unresolved tensions and regional disputes led to the outbreak of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763).
Seven Years' War
The Prussian invasion of Austrian ally Saxony sparked a conflict, and the Prussians marched into northern Bohemia and laid siege to Prague in 1757, before Austrian counterattacks drove the Prussians out of the city and plunged them into a rout at the Battle of Kolin.
The combined Habsburg, French, and Russian forces defeated Frederick II in several battles in 1759 and 1760, although French support for Austria was diminished by the defeat of the British abroad, and dynastic struggles after Queen Elizabeth's death led to Russia's withdrawal from the fighting in 1762.
Frederick II
As a result, Maria Theresa was forced to reaffirm Prussian possession of Silesia in 1763, and the Habsburgs were reduced to the former Psemes territory: Bohemia, Moravia, and several principalities of Silesia.
After Maria Theresa's husband died in 1765, her son was chosen to succeed him as Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. Maria Theresa appointed Joseph co-regent of the Habsburg territory, though she was careful not to allow her son to usurp her power.
Joseph II
Unlike Maria Theresa, however, Joseph (coalition government 1765–1780; independent government 1780–1790) did not believe in the Catholic Church and embraced the science and philosophy of the Enlightenment, which he absorbed during his travels on the continent, during which he read the works of famous scholars and writers such as Voltaire, and met with major Enlightenment figures during his two sojourns in France.
Voltaire
Josephus himself held an enlightened belief that the state must be organized along a rational line in order for all elements of government and society to function in harmony for the benefit of an educated, healthy and capable people.
Joseph
The creation of an organized, centralized, prosperous and powerful state will undergo a process of bureaucratic modernization that will reorganize the main components of state and political life through practical reforms and guided by the spirit of Enlightenment rationalism!
However, due to the growth of the Habsburg national debt during the Seven Years' War, new social and fiscal measures were necessary to achieve financial health under Habsburgism. In Bohemia, the peasants continued to bear the burden of robota, and 70 per cent of their limited income was paid to the landlords, the church, and the state.
The widespread famine led to a tragic year of 1771: 500,000 people died in Bohemia, and the population was reduced by almost 12 per cent! After a private survey of the situation in Bohemia in 1771-1772, Joseph was deeply disturbed by what he had observed, and he set up a mission to ensure a more just distribution of the needs of the peasants and landlords.
Joseph II's reforms began in 1775 when a peasant revolt in northeastern Bohemia emphasized the need for rural reforms that would alleviate poverty in the countryside and avoid future social upheaval......
Joseph II
The Habsburg Empire, which included Hungary and Bohemia, thus entered the era of reform in its recent history, and although the "dark rule" of the Habsburgs continued, the dawn of national revival, national awakening and revolution in the Czech and Slovak countries had emerged......