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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 15 general entries.
Special Topics
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Austrian
1804. The year 962 is that preferred by German and Austrian historians as the date of the foundation of the Holy Roman Empire. It was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty from 1438 till its dissolution in 1806. In fact, a specifically Austrian Empire was only proclaimed when it was obvious that the Holy Roman Empire had no future.
| Which Habsburg emperor also ruled Spain and its new empire in the Americas, and also ruled the Netherlands? | Austrian History
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Charles V. The combination of so much power in the hands of one person was viewed with consternation at the time and resisted by many other European powers, including France. When Charles V abdicated in 1556, the Spanish and Central European empires went to separate monarchs.
| In 1683 Vienna was besieged by the army of another imperial power. It was the __________ ? | Austrian History
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Ottoman Empire . Much of south-eastern Central Europe was under Ottoman rule from about 1520-1700. It was only in 1699, that the Turks were pushed back to a really significant distance from Vienna, and that the court returned there from Prague. From about 1683-99, it was something of a 'front-line' city.
| Which German state successfully challenged the leading position of the Habsburgs in Central Europe in 1740-63? | Austrian History
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Prussia. The rise of Prussia to the status of a first-class European power during the reign of Frederick II (the Great) was sudden and unexpected.
Maria Theresa. Legally, women were barred from inheriting office in Central Europe, but Maria Theresa succeeded under an arrangement to ensure the continuity of the House of Habsburg. This arrangement was called the Pragmatic Sanction. It was a practical solution to a practical problem.
| In the Napoleonic Wars a combined Austrian and Russian army suffered a particularly devastating defeat at the hands of Napoleon. What was the battle called? | Austrian History
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Austerlitz. Austerlitz is often regarded as Napoleon's greatest victory.
| After the Napoleonic Wars the name of one Austrian politician (Foreign Minister, 1809-48 and also Chancellor, 1822-48) became a byword for political repression. Who was it? | Austrian History
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Metternich. More than anyone else, Metternich was the architect of the Central European police state of the period 1815-48. (Obviously, it was *not* a modern, totalitarian police state, but rather a 'surveillance state', that also had pre-publication censorship and witch-hunts for subversives, imaginary as well as real).
| In 1848, there were uprisings and (unsuccessful) revolutions in many parts of the Habsburg domains. In which region or country did the revolution prove hardest to suppress? | Austrian History
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Hungary. Many Hungarian units of the Habsburg army and Hungarian aristocrats supported to revolution in Hungary, making it truly national in scope. The Austrian government had great difficulty suppressing the Hungarian uprising but eventually did so with the help of Tsarist Russian troops - and amid considerable brutality.
| Until the rapid expansion of Budapest from the about 1860 onwards, which place was regarded as the 'second city' of the Empire? | Austrian History
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Prague. Prague, which was also the capital of Bohemia, had been immensely important since the Middle Ages. The city is now the capital of the Czech Repbulic.
| What was the most immediate result of Austria's defeat by Prussia in 1866? | Austrian History
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The exclusion of Austria from Germany. Before 1866, the distinction between Germany and Austria was vague and rather meaningless.
| When was the Austrian Empire transformed into the 'dual monarchy' of Austria-Hungary? | Austrian History
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1867. This re-constitition of the Empire satisfied the aspirations of the Hungarians for self-rule, but was also part of a policy of 'divide and rule' as substantial non-Hungarian groups were placed under Hungarian rule, for examples the Slovaks and most of the Croats. (That said, the Hungarians reached an arrangement with the Croats in 1868 that gave the latter a substantial degree of autonomy).
| Austria-Hungary disintegrated at the end of World War I. Which completely new country was formed almost exclusively from former Austro-Hungarian territory? | Austrian History
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Czechoslovakia. The small district of Glatz was taken from Germany. Czechoslovakia was comprised of Bohemia, Moravia, a small part of Silesia, Slovakia and Ruthenia. The last of these was lost to the Soviet Union in 1945, and the rest of the country divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Yugoslavia acquired large areas from Austria-Hungary, but its core, Serbia had been independent before WWI. The same applied in the case of Romania, which also acquired substantial areas from Austria-Hungary in 1918.
1938. The inclusion of Austria in Germany had been a long-standing hope among some German nationalists. However, Hitler's plans for a 'Greater Germany' extended far beyond the union of Austria with Germany.
1955. From 1945-55 the country was occupied, in much the same way as Germany by American, British, French and Soviet forces, which all had their own sectors in Vienna. (The Center, District I, was international and run jointly by all four powers of occupation). Unlike Germany, Austria had its own national government from 1945 on, which succeeded in negotiating the withdrawal of all foreign troops during the Cold War.
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