Editing Maria Theresa (section)

==Reforms==
[[File:Maria Theresia11.jpg|thumb|left|Maria Theresa in 1762, by [[Jean-Étienne Liotard]]]]

===Institutional===
Maria Theresa was as conservative in matters of state as in those of religion, but she implemented significant reforms to strengthen Austria's military and bureaucratic efficiency.{{sfn|Byrne|1997|p=38}} She employed [[Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz]], who modernised the empire by creating a [[Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Emperor|standing army]] of 108,000 men, paid for with 14 million [[Austro-Hungarian florin|florins]] extracted from crown lands. The central government was responsible for funding the army, although Haugwitz instituted taxation of the nobility, who had never before had to pay taxes.{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=192}} Moreover, after Haugwitz was appointed the head of the new central administrative agency, dubbed the Directory, (''Directorium in publicis et cameralibus'') in 1749, he initiated a radical centralization of state institutions down to the level of the District Office (''Kreisamt'').{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=88}} Thanks to this effort, by 1760 there was a class of government officials numbering around 10,000. However, the Duchy of Milan, the Austrian Netherlands and Hungary were almost completely untouched by this reform.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=88}} In the case of Hungary, Maria Theresa was particularly mindful of her promise that she would respect the privileges in the kingdom, including the immunity of nobles from taxation.{{sfn|Berenger|2014|p=86}}

In light of the failure to reclaim Silesia during the Seven Years' War, the governing system was once again reformed to strengthen the state.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=89}} The Directory was transformed into the United Austrian and Bohemian Chancellery in 1761, which was equipped with a separate, independent judiciary and separate financial bodies.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=89}} She also refounded the ''Hofkammer'' in 1762, which was a ministry of finances that controlled all revenues from the monarchy. In addition to this, the ''Hofrechenskammer'', or exchequer, was tasked with the handling of all financial accounts.{{sfn|Berenger|2014|p=85}} Meanwhile, in 1760, Maria Theresa created the Council of State (''Staatsrat''), composed of the state chancellor, three members of the high nobility and three knights, which served as a committee of experienced people who advised her. The council of state lacked executive or legislative authority; nevertheless, it showed the difference between the form of government employed by Maria Theresa and that of Frederick II of Prussia. Unlike the latter, Maria Theresa was not an autocrat who acted as her own minister. Prussia would adopt this form of government only after 1807.{{sfn|Holborn|1982|pp=221–222}}
[[File:Martin van Meytens 016.jpg|thumb|240px|The imperial court of Maria Theresa at the [[Hofburg]] in Vienna]]
Maria Theresa doubled the state revenue from 20 to 40 million florins between 1754 and 1764, though her attempt to tax clergy and nobility was only partially successful.{{sfn|Byrne|1997|p=38}}{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=195}} These financial reforms greatly improved the economy.{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=196}} After Kaunitz became the head of the new ''Staatsrat'', he pursued a policy of "aristocratic enlightenment" that relied on persuasion to interact with the estates, and he was also willing to retract some of Haugwitz's centralization to curry favour with them. Nonetheless, the governing system remained centralised, and a strong institution made it possible for Kaunitz to increase state revenues substantially. In 1775, the Habsburg monarchy achieved its first balanced budget, and by 1780, the Habsburg state revenue had reached 50 million florins.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=90}}

===Medicine===
<!-- [[File:MariaTheresia Maske.jpg|thumb|right|Maria Theresa holding a [[theatre mask]] (1744), by [[Martin van Meytens]]. She regarded the theatre as a source of amusement and national pride and insisted upon observing special rules to achieve a high moral tone.<ref>Morris, 92–93.</ref>]] -->

After Maria Theresa recruited [[Gerard van Swieten]] from the Netherlands, he also employed a fellow Dutchman named [[Anton de Haen]], who founded the Viennese Medicine School (''Wiener Medizinische Schule'').{{sfn|Vocelka|2009|p=160}} Maria Theresa also banned the creation of new burial grounds without prior government permission, thus countering wasteful and unhygienic burial customs.{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=310}}

After the [[smallpox]] epidemic of 1767, she promoted [[variolation|inoculation]], which she had learned of through her correspondence with [[Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria|Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony]] (who in turn probably knew of it through her own correspondence with Frederick the Great). After unsuccessfully inviting the Sutton brothers from England to introduce their technique in Austria, Maria Theresa obtained information on current practices of smallpox inoculation in England. She overrode the objections of [[Gerard van Swieten]] (who doubted the effectiveness of the technique), and ordered that it be tried on thirty-four newborn orphans and sixty-seven orphans between the ages of five and fourteen years. The trial was successful, establishing that inoculation was effective in protecting against smallpox, and safe (in the case of the test subjects). The Empress therefore ordered the construction of an inoculation centre, and had herself and two of her children inoculated. She promoted inoculation in Austria by hosting a dinner for the first sixty-five inoculated children in [[Schönbrunn Palace]], waiting on the children herself. Maria Theresa was responsible for changing Austrian physicians' negative view of inoculation.{{sfn|Hopkins|2002|pp=64–65}}{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=504–515}}

In 1770, she enacted a strict regulation of the sale of poisons, and apothecaries were obliged to keep a poison register recording the quantity and circumstances of every sale. If someone unknown tried to purchase a poison, that person had to provide two character witnesses before a sale could be effectuated. Three years later, she prohibited the use of [[lead]] in any eating or drinking vessels; the only permitted material for this purpose was pure [[tin]].{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=309}}

===Law===
{{Quote box|align=right|width=30em|She is most unusually ambitious and hopes to make the House of Austria more renowned than it has ever been.|Prussian ambassador's letter to [[Frederick II of Prussia]]{{sfn|Mahan|1932|p=230}}}}

The centralization of the Habsburg government necessitated the creation of a unified legal system. Previously, various lands in the Habsburg realm had their own laws. These laws were compiled and the resulting ''Codex Theresianus'' could be used as a basis for legal unification.{{sfn|Vocelka|2009|pp=157–158}} In 1769, the ''[[Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana]]'' was published, and this was a codification of the traditional criminal justice system since the Middle Ages. This criminal code allowed the possibility of establishing the truth through [[torture]], and it also criminalised witchcraft and various religious offenses. Although this law came into force in Austria and Bohemia, it was not valid in Hungary.{{sfn|Vocelka|2009|p=158}}

Maria Theresa is credited, however, in ending the witch hunts in [[Zagreb]], opposing the methods used against [[Magda Logomer]] (also called Herrucina), who was the last prosecuted witch in Zagreb following her intervention.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kern|first=Edmund M.|date=January 1999|title=An End to Witch Trials in Austria: Reconsidering the Enlightened State|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/austrian-history-yearbook/article/abs/an-end-to-witch-trials-in-austria-reconsidering-the-enlightened-state/92DA384B3EE7A60D470EB2706A05529C|journal=Austrian History Yearbook|language=en|volume=30|pages=159–185|doi=10.1017/S006723780001599X|pmid=21180204 |issn=1558-5255}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Balog|first=Zdenko|date=1 February 2017|title=Magda Logomer Herucina|url=https://www.academia.edu/31623821|journal=Cris XVIII}}</ref>

She was particularly concerned with the sexual morality of her subjects. Thus, she established a Chastity Commission (''Keuschheitskommission'') in 1752{{sfn|Brandstätter|1986|p=163}} to clamp down on prostitution, [[homosexuality]], [[adultery]] and even sex between members of different religions.<ref name="dw">{{cite web |url=https://www.dw.com/en/what-made-austrias-maria-theresa-a-one-of-a-kind-ruler/a-37935974|title=What made Austria's Maria Theresa a one-of-a-kind ruler|first=Klaus|last=Krämer |date= 15 March 2017|publisher=Deutsche Welle|access-date= 2 December 2018}}</ref> This Commission cooperated closely with the police, and the Commission even employed secret agents to investigate private lives of men and women with bad reputation.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1936|pp=167–168}} They were authorised to raid banquets, clubs, and private gatherings, and to arrest those suspected of violating social norms.{{sfn|Mahan|1932|p=242}} The punishments included whipping, deportation, or even the [[death penalty]].<ref name="dw"/>

In 1776, Austria outlawed torture, at the particular behest of Joseph II. Much unlike Joseph, but with the support of religious authorities, Maria Theresa was opposed to the abolition of torture. Born and raised between [[Baroque]] and [[Rococo]] eras, she found it difficult to fit into the intellectual sphere of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], which is why she only slowly followed humanitarian reforms on the continent.{{sfn|Kann|1980|p=179}}

From an institutional perspective, in 1749, she founded the Supreme Judiciary as a court of final appeal for all hereditary lands.{{sfn|Berenger|2014|p=85}}

===Education===
Throughout her reign, Maria Theresa made the promotion of education a priority. Initially this was focused on the wealthier classes. She permitted non-Catholics to attend university and allowed the introduction of secular subjects (such as law), which influenced the decline of [[theology]] as the main foundation of university education.{{sfn|Byrne|1997|p=38}} Furthermore, educational institutions were created to prepare officials for work in the state bureaucracy: the [[Theresianum]] was established in Vienna in 1746 to educate nobles' sons, a military school named the [[Theresian Military Academy]] was founded in [[Wiener Neustadt]] in 1751, and an [[K.k. Akademie für Orientalische Sprachen|Oriental Academy]] for future diplomats was created in 1754.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=91}}

In the 1770s, reform of the schooling system for all levels of society became a major policy. Stollberg-Rilinger notes that the reform of the primary schools in particular was the most long-lasting success of Maria Theresa's later reign, and one of the few policy agendas in which she was not in open conflict with her son and nominal co-ruler Joseph II.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=714}} The need for the reform became evident after the census of 1770–1771, which revealed the widespread illiteracy of the populace. Maria Theresa thereupon wrote to her rival Frederick II of Prussia to request him to allow the Silesian school reformer [[Johann Ignaz von Felbiger]] to move to Austria. Felbiger's first proposals were made law by December 1774.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=708f}} Austrian historian Karl Vocelka observed that the educational reforms enacted by Maria Theresa were "really founded on [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] ideas," although the ulterior motive was still to "meet the needs of an absolutist state, as an increasingly sophisticated and complicated society and economy required new administrators, officers, diplomats and specialists in virtually every area."{{sfn|Vocelka|2000|p=200}}

Maria Theresa's reform established secular primary schools, which children of both sexes from the ages of six to twelve were required to attend.{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=308}}{{sfn|Vocelka|2000|p=200}} The curriculum focused on social responsibility, social discipline, work ethic and the use of reason rather than mere [[rote learning]].{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=92}} Education was to be multilingual; children were to be instructed first in their mother tongue and then in later years in German.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=710}} Prizes were given to the most able students to encourage ability. Attention was also given to raising the status and pay of teachers, who were forbidden to take on outside employment. Teacher training colleges were established to train teachers in the latest techniques.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=709}}

The education reform was met with considerable opposition. Predictably, some of this came from peasants who wanted the children to work in the fields instead.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=92}} Maria Theresa crushed the dissent by ordering the arrest of all those opposed.{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=308}} However, much of the opposition came from the imperial court, particularly amongst aristocrats who saw their power threatened by the reformers or those who feared that that greater literacy would expose the population to Protestant or Enlightenment ideas. Felbiger's reforms were nevertheless pushed through, as a result of the consistent support of Maria Theresa and her minister Franz Sales Greiner.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=712–714.}} The reform of the primary schools largely met Maria Theresa's aim of raising literacy standards, as evidenced by the higher proportions of children who attended school; this was particularly the case in the Archdiocese of Vienna, where school attendance increased from 40% in 1780 to a sensational 94% by 1807.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=714}} Nevertheless, high rates of illiteracy persisted in some parts of Austria, half of the population was illiterate well into the 19th century,{{sfn|Vocelka|2000|p=200}} The teacher training colleges (in particular the Vienna Normal School) produced hundreds of new teachers who spread the new system over the following decades. However, the number of secondary schools decreased, since the quantity of new schools founded failed to make up for the numbers of Jesuit schools abolished. As a result, secondary schooling became more exclusive.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=713f}}

===Censorship===
Her regime was also known for institutionalising censorship of publications and learning. English author Sir [[Nathaniel Wraxall]] once wrote from Vienna: "[T]he injudicious bigotry of the Empress may chiefly be attributed the deficiency [in learning]. It is hardly credible how many books and productions of every species, and in every language, are proscribed by her. Not only [[Voltaire]] and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau|Rousseau]] are included in the list, from the immoral tendency or licentious nature of their writings; but many authors whom we consider as unexceptionable or harmless, experience a similar treatment."{{sfn|Goldsmith|1936|p=138}} The censorship particularly affected works that were deemed to be against the Catholic religion. Ironically, for this purpose, she was aided by Gerard van Swieten who was considered to be an "enlightened" man.{{sfn|Goldsmith|1936|p=138}}

===Economy===
[[File:MariaTheresia Talero-Anverso001.jpg|thumb|left|Maria Theresa depicted on [[Maria Theresa thaler|her Thaler]]]]

Maria Theresa endeavoured to increase the living standards and quality of life of the people, since she could see a causal link between peasant living standards, productivity and state revenue.{{sfn|Ingrao|2000|p=188}} The Habsburg government under her rule also tried to strengthen its industry through government interventions. After the loss of Silesia, they implemented subsidies and trade barriers to encourage the move of Silesian textile industry to northern Bohemia. In addition, they cut back [[guild]] privileges, and internal duties on trade were either reformed or removed (such as the case for the Austrian-Bohemian lands in 1775).{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=92}}

In the late part of her reign, Maria Theresa undertook reform of the system of [[serfdom]], which was the basis for agriculture in eastern parts of her lands (particularly Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary and Galicia). Although Maria Theresa had initially been reluctant to meddle in such affairs, government interventions were made possible by the perceived need for economic power and the emergence of a functioning bureaucracy.{{sfn|Beller|2006|p=93}} The census of 1770–1771 gave the peasants opportunity to express their grievances directly to the royal commissioners and made evident to Maria Theresa the extent to which their poverty was the result of the extreme demands for forced labour (called "''robota''" in Czech) by the landlords. On some estates, the landlords demanded that the peasants work up to seven days per week in tilling the nobles' land, so that the only time available for the peasants to till their own land was at night.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=726–728}}

An additional prompt to reform was the famine which afflicted the empire in the early 1770s. Bohemia was particularly hard hit. Maria Theresa was increasingly influenced by the reformers Franz Anton von Blanc and Tobias Philipp von Gebler, who called for radical changes to the serf system to allow the peasants to make a living.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=728f}} In 1771–1778, Maria Theresa issued a series of "[[Robot Patent]]s" (i.e. regulations regarding forced labour), which regulated and restricted peasant labour only in the German and Bohemian parts of the realm. The goal was to ensure that peasants not only could support themselves and their family members, but also help cover the national expenditure in peace or war.<ref name="britannicarobot">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Robotpatent|title=Robotpatent|author=<!--Not stated--> |encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date= 28 November 2018}}</ref>

By late 1772, Maria Theresa had decided on more radical reform. In 1773, she entrusted her minister [[Franz Anton von Raab]] with a model project on the crown lands in Bohemia: he was tasked to divide up the large estates into small farms, convert the forced labour contracts into leases, and enable the farmers to pass the leaseholds onto their children. Raab pushed the project through so successfully that his name was identified with the program, which became known as ''Raabisation''. After the success of the program on the crown lands, Maria Theresa had it also implemented on the former Jesuit lands, as well as crown lands in other parts of her empire.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=726–731}}

However, Maria Theresa's attempts to extend the Raab system to the great estates belonging to the Bohemian nobles were fiercely resisted by the nobles. They claimed that the crown had no right to interfere with the serf system, since the nobles were the original owners of the land and had allowed the peasants to work it on stipulated conditions. The nobles also claimed that the system of forced labour had no connection with the peasants' poverty, which was a result of the peasants' own wastefulness and the increased royal taxes. Somewhat surprisingly, the nobles were supported by Maria Theresa's son and co-ruler Joseph II, who had earlier called for the abolition of serfdom.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=731–733}} In a letter to his brother [[Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor|Leopold]], of 1775, Joseph complained that his mother intended to "abolish serfdom entirely and arbitrarily destroy the centuries-old property relations." He complained that "no consideration was being taken for the landlords, who were threatened with the loss of more than half their income. For many of them, who are carrying debts, this would mean financial ruin."{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=739}} By 1776, the court was polarized: on one side was a small reform party (including Maria Theresa, Raab, Blanc, Gebler and Greiner); on the conservative side were Joseph and the rest of the court.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=739}} Joseph argued that it was difficult to find a middle way between the interests of the peasants and nobles; he suggested instead that the peasants negotiate with their landlords to reach an outcome.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=739.}} Joseph's biographer Derek Beales calls this change of course "puzzling".{{sfn|Beales|1987|p=346}} In the ensuing struggle, Joseph forced Blanc to leave the court. Because of the opposition, Maria Theresa was unable to carry out the planned reform and had to settle on a compromise.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=740–742}} The system of serfdom was only abolished after Maria Theresa's death, in the [[Serfdom Patent (1781)]] issued (in another change of course) by Joseph II as sole ruler.<ref name="britannicarobot"/>