Introduction

As a territorial concept, Austria refers to a state that frequently and dramatically changed dimensions throughout the course of its history.  From 996 to around 1500, Austria was smaller than it is today.  After 1500, it assumed truly imperial dimensions and remained imperial until 1918.  As a political concept, Austria also has refered to different forms of government.  After 1282, the Habsburg dynasty bore the name of Austria, "the House of Austria," and Austria was coextenisve with the lands they ruled.  In the 18th century, the term Austrian Monarchy (Monarchia Austriaca) came into use.  In 1804, Austria was reconstituted as an empire, Kaisertum Österreich (Austrian Empire).  In 1867, it was restructured into the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and Austria referred to the western part of the monarchy.  After World War I, Austria became the name of the First Austrian Republic.  After the Anschluss, the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938, Austria was incorporated into the Third Reich, and the Nazis banned the word Austria.  In 1945, the Republic of Austria, the so-called Second Austrian Republic, was re-established.

So where does the historian begin the history of Austria?  One of the obvious difficulties of determining the founding of Austria is that it cannot be definitively and temporally located as an historical event.  Given the complex constitutional and territorial evolution of Austria as a political entity, reasonable arguments can be made for "founding acts" in 976, when the German king invested a Babenburg margrave with holdings in the Danube Valley; in 996, when the first documented reference to Ostarrichi occured; in 1156, when Austria's status as an independent polity within the German empire was enhanced; in 1192, when Austria's Alpine expansion began with the acquisition of Styria; in 1282, when the Habsburgs became rulers of Austria; in 1493, when Maximilian I was elected Holy Roman Emperor, marking the beginning of Austria's international expansion through interdynastic marriages; in 1526, when the Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand I was elected as King of Bohemia and King of Hungary; in 1749, when Maria Theresa consolidated the "House of Austria" into a modern, bureaucratic state; in 1804, when Francis I proclaimed the birth of the Austrian Empire; in 1867, when the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary was established; in 1918, when the First Austrian Republic was proclaimed; in 1945, when the republic was reestablished as the Second Austrian Republic; or in 1955, when Austria regained its full sovereignty after the signing of the Austrian State Treaty.  When faced with such a problem, any one solution will innevitably appear somewhat random, or even exclusive of important preceeding events.  This book is designed to serve as a survey of Austrian history - covering its most important political, military, and cultural periods and events.  It is not designed to be comprehensive in historical scope or analysis.  Other, more learned scholars, have covered each seperate period of Austrian history in considerably more detail.  The safest way to proceed, then, is to start at the beginning, as best as that can be determined by the historical-archeological record.