ABSTRACT
The early part of Charles VI’s reign witnessed further Habsburg conquests in the east, which, following the other recent gains, seemed to confirm Austria as a major European power. Within the Reich the emperor also inherited a strong position and, despite some setbacks, managed to improve on it into the 1720s. Yet by his death on 20 October 1740, the Habsburg monarchy was nearly bankrupt, its army demoralized and its standing in the Reich greatly tarnished. Without this transfor mation, Prussia’s sur prise attack on Silesia in December 1740 would scarcely have been possible, and the life of the traditional imperial str ucture probably would have been prolonged. To understand this change we need to examine Charles’s position after the War of the Spanish Succession.
