hom he was negotiating the partition of Poland; Austria
in these circumstances dared not take the offensive; and Maria Theresa was
compelled to purchase the modification of the extreme claims of Russia in
Turkey by agreeing to, and sharing in, the spoliation of Poland. [Sidenote:
Partition of Poland.] Her own share of the spoils was the acquisition, by
the first treaty of partition (August 5, 1772), of Galicia and Lodomeria.
Turkey was left in the lurch; and Austrian troops even occupied portions of
Moldavia, in order to secure the communication between the new Polish
provinces and Transylvania. At Constantinople, too, Austria once more
supported Russian policy, and was rewarded, in 1777, by the acquisition of
Bukovina from Turkey. In Italy the influence of the House of Austria had
been strengthened by the marriage of the archduke Ferdinand with the
heiress of the d'Estes of Modena, and the establishment of the archduke
Leopold in the grand-duchy of Tuscany.

[Sidenote: Internal reforms under Maria Theresa.]

In internal affairs Maria Theresa may be regarded as the practical founder
of the unified Austrian state. The new system of centralization has already
been referred to. It only remains to add that, in carrying out this system,
Maria Theresa was too wise to fall into the errors afterwards made by her
son and successor. She was no doctrinaire, and consistently acted on the
principle once laid down by Machiavelli, that while changing the substance,
the prince should be careful to preserve the form of old institutions.
Alongside the new bureaucracy, the old estates survived in somnolent
inactivity, and even in Hungary, though the ancient constitution was left
untouched, the diet was only summoned four times during the reign, and
reforms were carried out, without protest, by royal ordinance. It was under
Maria Theresa, too, [v.03 p.0011] that the attempt was first made to make
German the official language of the whole monarchy; an attempt which was
partly successful even in Hungary, especially so far as the army was
concerned, though Latin remained the official tongue of the diet, the
county-assemblies and the courts.

The social, religious and educational reforms of Maria Theresa also mark
her reign as the true epoch of transition from medieval to modern
conditions in Austria. In religious matters the empress, though a devout
Catholic and herself devoted to the Holy See, was carried away by the
prevailing reaction, in