for the hegemony
was to last until the victory of Koeniggraetz (1866) definitely decided the
issue in favour of the Hohenzollern monarchy.

[Sidenote: Austria and Bavaria.]

The loss of Silesia led Austria to look for "compensation" elsewhere. The
most obvious direction in which this could be sought was in Bavaria, ruled
by the decadent house of Wittelsbach, the secular rival of the house of
Habsburg in southern Germany. The question of the annexation of Bavaria by
conquest or exchange had occupied the minds of Austrian statesmen
throughout the century: it would not only have removed a perpetual menace
to the peace of Austria, but would have given to the Habsburg monarchy an
overwhelming strength in South Germany. The matter came to an issue in
1777, on the death of the elector Maximilian III. The heir was the elector
palatine Charles Theodore, but Joseph II., who had been elected emperor in
1765, in succession to his father, and appointed co-regent with his
mother--claimed the inheritance, and prepared to assert his claims by
force. The result was the so-called War of Bavarian Succession. As a matter
of fact, however, though the armies under Frederick and Joseph were face to
face in the field, the affair was settled without actual fighting; Maria
Theresa, fearing the chances of another struggle with Prussia, overruled
her son at the last moment, and by the treaty of Teschen agreed to be
content with the cession of the Quarter of the Inn (Innviertel) and some
other districts.

[Sidenote: Russia, Austria and the Ottoman Empire.]

Meanwhile the ambition of Catherine of Russia, and the war with Turkey by
which the empire of the tsars was advanced to the Black Sea and threatened
to establish itself south of the Danube, were productive of consequences of
enormous importance to Austria in the East. Russian control of the Danube
was a far more serious menace to Austria than the neighbourhood of the
decadent Ottoman power; and for a while the policy of Austria towards the
Porte underwent a change that foreshadowed her attitude towards the Eastern
Question in the 19th century. In spite of the reluctance of Maria Theresa,
Kaunitz, in July 1771, concluded a defensive alliance with the Porte. He
would have exchanged this for an active co-operation with Turkey, could
Frederick the Great have been persuaded to promise at least neutrality in
the event of a Russo-Austrian War. But Frederick was unwilling to break
with Russia, with w