Franz Joseph I of Austria
If Greater Germany was to prevail, the crown would necessarily have to go to Franz Joseph, who had no desire to cede it in the first place to anyone else. On the other hand, if the idea of a smaller Germany won out, the German crown could of course not possibly go the Emperor of Austria, but would naturally be offered to the head of the largest and most powerful German state outside of Austria—the King of Prussia. The contest between the two ideas, quickly developed into a contest between Austria and Prussia. After Prussia decisively won the Seven Weeks War, this question was solved; Austria lost no territories as long as they remained out of German affairs.
Franco-Austrian Alliance
The Alliance had its heyday during the Seven Years' War when France and Austria joined forces to fight the mutual enemy of Prussia. Following the allies' defeat in that war, the intimacy of the alliance weakened, and by the 1780s it had become something closer to a formality—when Austria briefly considered the idea of entering the American War of Independence on Britain's side against France. By the time of the French Revolution—when France first declared itself a constitutional monarchy, and then overthrew and executed its king—it had collapsed entirely and Austria actively tried to restore the French monarchy by going to war with the new French Republic.