Austria and its allies emerged victorious in the war, leading to the Congress of Vienna, which reaffirmed the empire as one of the great powers of the 19th century.

This new title and state were created to safeguard his dynasty's imperial status as he foresaw either the end of the Holy Roman Empire, or the eventual accession of Napoleon as Holy Roman Emperor, who had earlier that year adopted the title Emperor of the French and established the First French Empire.

By contrast, the Austrian Empire was legally a single state, although the overarching structure and the status of its component lands at first stayed much the same as they had been under the composite monarchy.

In practice this meant the dissolution of the long-lived Holy Roman Empire and a reorganization under a Napoleonic model of the German states.

The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was not recognized by George III of the United Kingdom who was also the Elector of Hanover (formally Brunswick-Lüneburg) and Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg; Hanover and Lauenburg were incorporated into the French satellite Kingdom of Westphalia in 1807, having been occupied several times since 1801, but Britain remained at war with France and no treaty was signed recognising their annexation.

Succession could only be in the male line, so on Queen Victoria's accession to the British throne, her uncle, Ernest Augustus, succeeded as King of Hanover, thus ending the personal union with Great Britain that dated to 1714.

[8] The Austrian Empire also gained new territories from the Congress of Vienna, and its influence expanded to the north through the German Confederation and also into Italy.

[11] Following the Congress, the major European powers agreed to meet and discuss resolutions in the event of future disputes or revolutions.

He employed the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, which used strict censorship of education, press and speech to repress revolutionary and liberal concepts.

[8] Historians generally consider the Metternich era as a period of stability: the Austrian Empire fought no wars nor did it undergo any radical internal reforms.

During the Metternich era, the Austrian Empire also maintained a stable economy and reached an almost balanced budget, despite having a major deficit following the Napoleonic Wars.

[14] After the death of Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg in 1852, the Minister of the Interior Baron Alexander von Bach largely dictated policy in Austria and Hungary.

Bach centralized administrative authority for the Austrian Empire, but he also endorsed reactionary policies that reduced freedom of the press and abandoned public trials.

He later represented the Absolutist (or Klerikalabsolutist) party, which culminated in the concordat of August 1855 that gave the Roman Catholic Church control over education and family life.

[citation needed] However, Bach's relaxed ideological views (apart from the neo-absolutism) led to a great rise in the 1850s of economic freedom.

The Treaties of Villafranca and Zürich removed Lombardy, except for the part east of the Mincio river, the so-called Mantovano.

[18] Diets replaced the parliament in 17 provinces, the Hungarians pressed for autonomy, and Venetia was attracted by the now unified Italy.

After the Austrian army was defeated in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the German Confederation was dissolved, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was adopted.

By this act, the Kingdom of Hungary and the Empire of Austria as two separate entities joined on an equal basis to form the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.

On the other hand, Francis I continued to intrigue for the possibility of revenge against France, entering into a secret military agreement with the Russian Empire in November 1804.

Although the Austrian budget suffered from wartime expenditures and its international position was significantly undermined, the humiliating Treaty of Pressburg provided plenty of time to strengthen the army and economy.

[citation needed] Archduke Charles of Austria served as the Head of the Council of War and Commander in Chief of the Austrian army.

Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, located in Paris, called for careful advance in the case of the war against France.

[citation needed] The latter period of Napoleonic Wars featured Metternich exerting a large degree of influence over foreign policy in the Austrian Empire, a matter nominally decided by the Emperor.

Metternich's influence at the Congress of Vienna was remarkable, and he became not only the premier statesman in Europe but the virtual ruler of the Empire until 1848—the Year of revolutions—and the rise of liberalism equated to his political downfall.

The result was that the Austrian Empire was seen as one of the great powers after 1815, but also as a reactionary force and an obstacle to national aspirations in Italy and Germany.

Further, Metternich opposed the weakening of France in the years after Napoleon, and viewed the new monarchy in Paris as an effective tool in keeping Russia at bay.

From 1815 to 1848, Metternich steered Austria Imperial foreign policy, and indeed the mood of Europe, and managed to keep peace on the continent despite the growing liberal and radical movements inside most major powers.

[22] Crown lands of the Austrian Empire after the 1815 Congress of Vienna, including the local government reorganizations from the Revolutions of 1848 to the 1860 October Diploma: The old Habsburg possessions of Further Austria (in today's France, Germany and Switzerland) had already been lost in the 1805 Peace of Pressburg.