 Maria Theresa promulgated financial and educational reforms , with the assistance of Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz and Gerard van Swieten , promoted commerce and the development of agriculture , and reorganised Austria 's ramshackle military , all of which strengthened Austria 's international standing . However , she refused to allow religious toleration and contemporaneous travellers thought her regime was bigoted and superstitious . As a young monarch who fought two dynastic wars , she believed that her cause should be the cause of her subjects , but in her later years she would believe that their cause must be hers . 
