Maria Theresa: Reform Without the Philosophes

Maria Theresa inherited the Habsburg lands in 1740 and immediately faced invasion, including Frederick II's seizure of Silesia. To survive, she reformed. From 1749 her minister Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz centralized taxation and administration, reducing the power of regional estates. She founded the Theresianum academy to train officials, reformed universities and, with the 1774 General School Ordinance, created a system of elementary schools; she limited the labor services peasants owed to lords and in 1776 abolished judicial torture.

Unlike Frederick and Catherine, Maria Theresa did not court the philosophes; she was a devout Catholic who disliked religious toleration and expelled Jews from Prague in 1744, a decision reversed a few years later. Her reforms were driven largely by the practical need for revenue, soldiers and efficient government. Her reign shows that reforms associated with the Enlightenment could come from rulers who rejected many of its ideas, which complicates the label 'enlightened absolutism'.