ABSTRACT
Prussia and, to a much smaller extent, Savoy-Piedmont had been the clear winners of the War of the Austrian Succession. Their advance further complicated the Habsburg Monarchy’s critical geopolitical situation. Their success was not only due to the fortunes of war but also to strong British pressure on Austria. In this sense, the war proved a salutary shock. Vienna had learnt its lesson from both the acute struggle for survival of the early 1740s and the diplomatic defeat of 1748. At long last, far-reaching reforms of finance, administration and the army were introduced in an attempt to free the Habsburgs from the burdensome constraints inherent in a medieval ‘monarchy of consensus’, make the potentially rich resources more easily exploitable and thus provide Vienna with more scope for the challenges of foreign policy (above, pp. 360–4).
