AUSTRIA. 



349 



Sardinia. The duchy of Mantua, occupied by Joseph 

 in 170S, was now made an Austrian fief, because it 

 had formed an alliance with France, prejudicial to 

 the interests of Germany. This monarchy now em- 

 braced 191,621 square miles, and nearly 29 million 

 inhabitants. Its annual income was between thirteen 

 and fourteen million florins, and its army consisted 

 of 150,000 men ; but its power was weakened by 

 new wars with Spain and France. In the peace con- 

 cluded at Vienna, 1735 and 1738, Charles VI. was 

 forced to cede Naples and Sicily to Don Carlos, the 

 infant of Spain, and to the king of Sardinia a part of 

 Milan, for which he received only a part of Parnia and 

 Piacenza. In the next year, by the peace of Bel- 

 .grade, he lost nearly all the fruits of Eugene's victo- 

 ries, even the province of Temeswar ; for he was 

 obliged to transfer to the Porte Belgrade, Servia, and 

 all the possessions of Austria in \Vallachia, Orsova, 

 and Bosnia. All this Charles VI. willingly acceded 

 to, in order to secure the succession to his daughter, 

 Maria Thereza, by the Pragmatic sanction. This 

 law of inheritance was passed 1713-1719, and ac- 

 knowledged one after another by all the European 

 powers. 



History of Austria under the House of Hapsburg- 

 Lorraine.l. From 1740 to 1790. By the death of 

 Charles VI. Oct. 20, 1740, the male line of the Au- 

 strian house of Hapsburg became extinct ; and Ma- 

 ria Theresa (q. v.) having married Stephen, duke of 

 Lorraine, ascended the Austrian throne. On every 

 side her claims were disputed, and rival claims set 

 up. A violent war began, in which she had no pro- 

 tector but Britain. Frederic II. of Prussia subdued 

 Silesia ; the elector of Bavaria was crowned in Lintz 

 and Prague, and, in 1742, chosen emperor, under the 

 name ol Charles VII. Hungary alone supported 

 the heroic and beautiful queen. But, in the peace 

 of Breslau, concluded June 4, 1742, she was obliged 

 to cede to Prussia Silesia and Glatz, with the excep- 

 tion of Teschen, Jagerndorf, and Troppau. Frederic 

 II., by assisting the party of Charles VII., soon re- 

 newed the war. But Charles died Jan. 20, 1745, 

 and the husband of Theresa was crowned emperor of 

 Germany under the title of Francis I. A second 

 treaty of peace, concluded December 25, 1745, con- 

 firmed to Frederic the possession of Silesia. By the 

 peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, Oct. 18, 1748, Austria was 

 obliged to cede the duchies of Parnia, Piacenza, and 

 Guastalla to Philip, infant of Spain, and several dis- 

 tricts of Milan to Sardinia. The Austrian monarchy 

 was now firmly established ; and it was the first wish 

 of Maria Theresa to recover Silesia. With this ob- 

 ject in view, she formed an alliance with France, 

 Russia, Saxony, and Sweden. This was the origin of 

 the seven years' war ; but, by the peace of Huberts- 

 berg, 1763, Prussia retained Silesia, and Austria had 

 sacrificed her blood and treasure in vain. The 

 first paper money was now issued in Austria, called 

 state obligations, and the emperor Francis erected a 

 bunk to exchange them. After his death, August 

 18, 1765, Joseph II., his eldest son, was appointed 

 colleague with his mother in the government of his 

 hereditary states, and elected emperor of Germany. 

 To prevent the extinction of the male line of her 

 family, Maria Theresa now established two collateral 

 lines ; the house of Tuscany, in her second son, Peter 

 Leopold ; and the house of ESte, in the person of the 

 archduke Ferdinand. For these separations, Maria 

 Theresa indemnified the country by the confiscation 

 of several cities, formerly pledged to Poland by Hun- 

 gary, without paying the sum for which they stood 

 pledged ; by obtaining Galicia and Lodomiria in the 

 first profligate division of the kingdom of Poland, in 

 1772 ; and by the capture of Bukowino, which was 

 ceded by the Porte, in 1777. In the peace of Tes- 



chen, May 13, 1779, Austria received Innviertel, tnd 

 the vacant county of Hohenembs in Suabia, the 

 county of Falkenstein, and the Suabian territories oi 

 Tettnang and Argen ; and thus, at the death of the 

 empress, Nov. 28, 1780, Austria contained 234,684 

 square miles : it had lost 10,366 square miles, and 

 gained 34,301. The population was estimated at 24 

 millions ; but the public debt, also, had increased to 

 160 million florins. The administration of the em- 

 press was distinguished by the most useful institutions 

 of government, agriculture, trade, and commerce, the 

 education of the people, the promotion of the arts and 

 sciences, and of religion. The foreign relations of 

 the kingdom, also, even those with the Roman court, 

 were happily conducted by the talents of her minister, 

 Kaunitz. (q. v.) Her successor, Joseph II. (q. v.), 

 was active and restless ; impartial, but too often rash 

 and violent. While a colleague with his mother in 

 the government, he diminished the expenses of the 

 state, and introduced a new system in the payment of 

 pensions and of officers. But, after the death of his 

 mother, all his activity and talent as a sovereign was 

 fully developed. As severe to the military as to the 

 civil officers, he adhered, however, to liberal princi- 

 ples. The censorship of the press was reformed ; the 

 Protestants received full toleration, and the rights of 

 citizens ; the Jews were treated with kindness ; 900 

 convents and religious establishments were abolished, 

 and even the visit of Pius VI. made no alteration in 

 Joseph's system of reformation. The system of edu- 

 cation he subjected to revision and improvement ; and 

 he encouraged manufactures by heavy duties on 

 foreign goods. But his zeal excited the opposition of 

 the enemies of improvement. The Low Countries 

 revolted, and his vexation probably led him to attempt 

 the exchange of the Netherlands, under the title of 

 the kingdom of dustrasia, for the palatinate of Ba- 

 varia, under an elector. But the project was frus- 

 trated by the constancy and firmness of the next 

 agnate, the duke of Deux-Ponts, and by the German 

 league, concluded by Frederic II. Joseph was equally 

 unsuccessful in the war of 1788 against the Porte. 

 His exertions in the field destroyed his health ; and 

 grief at the rebellious disposition of his hereditary 

 states accelerated his death, which happened Feb. 10, 

 1790. 



II. From 1790 to 1815. Joseph II. was succeeded 

 by his eldest brother, Leopold II. (q. v.), formerly 

 grand duke of Tuscany. By his moderation and firm- 

 ness, he quelled the turbulent spirit of the Nether- 

 lands, and restored tranquillity to Hungary. The 

 treaty of Reichenbach, witli Prussia, July 27, 1790, 

 and the treaty of Sistova, Aug. 4, 1791, led to a peace 

 with the Porte. The unhappy fate of his sister and 

 her husband, Louis XVI. of France, induced him to 

 form an alliance with Prussia ; but lie died March 1, 

 1792, before the revolutionary war broke out. Soon 

 after the accession of his son, Francis II., to the 

 throne, and before the 14th of July, 1792, when he 

 was elected German emperor, France declared war 

 against him, as king of Hungary and Bohemia. (See 

 France.) In the first articles of peace, dated at 

 Campo-Formio, Oct. 17, 1797, Austria lost Lombardy 

 and the Netherlands, and received, as a compensation, 

 the largest part of the Venetian territory; two years 

 previous, in 1795, in the third division of Poland, the 

 Austrian dominions had been enlarged by the addition 

 of West Galicia. In the beginning of the year 1799, 

 the emperor Francis, in alliance with Russia, renewed 

 the war with France. But Napoleon extorted the 

 peace of Luneville, Feb. 9, 1801, and Francis acced- 

 ed to it, without the consent of Britain. By the 

 conditions of the treaty, he was to cede the county of 

 Falkenstein and the Fricktlial. Ferdinand, grand 

 duke of Tuscany, at the same time, renounced hig 



