Emperor Joseph ll 1741 1790 as commander in chief
Joseph II., Holy Roman Emperor 1765-90, son of Francis I. (grand duke of Tuscany, emperor, 1745-65) and Maria Theresa (queen of Bohemia and Hungary, archduchess of Austria, 1740-48), was born at Vienna Mar. 13, 1741, and died there Feb. 20, 1790. Austria stands in the front rank of strictly Roman Catholic countries which in the second half of the eighteenth century found themselves compelled to break with their antiquated system to find the way for a new existence. The defeats of Austria, especially in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), had shown Maria Theresa the lack of centralization, of financial, intellectual, and moral power in her country and the necessity of reforms. Although a good Catholic and personally antagonistic to the Enlightenment, she permitted the leaders of this intellectual movement to expand the new views of Territorialism and Febronianism Archduke Joseph became one of the most prominent and fervent advocates of the new ideas, and when he became coregent after the death of Emperor Francis (Aug. 18, 1765), ecclesiastical reforms were carried out in a more thorough and independent manner, especially as popes like Clement XIV. (1769-74) and Pius VI. (1775-1799) tried to save the hierarchy by the most far-reaching concessions. On the death of the empress in 1780 Joseph became sole ruler, and now began an entirely new system, which was carried out within a few years. The old feudal order was to make room for the monarchical state of the Enlightenment, in which no privileged classes and estates existed. In the political sphere Joseph continued the centralization of the old Hapsburg countries; in the social sphere he attempted to raise the state of the peasants
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Photo credit: © Peter Horree / Alamy / Afripics
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