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When Reform Outpaces Politics
- Joseph II pursued sweeping Enlightenment reforms and issued thousands of decrees rapidly.
- His impatience and failure to build alliances caused widespread alienation and administrative chaos.
Brabantine Revolt Against Joseph II
- Joseph II faced revolts like the Brabantine Revolution where rebels used tricolor cockades and pamphlets.
- He quelled the uprising but unrest and rebellions persisted until his death in 1790.
The Empire: Many States, One Habsburg Grip
- The Holy Roman Empire was a loose confederation of nearly 300 sovereign states under an elected emperor.
- In practice Habsburgs dominated the imperial politics despite the Empire's complex, archaic constitution.