The challenge is to make Josephinism, the push by Joseph II to turn the Habsburg lands into a centralized, Enlightenment state.
A son who may succeed Joseph II would be of help. On addition to that, how about if Joseph II inherits absolute political power sooner? An early death of his mother Empress Marie Theresa? Or perhaps she goes into life-long mourning in a monastery after her husband Francis I dies, thus handing over political control to all the Hapsburg lands in the Holy Roman Empire.
Didn't Joseph have to back down in his own lifetime? I am not sure a son would help with that.
A son who possibly shared the same enlightened ideas, or perhaps one who represented an even more extensive plan than his father would also neutralized his uncle Leopold and other Imperial family members who were too cowardly to stand up to the conservative aristocracy and church and were unable to see the positives that it could bring to the Empire and the whole Central Europe. At the time, Frederick the Great's enlightened ideas of giving from the top could have foretold of the coming French revolution. What monarch once said "better to give freedom for above than the they take from the bottom?"Didn't Joseph have to back down in his own lifetime? I am not sure a son would help with that.
A son who possibly shared the same enlightened ideas, or perhaps one who represented an even more extensive plan than his father would also neutralized his uncle Leopold and other Imperial family members who were too cowardly to stand up to the conservative aristocracy and church and were unable to see the positives that it could bring to the Empire and the whole Central Europe. At the time, Frederick the Great's enlightened ideas of giving from the top could have foretold of the coming French revolution. What monarch once said "better to give freedom for above than the they take from the bottom?"
A daughter of Joseph would be heiress of nothing as female succession in Austria was consented only with the total exctintion of the male line so Maria Theresa the great was able to inhereit but her namesake grandaughter would be passed over in favour of her uncles and cousins. Either Joseph has a son or Leopold will be the next EmperorAs I recall it was Aleksandr II, Tsar of All the Russias.
What if, instead of a son, Joseph's daughter Maria Theresa survives longer? Who might she be married to, and can Joseph's son-in-law-to-be be at least amenable to his reformations? My first thought was the Tsarevich Pavel, but unless Joseph has a son, in which case the point is moot, that isn't going to happen. Is there any candidate from another reforming house who both might prove amenable to continued reform and could bring in an alliance for support against the Hungarians?
As for the possible impact of the program, if it is somehow completed in full, Habsburg Austria is going to be a much tougher foe for Revolutionary France. Enlightenment reforms mean that it will be easy to introduce recruitment to counter levee en masse, and the abolition of serfdom likely means much more motivated troops. The ethnic tensions in Austria will still be something of an issue, though overall Austria will be much more capable of military efficiency.
It would also be interesting to see what the politics are between Joseph's line and a certain Corsican, of course...