Maria Theresia

 

To be honest, Maria Theresia was so cool. First of all, "she gave birth to 16 kids in 19 years" (wikipedia). That's almost a kid a year (seriously impressive). Second, she was the only women to rule the Habsburg dominions. She was never really crowned empress of Austria but still held the power of an empress. She started ruling empire with a weak military and the empire was in a bad state (barely any money). She was never really taught how to rule an empire and didn't have knowledge about an army. Marie decide she had to step and rebuild Austria and she did. She is credit for regulating Australian empire. I really admire her because she barely had an experience to run an empire but didn't leet that get in her run. She did what she thought was best and it worked out in her favor. She an example to me that I shouldn't let anything get in my way.

I think what makes her contribution important is that she cared about her empire and she made her empire stronger. She is well respected as a ruler (especially as a women) and  brought this new perspective to Austria. I learned from our discussion that she changed the way we view the palace. She also wanted the people of Austria to be pride to be a citizen and be willing and maybe happy to pay taxes. She was for vaccines especially after having two kids died from diseases and enforces stricter laws to prevent more diseases (like restricting poison and banned lead in food and drinks (wikipedia)). She also reformed education, making it a priority for people. She made sure that everyone had the opportunity to go to school no matter their status or gender. She really cared form peoples education.

I think she was commemorated well. She has a statue dedicated to her in Vienna City Center. Her summer Palace (Schonbrunn Palace) is also dedicated to her and it holds many paintings and items from her time. The tour of the palace gives details on how she uses each room and the meaning behind the layout and use. People knows about her and her statue and palace are very easy to located in Vienna. She also has a school named after her which reflect how important education was to Maria. The school is a great was to celebrate her achievement since she did so much reforming education in Austria. The place reflect how she lived and statue is a way to show how important she was to Austria.