Editing History of Austria (section)

=== Reform ===
[[File:MariaTheresiaFranzStephan.jpg|thumb|Francis I (1740–1765) with Maria Theresa (1740–1780).]]
Although Maria Theresa and her consort were Baroque absolutist conservatives, this was tempered by a pragmatic sense and they implemented a number of overdue reforms. Thus these reforms were pragmatic responses to the challenges faced by archduchy and empire, not ideologically framed in the [[Age of Enlightenment]] as seen by her successor, Joseph II.{{Sfn|Mutschlechner|2022}}

The collision with other theories of nation states and modernity obliged Austria to perform a delicate balancing act between accepting changing economic and social circumstances while rejecting their accompanying political change. The relative failure to deal with modernity produced major changes in Habsburg power and Austrian culture and society. One of the first challenges that Maria Theresa and her advisers faced was to restore the legitimacy and authority of the dynasty, although was slowly replaced by a need to establish the needs of State.

==== Governance and finance ====
Maria Theresa [[promulgation|promulgated]] financial and educational reforms, with the assistance of her advisers, notably [[Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz]] and [[Gerard van Swieten]]. Many reforms were in the interests of efficiency. Her financial reforms considerably improved the state finances, and notably introduced taxation of the nobility for the first time, and achieved a balanced budget by 1775. At an administrative level, under Haugwitz she centralised administration, previously left to the nobility and church, along Prussian models with a permanent civil service. Haugwitz was appointed head of the new ''Directorium in publicis und cameralibus'' in 1749. By 1760 it was clear this was not solving Austria's problems and further reform was required. [[Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg|Kaunitz]]' proposal for a consultative body was accepted by Maria Theresa. This [[Council of State]] was to be based on the French [[Conseil d'Etat (France)|Conseil d'État]] which believed that an absolutist monarch could still be guided by Enlightenment advisors. The council was inaugurated in January 1761, composed of Kaunitz the state chancellor, three members of the high nobility, including von Haugwitz as chair, and three knights, which served as a committee of experienced people who advised her. The council of state lacked executive or legislative authority. This marked Kaunitz' ascendency over von Haugwitz. The Directory was abolished and its functions absorbed into the new united Austrian and Bohemian chancelleries (''Böhmisch-Österreichische Hofkanzlei'') in 1761.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=cYdcr2h1aYYC Franz A. J. Szabo. ''Kaunitz and Enlightened Absolutism 1753–1780''. Cambridge University Press, 1994]. {{ISBN|0-5214-6690-3}}, 9780521466905</ref>

==== Education ====
While Von Haugwitz modernised the army and government, van Swieten reformed health care and education. Educational reform included that of [[Vienna University]] by Swieten from 1749, the founding of the [[Theresianum]] (1746) as a civil service academy as well as military and foreign service academies. An Education Commission was established in 1760 with a specific interest in replacing Jesuitical control, but it was the papal dissolution of the order in 1773 that accomplished this. The confiscation of their property enabled the next step. Aware of the inadequacy of bureaucracy in Austria and, in order to improve it, Maria Theresa and what was now referred to as the Party of Enlightenment radically overhauled the schools system. In the new system, based on the Prussian one, all children of both genders from the ages of 6 to 12 [[Compulsory education|had to attend school]], while teacher training schools were established. Education reform was met with hostility from many villages and the nobility to whom children represented labour. Maria Theresa crushed the dissent by ordering the arrest of all those opposed. Although the idea had merit, the reforms were not as successful as they were expected to be; in some parts of Austria, half of the population was illiterate well into the 19th century. However widespread access to education, education in the vernacular language, replacement of rote learning and blind obedience with reasoning was to have a profound effect on the relationship between people and state.

==== Civil rights, industry and labour relations ====
Other reforms were in civil rights which were defied under the ''Codex Theresianus'', begun in 1752 and finished in 1766. Specific measures included abolition of [[torture]], and [[witch burning]]. Also in industrial and agrarian policy along cameralist lines, the theory was to maximise the resources of the land to protect the integrity of the state. Widespread problems arising from war, famine unrest and abuse made implementation of landlord-peasant reforms both reasonable and reasonable. Maria Theresa and her regime had sought a new more direct link with the populace, now that administration was no longer to be farmed out, and this maternalism combined with cameralist thinking required taking a closer interest in the welfare of the peasantry and their protection, which transpired in the 1750s. However these had been more noted than observed. In the 1770s more meaningful control of rents became practical, further eroding privilege.

While reforms assisted Austria in dealing with the almost constant wars, the wars themselves hindered the implementation of those reforms.