Reforms by Frederick the Great of Prussia and by Emperor Joseph II of Austria - Assignment Example

2. Revamped system of indirect taxes, which brought more revenue to the state than direct taxes. 3. Stabilized the rates of depreciated coins. The depreciation occurred as a result of the 7-year war and the gaining of Silesia. 4. Continued the work of his predecessors to consolidate power by giving the territorial princes a place in the governmental bureaucracy. 5. Established universal religious toleration and granted freedom of the press. 6. Ensured individual protections by means of accelerating the legal process, eradicating torture, and legalizing death sentence only with his prior approval. 7. Introduced the first German law code and enforced general education rules across Prussia. 8. Financed reconstruction of towns through agricultural reforms and built thousands of miles of roads. 9. Judges were educated and the courts gained a reputation as the most honest in Europe. 10. Built Prussia as one of the strongest nations in Europe and left a tendency of focusing on the fatherland only that continued to shape German history into the 20th century.

Reforms made by Emperor Joseph II of Austria 2. German was made the compulsory language of official business throughout the Empire. 3. Introduced a uniform system of accounting for state revenues, expenditures, and debts of the territories of the Austrian crown. 4. Reformed the legal system, abolished brutal punishments and the death penalty in most instances and imposed the principle of complete equality of treatment for all offenders. He ended censorship of the press and theatre. 5. Extended full legal freedom to serfs.

Rentals paid by peasants were to be regulated by officials of the crown and taxes were levied upon all income derived from land. 6. To equalize the taxation, he caused an appraisal of all the lands of the empire to be made so that he might impose a single and egalitarian tax on land. 7. To promote literacy, elementary education was made compulsory for all boys and girls. He created scholarships for talented poor students and allowed the establishment of schools for Jews and other religious minorities. 8. Attempted to centralize medical care in Vienna through the construction of a single, large hospital, the famous Allgemeines Krankenhaus, which opened in 1784. 9. His policy of religious toleration was the most advanced of any state in Europe. 10. Abolished the monasteries of the contemplative Orders within his domains.