History of Austria - Overview

Overview

Human habitation of current Austria can be traced back to the first farming communities of the early Stone Age (Paleolithic era). In the late Iron Age it was occupied by a Celtic culture (ca. 800 BCE), the first organised nation state being the Celtic Kingdom of Noricum dating from ca. 800-400 BCE. This subsequently became incorporated into the Roman Empire's lands to the south of the Danube at the end of the first century BC, and was incorporated as the Province of Noricum around 40 AD. The most important Roman settlement was that at Carnuntum. Later, in the sixth century, another Celto-Germanic people, the Bavarii occupied these lands until it fell under the Frankish Empire in the ninth century. Around 800 AD Charlemagne established an the outpost of Avar March (Awarenmark) in what is now Lower Austria, to hold back advances from Slavs and Avars from the East.

In the tenth century an eastern (east of the River Enns) outpost of the Duchy of Bavaria, bordering Hungary, was established as the Marchia orientalis (March of the East) or 'Margraviate of Austria' in 976, ruled by the Margraves of Babenberg. This 'Eastern March' (borderland), in German was known as Ostarrîchi or 'Eastern Realm', hence 'Austria'. The first mention of Ostarrîchi occurs in a document of that name dated 996 CE. From 1156 the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa created an independent duchy (Privilegium Minus) under the House of Babenberg, until its extinction in 1246, corresponding to modern Lower Austria.

Following the Babenberg dynasty and a brief interregnum, Austria came under the rule of the German king Rudolf I of Habsburg (1276 – 1282), beginning a dynasty that would last through seven centuries becoming progressively distinct from neighbouring Bavaria, within the Holy Roman Empire. The fifteenth and early sixteenth century saw considerable extension of the Habsburg territories through diplomatic means and marriage ties to include Spain, the Netherlands and parts of Italy. This expansionism, together with French aspirations and the resultant Habsburg-French or Bourbon-Habsburg rivalry were important factors shaping European History for 200 years (1516-1756). By the Treaty of Worms (Wormser Vertrag) of April 28 1521 the Emperor Charles V (Archduke of Austria 1519–1521) split the dynasty, bestowing the hereditary Austrian lands (Österreichische Länder) on his brother, Ferdinand I (1521–1564) and the first central administrative structures were established. By 1526 Ferdinand had also inherited the kingdoms of Bohemia, and Hungary after the Battle of Mohács which partitioned the latter. However the Ottoman Empire now lay directly adjacent to the Austrian lands. Even after the unsuccessful first Siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1529, the Ottoman threat persisted for another one and a half centuries.

The 16th Century also saw the spread of the Reformation through the Austrian lands. From around 1600 the Habsburg policy of recatholicisation or Catholic Renewal (Rekatholisierung) was to eventually lead to the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), initially a protestant-catholic struggle. However it was also a struggle for power in central Europe, particularly the French opposition to the consolidation of power by the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire. Eventually the pressure of the anti-Habsburg coalition of France, Sweden, and most Protestant German states contained their authority to the Austrian and Czech lands in 1648.

In 1683, the Ottoman forces were beaten back from Vienna a second time and eventually, in the Great Turkish War (1683–1699), pushed back behind Belgrade. When the main (Spanish) line of the Habsburgs died out in 1700, it precipitated the War of Spanish Succession (1701–1714) between the Habsburgs and King Louis XIV of France. Subsequently Austria gained control, through the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, of the Spanish Netherlands, Naples and Lombardy.

These acquisitions together with conquests in the Balkans gave Austria its greatest territorial extent to date. 1713 also saw the Pragmatic Sanction, designed to prevent any further division of the territory. But when Charles VI (Archduke 1711 – 1740) died and was succeeded by his daughter, Maria Theresa (1740-1780) Austria was perceived as weak by her neighbours since she could not be Empress in her own right, leading to the War of Austrian Succession (1740 – 1748) and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). Subsequently Austria lost Silesia to Prussia. These Silesian Wars initiated a long standing tension between Austria and Prussia over imperial policy. Maria Theresa effectively reigned as Empress through her husband, Francis Stephen of Lorraine (d. 1765) and they therefore founded the new dynasty of Habsburg-Lorraine. During her reign extensive reforms were initiated, and when Francis died in 1765, these were continued by her son, Joseph II (Emperor 1765-1790; Archduke 1780-1790). However his brother, Leopold II (1790-1792), who succeeded him was much more conservative.

Leopold was succeeded as emperor and archduke by his son Francis II (1792-1835), who found himself at war with France in the First (1792-1797) and Second Coalition Wars (1798–1802) the prelude to the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), in which Austria lost further territory. Following further Austrian losses in the Third Coalition War (1803–1806) the future of the Holy Roman Empire looked increasingly uncertain, at least as an entity that would continue to be controlled by the Habsburgs. Napoleon I had declared himself Emperor of France in May 1804 and was busy reorganising much of the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, and looked to be assuming the title of emperor of that entity too, as a second Charlemagne. Francis II responded by proclaiming the Empire of Austria in August taking the new title of Emperor. In 1806, having held both titles in the interim, he resigned the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which then ceased to exist.

Following the Congress of Vienna, which restored order to Europe following the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the host country Austria became part of the German Confederation till the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. In the nineteenth century nationalist movements within the empire became increasingly evident, and could no longer be overlooked by the second half of the century, and the German element became increasingly weakened. With Austria's expulsion from the Confederation and the 1866 war the Dual Monarchy with Hungary was created by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867. This succeeded in reducing but not removing nationalist tensions in the multiethnic state, which were to boil over with the 1914 assassination of the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, and the ensuing chain reaction resulting in the First World War. The losses of the war resulted in the collapse of the empire and dynasty in 1918.

The non-German ethnic groups broke away leaving Austria's current boundaries as German Austria, which was proclaimed an independent republic. Persistent global economic crisis and domestic political tensions led to civil strife in February 1934, with the May Constitution of 1934 resulting in an authoritarian corporate state. Just two months later the Austrian Nazis staged the July coup, wanting to annex the country to the German Third Reich, resulting in the assassination of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss. While the coup failed, Adolf Hitler succeeded in annexing Austria on 12 March 1938 as Ostmark, until 1945. Austria was partitioned after the Second World War and then in 1955 became the independent sovereign state (Second Republic) that has existed to the present day. In 1995, Austria joined the European Union.