(born May 5, 1747, Vienna—died March 1, 1792, Vienna) Holy Roman emperor (1790–92). Son of Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, he became duke of Tuscany in 1765.
A practitioner of what has been termed enlightened despotism, he built an efficient state government and encouraged representative institutions. In 1790 he succeeded his brother Joseph II as emperor and retained many of Joseph's reforms. In 1792 he allied with Prussia against revolutionary France, precipitating the French Revolutionary Wars.
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