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Austria The Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-48
Although the Habsburg Empire continued to expand in the east
at Turkish expense, Charles VI recognized that defense of
Austria's position in Europe required greater economic and
political centralization to foster the development of a stronger
economic base. Because he lacked a male heir, however, the
continued unity of the Habsburg Empire was jeopardized. In 1713
Charles promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction to establish the legal
basis for transmission of the Habsburg lands to his daughter
Maria Theresa (r. 1740-80). The price extracted by local diets
and rival European powers for approval of the Pragmatic Sanction,
however, was abandonment of many centralizing reforms.
Nonetheless, Charles's concessions did not prevent the War of
the Austrian Succession (1740-48) from breaking out on his death
in 1740. Prussia occupied Bohemia's Silesian duchies that same
year. Late in 1741, the elector-prince of Bavaria, Charles
Albert, occupied Prague, the capital of Bohemia, with the aid of
Saxon and French troops and was crowned king of Bohemia. This
paved the way for his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1742,
thus breaking the Habsburgs' three-hundred-year hold on the
imperial crown.
The Austrians, however, retook Prague, and Maria Theresa was
crowned queen of Bohemia in the spring of 1743. Aided by a
British diplomatic campaign, Austria also made important military
gains in Central Europe. Thus, when Charles Albert unexpectedly
died in January 1745, his son made peace with Austria and agreed
to support the Habsburg candidate for emperor. This enabled Maria
Theresa's husband, Franz (r. 1745-65), to be elected Holy Roman
emperor in October 1745. In the west, the war with France and
Spain gradually settled into a military stalemate, and
negotiations finally led to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.
Although Maria Theresa emerged with most of her empire
intact--owing largely to the early support she received from
Hungarian nobles--Austria was obliged to permanently cede
Silesia, its most economically advanced territory, to Prussia.
Recognizing that the costly war with France had done more to
promote British colonial interests in North America than its own
interests in Central Europe, Austria abandoned its partnership
with Britain in favor of closer ties with France. This reversal
of alliances was sealed by the marriage of Maria Theresa's
youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette, to the future Louis XVI of
France.
Data as of December 1993
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