Description

Joseph II of Austria, born in 1741, was the product of an era steeped in intellectual and political transformation. His upbringing in the Habsburg court under the reign of his mother, Empress Maria Theresa, was surrounded by the rigor of classical education, the imposing presence of the Church, and the entrenched systems of monarchical absolutism. Yet, Joseph's spirit was kindled by the fire of Enlightenment ideals—a movement that sought to break free from the old dogmas of religious orthodoxy, aristocratic privilege, and unchecked monarchial rule. His education exposed him to the writings of the great Enlightenment thinkers of the time—philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and the German philosophers of reason, such as Immanuel Kant and Christian Wolff, who would lay the intellectual foundation for his reformist vision.