Frederick helped to relief the serfs of their work and created new buildings, passed reforms, and gave them required education. He also gave the poor serf farming equipment. Maria Theresa was very involved with the serfdom problem. She wanted the serfs to get involved with something instead of being slaves. She wanted them to make money and have lives. So she provided an education for the serfs, and she created an army for every male serf that is willing to serve for seven years. Catherine the Great supported serfdom because she thought that serfdom helped the economy. So she then spread serfdom and made it more popular in other areas. She made serfdom very popular all over Russia. She also gave the nobles more control over serfs. Joseph II highly disagreed with serfdom and wanted to end serfdom. He also wanted to tax the nobility more. Joseph wanted the serfs to have equal rights so he then created the serfdom patent.…show more content… Maria Theresa helped the government by decreasing the power of the nobles and decreasing the amount of work that the nobles would force the peasants to do. But she refused to stop serfdom which caused poverty. Catherine the Great expanded her empire by increasing serfdom and making absolute monarchy a new type of government. She also gave the nobles more power over the serfs and their land. Catherine the Great spread serfdom to people who were already freed from serfdom. She did all of this to try to please the nobility. After Maria Theresa Died in 1780, Joseph II became in charged and changed the government in his own ways. He began to spread education, he restricted church lands, and he brought forth the Patent of Tolerance which meant there was no freedom of