Prehistory
The earliest evidence of human presence in present-day Austria dates from the Early Paleolithic (about 500,000–300,000 years ago) and has been found in Austria’s more low-lying parts. During various favorable climatic stages, parts of the alpine area were also sought out by humans.
The Late Paleolithic (about 40,000–9,000 years ago) is richly represented, both with cave dwellings and open camp sites. The often depicted Venus from Willendorf comes from a late Paleolithic campsite in Lower Austria.
Few studies have touched on Mesolithic settlements. The first farmers belonged to the line band ceramic culture and appeared in the 4000s BC. in the easternmost part of the country; in the alp area, the transition to the neolithic is considerably later. To see more information other than history, please visit Abbreviationfinder to learn more about climate, population, government, and economy for the country of Austria.
The cultural picture during the Neolithic is divided: different sub-areas are linked to neighboring cultural areas in the north and east, and the alp area is partly distinctive. Copper deposits in the eastern alpine area began to be exploited during the 3000s BC; to this cultural context belonged the Ice Man from the Ötztal Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.
During the copper-stone age, the bell-shaped culture in Austria’s low-lying parts appeared, and the transhumance important for the alpine area developed. The Bronze Age in Austria (c. 2000–600 BC) followed roughly the same development as in the rest of Central Europe, with high-tomb culture followed by urn field culture. Mining and metallurgy continued to develop strongly, as well as during the subsequent Hallstatt period.
The Hallstatt culture (about 1000–400 BC) is richly represented in Austria. The salt trade now based on the Salzburg region led to increased prosperity, and the already lively contacts with Northern Italy were further strengthened.
Celtic culture, carried by a partially immigrant Celtic population, emerged from the 400s BC, mainly along the Danube and in two smaller areas in the southeast; In addition, there was a significant local population continuity. The political complexity of the region gradually increased, and in the centuries before Kr.f. appeared veritable kingdoms. In Magdalensberg, an opidum in Carinthia, the kings of Noricum probably resided. Especially southeastern Austria was now a major supplier of metal products to the Roman Empire.
History
At the beginning of the historical period, the country was inhabited by Celtic, Illyrian and, north of the Danube, also Germanic peoples. During the 100 century BC the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was established, financially significant through its gold deposits and trade between the Adriatic and Central Europe.
The country south of the Danube was subjugated by the Romans from 15 to 10 BC, and divided into the provinces of Noricum (including the central parts of present-day Austria), Raetia (including the western parts) and Pannonia (the eastern). During the 100 century AD Romans got increasingly difficult to maintain the Danube border with Marcomanni, rectangular parallelepiped and other Germanic peoples, of which some groups from the 200’s were allowed to settle south of the river to the foederati strengthen border defense. From the end of the 300s and during the subsequent migration period, the area was occupied in turn by females, cheetahs, ostrogoths, langobards and avars.
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People’s migration time and older medieval times
The area that now constitutes Austria was colonized from the beginning of the 600s by the Germanic Bavarians (Bavarians), who in turn were increasingly drawn into the sphere of power of the expanding France. However, the southeastern part came to be dominated by slaves, ancestors of today’s Slovenes. The Baju goods were ruled by dukes by the family of the Agilolf fingers, until Karl the Great 788 deposed the last Agilolf finger Tassilo III and incorporated the area with the kingdom of France. Following his victory over the Avars in present-day Hungary, Karl organized the eastern border areas as a land county. One of these was named Ostmark (996 Ostarrichi) in the latter part of the 9th century). Other territories in the region that also developed from land counties were Styria and Krain, while Carinthia 976 was separated from Bavaria as its own duchy. Church territories also arose in the area. Archbishopric of Salzburg.
By the division of the Frankish Empire in the 8th century, the region had accrued to the East Frankish (German) kingdom. The border areas in the east had for some time been under the control of the Magyars, but after Otto the Great’s victory over these at Lechfeld 955, they had been re-incorporated with Germany. During this time, the leading family in the area was the house Babenberg, since Leopold I of Babenberg (death 994) became the burial ground of Austria 976. In connection with a settlement 1156 between Emperors Fredrik I Barbarossa and Henrik Lejonet, the babenberg Henrik II Jasomirgott (death 1177) renounce Bavaria against raising Austria to a duchy. In connection with this, he transferred his residence to Vienna.
In 1192, the Babenbergs acquired through the legacy of the Duchy of Styria. During the following period, Austria and Styria were integrated, among other things. by a road through the Semmering Pass, to whose protection Wiener Neustadt was built. At the Babenberg court, the culture flourished, among other things. the German memorial song (Walther von der Vogelweide). German eastern colonization was favored: forests were cleared, land was cultivated, cities founded and the Slavic population largely assimilated to the German-speaking majority.
In 1246, the family extinguished Babenberg. Austria, like the Moravia, Styria, Carinthia and Krain, was incorporated a few years later with the Bohemian king Ottokar II ‘s vast but short-lived kingdom. In 1276, however, in 1273, German King Rudolf I of Habsburg Ottokar chose his possessions except Bohemia and Moravia, thus also Austria. Since in an attempt to recover the lost Ottokar was defeated and killed in 1278, Rudolf in 1282 granted his sons Albrekt I and Rudolf II (1271–90) with Austria and Styria; thus, they laid the foundation for the complex of territories named Austrian (or Habsburg) heritage countries and which, for centuries to come, formed the basis for Habsburg’s development of power.
Habsburg’s path from duchy to world power (1282–1519)
Through a forward-looking territorial policy, the Habsburg family further expanded its sphere of power, mainly in the southern and eastern directions. Carinthia and Krain were acquired in 1335, Tyrol 1363–64, parts of Istria in 1374 and Trieste in 1382. In the west, Vorarlberg won in 1375, but otherwise the Habsburg power expansion in this direction encountered an invincible resistance from the freedom-loving Swiss peasant communities. After decisive military defeats at Morgarten 1315 and Sempach 1386, the Habsburgs were forced to accept the independence of the Eds League.
Despite these adversities, the heritage countries were an area of great and growing economic and political importance. It was crossed by important trade routes between Italy and Germany, and its rich deposits of iron ore in particular formed the basis for a thriving mining industry. In the German domestic policy, the Habsburg house played an increasingly prominent role. expressed itself that the dukes (from 1453 the archdiocese) of Austria from 1438 were regularly appointed to German kings and German-Roman emperors.
The Habsburg power in Austria was temporarily threatened in the 1480s by the Hungarian king Mattias I Corvinus, who in 1485–87 occupied most of the inheritance lands with the capital Vienna. After his death in 1490, Austria returned to the Habsburg house, and Maximilian I, emperor 1493-1519, again held the inheritance lands in a firm grip. The Habsburg expansion could continue and increasingly adopted the form of foresight dynasty politics, according to the bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube (‘War may lead others, you lucky Austria, get married’). Through his own marriage to Karl the bold daughter Maria, Maximilian had gained possession of the rich Burgundian heritage (including the Netherlands and Luxembourg).
His son Filip married Spanish Princess Johanna the Insane, daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, and inherited with her the Spanish empires with their European car lands in southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia, and the Spanish-American colonial empire. Inheritance agreements with Bohemia and Hungary opened up opportunities for a Habsburg succession in these countries as well. When Maximilian’s 19-year-old grandson Karl V ascended the throne in 1519, it could therefore be said with justification that the sun never descended into his kingdom. The medieval vision of a world monarchy under the leadership of the Roman emperor seemed to stand before its realization.
Reformation and Counter-Reformation (1519–1648)
These whitewashing plans, however, ran counter to such an unusual constellation of power as France, the Pope and the Ottoman Empire. Faced with the threat of the attack on the United Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary, staged by Sultan Süleyman In 1521, Karl 1521–22 handed over the board of Austrian heritage countries to his younger brother Ferdinand I, while he retained the Spanish and Burgundian national divisions. In this way, Ferdinand became the ancestor of the Austrian branch of the Habsburg House, the branch which, after Karl V’s death in 1558 and until the kingdom’s dissolution in 1806, became the bearer of the German-Roman emperor dignity.
After King Louis II of Bohemia-Hungary perished after the defeat of the Turks at Mohács in 1526, Bohemia, Moravia, Lausitz, Silesia and a western strip of Hungary Ferdinand, who was married to Ludwig’s sister Anna (1503-47), attacked. This created a historical link between Austria and the aforementioned countries, which lasted until 1918. In the remaining part of Hungary, the Habsburg hostile states chose a counter-king, János (Johan) Zápolya of Transylvania. When he requested the sultan’s help, a new Turkish offensive was launched. Vienna was besieged in 1529, and only after repeated setbacks did Süleyman retire.
In addition to the foreign policy difficulties came the internal crisis caused by the Lutheran Reformation. Protestantism gained early entry into Austria, where the nobility and the bourgeoisie applied for Lutheranism, while the more radical Anabaptists won proselytes mainly among the peasant population. In view of the Turkish danger, Ferdinand, though himself a Catholic, was forced to renounce the Lutherans, while the Anabaptists suffered severe persecution.
Under Emperor Rudolf II, who ruled from 1576 to 1612, Austria was reached by the Counter-Reformation, whose proponents were able to invoke the principle of the prince’s right to determine the religion of the subjects in the Augustsburg religious peace. The counter-reform in Austria was not only aimed at creating unity in religion but also to strengthen the Habsburg central power; the religious struggle coincided in large part with the power struggle between princes and states. In the opposite direction, however, the division within the ruling family seemed to work. expressed the fact that after the death of Ferdinand, the Habsburg territories were divided between various rival family members.
In such circumstances, religious politics at times became weak and faltering. To win the support of the Bohemian states, Rudolf II looked compelled to issue the 1609 Majesty’s Letter, which gave the Bohemians far-reaching religious freedom. Ferdinand II, emperor 1619–37, on the other hand, was completely defeated by the counter-reformation, which, after the victory over the “winter king” Fredrik V of Pfalz on the Vita mountain in 1620, was carried out with the greatest rigor in, among other things. Bohemia and Austria, at the same time as freedom of standing, are cut in favor of an absolutist government, led by a partially new, strictly Catholic ministry with close ties to the court. It was also Ferdinand who led Austria’s diplomacy and warfare during the Thirty Years War.earlier stage, while the Westphalian Peace was concluded in 1648 under his son and successor Ferdinand III. The end of the peace was a defeat for Habsburg’s pursuit of hegemony in the German-Roman Empire but reaffirmed its dominance in the heritage countries, Bohemia and Habsburg Hungary.