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The 18th Century in Tuscany Italy

During the XVIIth century the Medicis lost their power till when, at the beginning of the XVIII century, the problem of Tuscany as a grandduchy became widely European.

In fact no one of the two sons of Cosimo III had heirs when GianGastone, the last of the Medicis, in 1737 died; the great powers took the decision: Tuscany would be given to Francesco Stefano, former duke of Lorena, married to Maria Teresa of Habsburg, Carlo's VI th only daughter. Francesco Stefano, however, only made a formal visit to Florence in 1739(a record of Which is given by the triumphal arch of Porta San Gallo), leaving the grandduchy under the government of a Council and to an Army mede up of Lorraines and Lombards.

For that reason the grandduchy lost any kind of autonomy and became a satellite country of the empire. In the second half of the 18th century new, free, local vigorous forces, not hindered by the local deputies, allowed Tuscany to recover from the sluggishness it had suffered under the latest Medicis grand dukes.

In 1753 outstanding members of the aristocracy and of the middle class literati founded the Academy of Georgofili, by which they intended to reveal and enhance the rural traditions of Tuscany besides its importance as a manifacturing and commercial town. Under Pietro Leopoldo (1765-1790) the grandduchy of Tuscany see undogeniture of the Habsburg and Lorraine, reached a certain autonomy. Agriculture had become the chief activity, while industry and commerce were losing their importance and the grand duchy introduced several reforms.

In 1770 a Chamber of Commerce for Arts and Manufacture, the first in Italy, was established. Ferdinado III, heir of Pietro Leopoldo (who became emporor in 1790), could do nothing to present the occupation lasted from 1799 to 1814. At first Florence was the capital of the kingdom of Etruria (1801), that Napoleon assigned to Bourbons from Parma; later (in 1807) Tuscany united to the large French empire, was divided into three districts, that were later re-united into one grandduchy (given by Napoleon to his sister Elisa Baciocchi).

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