8.5 THE CRISIS OF THE ANCIEN REGIME: REBELLION AND REVOLUTION 339

Joseph’s policies produced crisis. The Austrian Netherlands rebelled in 1789. The Hungarian nobility considered rebellion and asked for support from Prussia, the Habsburgs’ chief rival since the seizure of Silesia. Reports of noble unrest poured in from the other Habsburg lands. Joseph, dying, despaired; he revoked most of his reforms. But these concessions, sealed by Joseph’s death, resolved the crisis in the Habsburg lands. Outright rebellion did not materialize beyond the Austrian Netherlands. Nor did resistance to the government come to be dominated by the language of the Enlightenment, as it had in America or would be in France and Latin America. Moreover, the Habsburgs kept their collection of thrones. In France, however, events were proceeding diff erently.

AUSTRIA

SILESIA

MORAVIA

AUSTRIANNETHERLANDS

H O L YR O M A NE M P I R E

HUNGARY

B R A N DE N

B

UR

G

– P R U S S I A

North

Sea

At lant i c

Ocean

B l a c k

S e a

AegeanS ea

M e d i t e r r a n e a n S e a

Adria t i c Sea

Habsburg Lands

Holy Roman Empire

Hungary

0 300 mi

0 500 km

Map 8.1 : Germany and Habsburg family lands in the eighteenth century.

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