Maria Theresa - life and work

Marija Terezija (1717. – 1780.) kći je cara Karla VI. i Elizabete Kristine. Njezin otac nije imao muškog potomka koji bi ga naslijedio pa u pitanje dolazi golemi posjed Habsburgovaca. Tako Karlo VI. donosi 1713. dokument pod nazivom Pragmatička sankcija, zakonsku odredbu koja propisuje kako su sve habsburške zemlje nedjeljive i da nasljedstvo pripada Karlovim kćerima i njihovim potomcima. Marija Terezija tako dolazi na prijestolje kao jedina Habsburgovka i posljednji izdanak te slavne dinastije. Udaje se za Franju Stjepana Lotarinškog kojeg postavlja za suvladara, a dinastija se nadalje naziva Habsburg-Lotringen. Vlada apsolutistički i donosi mnoge reforme uz pomoć svojih savjetnika i ministara. Vrlo sposobna i odlučna, bila je jedna od najvažnijih monarha u razdoblju prosvijećenog apsolutizma. Marija Terezija rađa šesnaestoro djece, od kojih samo njih desetero doživljava odraslu dob. Na samom početku vladavine susreće se s Fridrikom II. Pruskim i protiv njega vodi Rat za austrijsku baštinu (1740. – 1748.). Za njezina vladanja vodio se još jedan rat – Sedmogodišnji rat (1756. – 1763.), a dolazi i do prve podjele Poljske. Nakon muževe smrti, za suvladara stavlja svojeg sina Josipa II., kojem ograničava vlast pa dolazi do razmirica koje traju sve do njezine smrti.Maria Theresa was the daughter of Emperor Charles VI and Elizabeth Christine. Her father had no male descendant to inhert him, so the great Habsburg´s property was endangered. In 1713 Charles VI brought a document called Pragmatic Sanction. This was a legal provision which prescribed that all Habsburg’s countries were indivisible and the inheritance belonged to Charles daughters and their ancestors. Maria Theresa came to the throne as the only Habsburg and the last of the House of Habsburg. She got married to Francis Stephen of Lorraine whom she proclaimed as co-ruler and the dinasty was later called Habsburg-Lorraine. She ruled as an absolutist and brought many reforms with the assistance of her counsellors and ministers. She was very capable and decisive that made her one of the most important monarchs in the period of prosperous absolutism. She gave birth to 16 children ten of whom survived to adulthood. At the very beginning of the reign she fought against Frederick II of Prussia in the for Austrian teritory (1740 – 1748). During her reign there was another war – the SevenYear’s War and comes to the first division of Poland. After her husband had died, her son Joseph II became the co-ruler, but she limited his power which caused much of disagreement between two of them and it basted so until she died