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Russia and Prussia become European Powers 387 carried on an almost continuous war with the Turks for nearly two centuries. As late as 1683 the Mohammedans collected a large force and besieged Vienna, which might very well have fallen into their hands had it not been for the timely assistance which the city received from the king of Poland. From this time on the power of the Turks in Europe rapidly decreased. They gradually lost their hold, and the Hapsburgs were able to regain the whole territory of Hungary and Transylvania. Their pos- session of these lands, which they held until 1918, was recog- nized by the Sultan in 1699. 668. Heterogeneous Population under the Hapsburgs. The conquest of Silesia by Frederick the Great was more than a severe blow to the pride of Maria Theresa ; for, since it was inhabited by Germans, its loss lessened the Hapsburg power inside the empire. In extent of territory the Hapsburgs more than made up for it by the partitions of Poland, but since the Poles were an alien race they added one more difficulty to the very difficult problem of ruling so many various peoples, each of whom had a different language and different customs and institutions. The Hapsburg possessions were inhabited by Germans in Austria proper, a Slav people (the Czechs) mixed with Germans in Bohemia and Moravia, Poles in Galicia, Hungarians or Magyars (along with Rumanians and smaller groups of other peoples) in Hungary, Croats and Slovenes (both Slavs) in the south, Italians in Milan and Tuscany, and Flemish and Walloons in the Netherlands. The problems which confronted Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II were much more difficult than those of France or Eng- land. Poles, Italians, Magyars, and Germans could never be united into one state by such common interests as Englishmen or Frenchmen have felt so keenly in the last two centuries. Instead of fusing together to form a nation, the peoples ruled over by the Hapsburgs have been on such bad terms with each other that there has been constant friction, and even rebellion in the nineteenth century against the government at Vienna. When the Hapsburgs became involved in the terrible disaster of the World War they finally split apart, forming separate nations.