Kaunitz's most important and influential office was that of State Chancellor and minister of foreign affairs, which he held from 1753 to 1792 and where he had Empress Maria Theresa's full trust—against the opposition of her husband, Francis Stephen. He had reluctantly accepted his appointment and demanded complete freedom to re-organise the foreign office on
Ballhausplatz. Thanks in large part to him, Habsburg Austria established itself as a sovereign
great power, entering into the
Treaty of Versailles (1756) with her old enemy, the French
ancien régime, commonly known as
Diplomatic Revolution (
renversement des alliances). The new
Franco-Austrian Alliance was considered a great feat of diplomacy, and it established Kaunitz as the recognized master of the art.
Seven Years' War Once he was State Chancellor, Kaunitz pursued his policies seeking
rapprochement with France. Upon the outbreak of the
French and Indian War overseas in 1754, he had the Austrian ambassador in Paris, Prince
Georg Adam of Starhemberg, raise the topic of forming a defensive league. King Louis XV finally accepted, after the Anglo-Prussian
Treaty of Westminster was signed in 1756. The alliance was expanded in
1757 to include Russia and
Sweden. Thus began the
Seven Years' War in Europe, which ultimately failed to bring the lost provinces back to Austria. On 29 August 1756, King Frederick's
Prussian Army invaded the
Electorate of Saxony in a
preemptive strike; they rolled over the
Saxon forces and occupied
Dresden. While the Austrian allies were not able to reach agreement on joint action, the politico-military situation remained inconclusive. Kaunitz urged for the replacement of the hesitant field marshal Count
Leopold Joseph von Daun by
Ernst Gideon von Laudon, however, a decisive victory was not achieved. From about 1760, gradual exhaustion of all forces became obvious, and Kaunitz reacted by depriving his long-time foe Court Chancellor Count
Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz of his powers. He replaced the office by founding the Austrian Council of State (
Staatsrat) in 1761, overseeing the reorganization of the Austrian Army. Nevertheless, when the new tsar
Peter III of Russia left the alliance in 1762, Kaunitz entered into peace negotiations that led to the 1763
Treaty of Hubertusburg. Following the end of war, Kaunitz gained the title of
Reichsfürst (Prince of the Holy Roman Empire). The lack of a navy during the war had demonstrated Austria's vulnerability at sea, and he was instrumental in the creation of a small Austrian navy to boost the state's presence in the
Mediterranean Sea, laying the foundations for the future
Austro-Hungarian Navy.
Josephinism in Vienna) The State Chancellor was a liberal patron of education and art, a notable collector, one of the founders of the
Royal Academy in Brussels, and sponsor of
Christoph Willibald Gluck and one of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s first and lifelong patrons. He worked towards the goal of subjecting the
Catholic Church to the state, most notably against tax exemption and the traditional institution of
mortmain ownership of real estates. Kaunitz followed the thoughts of
Jansenism and the
Age of Enlightenment; among his aims was also the better education of the commoners. Although Maria Theresa's son and heir, Emperor
Joseph II generally shared such ideas, his reforms moved too fast and too thoroughly for Kaunitz. The ongoing disputes between the two men led to several resignation requests by the state chancellor. Kaunitz advocated a reconciliation with the former enemy Prussia; he accompanied Joseph II when he met Frederick II two times in 1769 and 1770. The Prussian king was annoyed by Kaunitz' arrogance and patronising manners, nevertheless the approach realised in the
First Partition of Poland in 1772, backed by both Kaunitz and Joseph II against the concerns of Maria Theresa ("good faith is lost for all time"). In 1777, Joseph's hasty military action led to the
War of the Bavarian Succession. When the Austrian position became untenable, Kaunitz carried the peace negotiations on his own initiative; by the 1779
Treaty of Teschen, he won the Bavarian
Innviertel region for Austria. In Imperial matters, he was able to dominate the
Perpetual Diet of Regensburg; in 1780 he was also successful in placing the Habsburg Archduke
Maximilian Francis of Austria, Joseph's younger brother, as a
coadjutor bishop in the
Electorate of Cologne and the
Prince-Bishopric of Münster. Kaunitz worked around the objections of Joseph II to initiate the
Austro-Turkish War of 1788–1791. The goal was to humiliate Austria's old enemy, Prussia. However, it misfired: it proved a costly military operation to help Russia, but it did not achieve any anti-Prussian objective. After Joseph II's death,
Leopold II became emperor; the war was ended and Kaunitz's power collapsed. The renunciation of Kaunitz' balancing policies led to a serious deterioration of Austria's domestic and international affairs. Meanwhile, Prussia established the Protestant
Fürstenbund league, and the
Brabant Revolution broke out in the Austrian Netherlands. ==Resignation and death==