In this research project I will examine the political advisors of Maria Theresa during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). These years witnessed a huge crisis of the monarchy and had a major impact on Maria Theresa and her post-war government. Strikingly, however, historians of the Austrian Monarchy have largely neglected this period. Nevertheless, some do cite a remarkable difference between the mind-set of pre-war and post-war statesmen, the latter often being heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and taking a more rational approach to politics, the most famous being the later State Chancellor Kaunitz. The premise of this research project is that during the war, a notable generational shift occurred, the consequences of which had a clear impact on Maria Theresa and her war policy. Therefore, the group of advisors surrounding her will be investigated. Not only will the background of these statesmen be analysed, but also their networks and mutual relations. Three subcategories are therefore distinguished, although these overlap in several ways: members of the Viennese Geheime Konferenz, the supreme advisory body during the war, several major Austrian diplomats serving abroad, and some influential members of Maria Theresa’s court.
In order to analyse these personalities, their ideas, decisions, networks and influence, I will scrutinize diplomatic and official correspondence as well as documents produced by advisory institutions. Discourse and content analysis will be used to unravel rhetorical strategies, factions and opinions, and will be combined with methods related to the analysis of social networks. These will be used to focus on the ties between the different statesmen under consideration, and their relational behaviour, in order to profile not only the men concerned, but also the group of Maria Theresa’s confidants as a whole.
This research project is innovative and important in several respects. Methodologically, it will help to test the applicability of network analysis methods to eighteenth-century political history and archival sources. As regards content, it will help to clarify the profiles of the men advising Maria Theresa at the beginning of her reign, as well as the gradual change in personnel and statesmanship during the war. More generally, this research project will help me to engage in debates concerning the nature of eighteenth-century government, the influence of the Enlightenment in state service, the kinship, friendship and other bonds between the political advisors, and the political and private goals these bonds served. Finally, the upcoming commemoration of Maria Theresa in 2017, with various exhibitions and other events, will give me the opportunity to disseminate these new findings to a larger audience.
