Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0023/00236.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 28KB | 478 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00236}
$Pretitle{376}
$Title{Austria
History in Brief}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Federal Press Service}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Austria, Washington DC}
$Subject{austria
austrian
state
vienna
first
government
empire
new
political
war}
$Date{1988}
$Log{}
Country:     Austria
Book:        Austria Facts and Figures
Author:      Federal Press Service
Affiliation: Embassy of Austria, Washington DC
Date:        1988

History in Brief

From a Border Province to a Major Power

     The Austrian of today tends to take a very sober view of his country's
history. He stands with his feet planted firmly in the 20th century and
refuses to mourn a long lost empire. The story of the multinational
Austro-Hungarian empire and of the ruling house of Habsburg, whose influence
spread far beyond the monarchy itself, is not regarded as a reason to
cultivate national traditions. On the contrary, they are seen as a step on the
way towards a truly international outlook. The close proximity in the past of
so many different nationalities within a single state has left its mark in the
personal background of many Austrians.

     But in forming the course of history there are stronger forces at work
than the mentality of a single nation. As a state at the heart of Europe,
Austria has had its full share of all that history has brought to the
continent, including the suffering. Its story is as varied as that of the
continent as a whole: a Roman province, a border area in the south-east of the
Holy Roman Empire, its gradual rise to becoming a major power, sudden collaps
after the first world war, the struggle for survival as a republic, ending
when German troops marched in, and finally the restoration of the republic
after the second world war.

Three Cultures

     Austrian history has been determined primarily by the country's
geographical position, which is at the meeting point of three cultures -
Romanic, Germanic and Slav.

     As a long ago as the early Iron Age, between about 1000 and 400 BC, the
Indo-European Illyrians established a high level of civilisation, as is shown
by the so-called Hallstatt civilisation. The Illyrians were followed in turn
by the Celts. The Romans made the Alpine und Danube regions a part of their
empire around the time of Christ. The Roman province of Noricum, previously a
Celtic kingdom, incorporated much of what today is Austria. Vorarlberg and
parts of Tirol belonged to the province of Rhaetia while the eastern part of
modern Austria, in particular the Vienna Basin, which was of strategic
importance to the Romans, was in Pannonia. During the time of the Romans, the
Alpine and Danube regions underwent rapid economic and cultural development.
Around 300 AD, Christianity began to spread throughout the area.

     About a hundred years later, these regions were overrun by Germanic
tribes, and during the era of mass migration the territory covered by the
Austria of today was subject to repeated devastation as Teuton supremacy gave
way to that of the Huns, the Avars, the Slavs and then the Magyars. Between
500 and 700 AD, the region was taken over by the Bavarian tribes, who
eventually succeeded in establishing themselves firmly. Towards the end of the
8th century, Charlemagne succeeded in driving out the Avars and established a
Markgrafschaft, or border province, to defend his empire in the east. This was
taken by the Magyars in 880 AD but regained after Otto the Great defeated the
invaders at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 AD.

The Babenbergs

     For almost a thousand years following this, the course of Austrian
history was determined by two dynasties, the Babenbergs, who ruled for 270
years, and the Habsburgs, who held power for the next 640. In 976 AD, Leopold
von Babenberg was made Margrave of Austria and his successors gradually moved
their capital further eastwards until in the 12th century Heinrich II built
his Hofburg, the imperial palace, in Vienna. Along with Styria, Austria, which
corresponded then to the present province of Lower Austria, was proclaimed a
hereditary duchy within the Holy Roman Empire. Under Babenberg rule Austria
experienced a long period of peaceful development. Gold, silver and salt were
mined; religious orders established their monasteries further and further
towards the east and these soon became centres of cultural life.

     The year 996 AD brought the first documentary mention of Ostarrichi, the
name under which the region was already known to its inhabitants and which
gave way to the present German name for Austria, Osterreich.

     The last of the Babenbergs, Friedrich the Quarrelsome, was killed in a
battle against the Magyars in 1246, after which Austria went to King Przemysl
Ottokar II of Bohemia and Styria to King Bela of Hungary. Later however
Styria was taken over by Ottokar, along with Carinthia and Carniola.

The Habsburgs

     The year 1273 brought the end of the interregnum in the Holy Roman Empire
with the appointment by the Electors of Count Rudolf von Habsburg as King of
the Germans. Ottokar of Bohemia was called on to deliver an oath of allegiance
in return for his rights in Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, but he
refused; a compromise was reached but lasted only a short time and eventually
the two sides resorted to arms. In 1278, Rudolf emerged victorious from the
Battle of Marchfeld, in which Ottokar was killed, and the rise of the House of
Habsburg began.

     During the 640 years of rule by the "Casa d'Austria" or the House of
Austria, there were 20 emperors and kings. The Habsburgs ruled over the Holy
Roman Empire in almost unbroken succession until its abolition in 1806. There
was a time, at the height of the Habsburg influence, when the sun never set on
their empire; the accession in the 16th century of Karl V, from the family's
Spanish line, had meant the acquisition of territories in the New World in
addition to those in Europe.

     This process of political consolidation brought with it considerable
cultural progress. The University of Vienna, today the oldest in the
German-speaking world, was established in 1365 during the reign of Rudolf IV,
known as the Founder. Towards the end of the 15th century, especially during
the reign of Maximilian I, the new spirit of humanism began to spread through
Austria.

     The Austrian rulers were able to extend their possessions elsewhere, not
merely by war but also by peaceful means, in particular by carefully chosen
marriages. Maximilian I, "the last of the knights", married Mary of Burgundy,
his son Philipp Juana of Spain and thus Burgundy and Flanders went to Austria.
A line of the Habsburg family came to power in Spain with the succession in
1516 of Maximilian's grandson Karl. The union of Bohemia and Hungary with
Austria in 1526 was also the result of treaties and marriages between the
ruling houses. From the 1520s onwards, there were two distinct Habsburg
lines, one ruling over the Austrian lands, the other over Spain and the
Netherlands.

The Turkish Wars

     When the Ottoman rulers began their drive westwards in the 16th and 17th
centuries, Austria once again assumed the role of European defence. In 1529
and again in 1683, vast Turkish armies laid siege to Vienna, but without
success. The Turks were gradually pushed back and Austria began to emerge as a
major power. One of the leading figures in Austrian history at this time was
Prince Eugene of Savoy, a grandnephew of France's Cardinal Mazarin.

     Eugene first acquired prominence with his services to Austria during the
Turkish campaign and continued to play a major military and also a diplomatic
role.

     This was the Baroque era and the specific note with which the style was
invested by Austrian architects is to be seen in any number of magnificent
castles, monasteries and churches, especially in Vienna and Salzburg.

Maria Theresa's State Reforms

     After the end of the Habsburgs' Spanish line in 1700 and the ensuing War
of the Spanish Succession, the Austrian line succeeded in keeping the