 After several diplomatic failures and military defeats in the 1730s , Austria seemed to be declining , or even on the verge of collapse . After her forty years reign , Maria Theresa left a revitalised empire that influenced the rest of Europe throughout the 19th century . She gave the Habsburg dominions an efficient administrative system that allowed it to remain a great power in its own right , without the support of the Holy Roman Empire . Her descendants followed her example and continued reforming the empire . The acquisition of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria gave the empire an even more multinational character that would ultimately lead to its destruction . Her introduction of compulsory schooling , as a means of Germanisation , eventually triggered the revival of Czech culture . 
