The key to these events was to be found in the policy of Maria Theresa and still more of the Emperor Joseph II, who reigned with her for many years and then was sole emperor from 1780 to 1790. Maria Theresa was devoutly religious. Joseph II, her son, belonged to the same class of enlightened despots as did Catherine the Great of Russia. He was interested in unifying his domains just as ardently as was Catherine, but he had a different problem to face, for he desired to make German and not another Slavonic language the general language of administration. Besides that, both mother and son were suspicious of the loyalty of the Poles, who had been just been annexed to the Austrian domains, and it seemed a wise measure to lighten the burdens of the Ukrainian population in an endeavor to win their loyalty. Besides these educational reforms, Joseph had very decided ideas on the necessity of lightening the burdens of the serfs and of abolishing most of the abuses to which they had been subjected in the past. All of these varying motives, often conflicting with one another, tended to give an opportunity for the Ukrainian population in Western Ukraine to improve their status. All the results achieved were won during the years of the reign of Joseph II and the brief years of Leopold II, but when Francis II came to the throne in 1792, conditions changed. Externally the French Revolution was then going on and Austria took a defiant attitude toward everything that savored of liberalism in any way. The rights of the landowners were restored throughout the Empire and this deprived the peasants of any hopes that might have been enkindled in them by the promises of Joseph II. Then too, there were no signs of revolt among the Poles in the annexed provinces. This was in a way a deliberate choice of the Polish authorities and even during the revolt of Kosciuszko in 1794, he did his best to prevent the spreading of the movement for a restored Poland into that part of the territory that was held by Austria, and endeavored to concentrate the national uprising against Russia and secondarily against Prussia. Thus it seemed to the interest of Vienna at this moment to cooperate with the Polish landlords in Western Ukraine and to try to limit the spread of dissension, while Austria prepared to take her share in the final division. Then with Poland out of the way, efforts to improve the conditions of the Ukrainians within Austria sagged severely and during the years that followed, the situation remained fairly static.