Habsburg ruler who inherited the Austrian empire and spent her reign defending it against Frederick the Great's Prussia — undertaking major administrative and educational reforms while establishing the Theresian academy and central bureaucracy — the mother of 16 children including Marie Antoinette.
Preserved the Habsburg Empire against Frederician pressure through administrative reform — Maria Theresa's centralization of Habsburg administration, creation of a professional bureaucracy, and educational reforms provided the institutional infrastructure that allowed the multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire to survive for another 150 years.
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