Hapsburg-Lorraine Line of Rulers.—With the death of Charles VI., in 1740, the male line of the Hapsburgs became extinct, and his daughter, Maria Theresa, who was married to the duke of Lorraine, assumed the government. For many years it had been the aim of Charles to secure the adhesion of the European powers to the Pragmatic Sanction, by which the possessions of the Austrian crown should pass to Maria Theresa. Those powers during his lifetime had promised to second his wishes, but he was no sooner in his grave than nearly all of them sought to profit by the accession of a female sovereign.
War of the Austrian Succession.—A great war arose, in which England alone sided with Maria. Frederick II. of Prussia conquered Silesia. The Elector of Bavaria was crowned king of Bohemia, and elected emperor as Charles VII. in 1742. The Hungarians, however, stood by their heroic queen, who was soon able to wage a fairly successful war against her numerous foes. At the death of the empress in 1780, the monarchy had an extent of two hundred and thirty-four thousand square miles, with a population of twenty-four millions. The administration of Maria Theresa was distinguished by unwonted unity and vigor, both in home and foreign affairs.
Her successor, Joseph II., was an active reformer in the spirit of the enlightened despotism of the times, though often rash and violent in his mode of proceeding. He was succeeded in the government by his brother, the grandduke of Tuscany—as German emperor, Leopold II.—who succeeded in pacifying the Netherlands and Hungary.
Austria and the French Revolution.—At the outbreak of the revolution in France the fate of Leopold’s sister, Marie Antoinette, and her husband, Louis XVI. of France, led him to an alliance with Prussia against France; but he died in 1792 before the war broke out. War was declared by France on his son, Francis II., the same year, and by the treaty of Campo Formio, 1797, Austria lost Lombardy and the Netherlands, receiving in lieu the Venetian territory.
In 1795, at the second partition of Poland, it had been augmented by western Galicia.
Francis, in alliance with Russia, renewed the war with France in 1799, which was ended by the peace of Lunéville. It is needless to follow all the alterations of boundary that the Austrian dominions underwent during these wars. The most serious was at the peace of Vienna (1809), which cost Austria forty-two thousand square miles of territory. It was in 1804, when Napoleon had been proclaimed emperor of France, that Francis declared himself hereditary emperor of Austria as Francis I. On the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine, he laid down the dignity of German emperor, which his family had held for nearly four hundred years.
The humiliating peace of Vienna was followed (1809) by the marriage of Napoleon with the Archduchess Maria Louisa, and in 1812 Austria figured as the ally of Napoleon in his great campaign against Russia, but she did not give much active assistance. In August of the following year Austria joined the grand alliance against France and the Austrian general, Schwarzenberg, was entrusted with the chief command of the allied forces, which at the battle of Leipzig and in the campaign of 1814 broke the power of Napoleon.
Congress of Vienna and Subsequent Period of Metternich.—The sacrifices and great services rendered by Austria in the gigantic struggle received full consideration at the treaty of Vienna (1815). As recompense for the loss of the Netherlands she received Venice and Dalmatia, which afforded an outlet for her foreign trade.
After that time Austria, under the diplomatic guidance of Prince Metternich, exerted a powerful influence in European politics generally, and more especially in the German Confederation, of which her emperor was president. The death of Francis I. in 1835 made little alteration in the policy of Austria; Ferdinand I. trod in his father’s footsteps. The political alliance with Russia and Prussia was drawn closer by a personal conference of the emperor with Nicholas I. and Frederick-William III. at Teplitz in 1835.
Revolution of 1848.—In Austria, after the fall of Metternich from power, the revolutionary period of 1848-1849 was one of exceptional severity, the movement for constitutional freedom being complicated by the revival of the national spirit in Hungary, Italy and Bohemia. The time was everywhere ripe for revolt, when the fall of Louis-Philippe of France (February 24, 1848), gave the signal for the outbreak of the revolutionary elements all over Europe. Nowhere was the spirit of change stronger than in Vienna, which for many months became a scene of confusion.