Austria's Independence: A Country's Sovereign Status

Austria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous city and state.

The area of today's Austria has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic period. Around 400 BC, it was inhabited by the Celts and then annexed by the Romans in the late 1st century BC. Christianization in the region began in the 4th and 5th centuries, during the late Roman period, followed by the arrival of numerous Germanic tribes during the Migration Period.

Austria, as a unified state, emerged from the remnants of the Eastern and Hungarian March at the end of the first millennium, first as a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, it then developed into a Duchy in 1156, and was made an Archduchy in 1453.

Being the heartland of the Habsburg monarchy since the late 13th century, Austria was a major imperial power in Central Europe for centuries and from the 16th century, Vienna was also serving as the Holy Roman Empire's administrative capital. Before the dissolution of the empire two years later, in 1804, Austria established its own empire, which became a great power and one of the largest states in Europe. The empire's defeat in wars and the loss of territories in the 1860s paved the way for the establishment of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia, which ultimately escalated into World War I. The empire's defeat and subsequent collapse led to the proclamation of the Republic of German-Austria in 1918 and the First Austrian Republic in 1919. During the interwar period, anti-parliamentarian sentiments culminated in the formation of an Austrofascist dictatorship under Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934. A year before the outbreak of World War II, Austria was annexed into Nazi Germany by Adolf Hitler, and it became a sub-national division. After its liberation in 1945 and a decade of Allied occupation, the country regained its sovereignty and declared its perpetual neutrality in 1955.

Austria is a semi-presidential representative democracy with a popularly elected president as head of state and a chancellor as head of government and chief executive. Austria has the 13th highest nominal GDP per capita with high standards of living. The country has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 and of the European Union since 1995.

Austria's history as a Celtic kingdom

Austria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, with a population of around 9 million people. The area of present-day Austria has been inhabited since the Paleolithic period, and from the 7th century BC onwards, it was a key region of Celtic occupation.

The history of Austria can be traced back to the late Iron Age when it was occupied by the people of the Hallstatt Celtic culture, dating back to around 800 BC. Hallstatt, a prehistoric salt-mining area, is the site of the oldest archaeological evidence of the Celts in Europe. The Celtic Kingdom of Noricum, which included most of modern-day Austria and parts of modern-day Slovenia, was centred around the region's ironworks. The Romans referred to this kingdom as Noricum, and it existed from around 800 to 400 BC.

Around 400 BC, Celtic peoples from Western Europe settled in the eastern Alps, and the kingdom of Noricum developed into a Celtic state. By the 6th century BC, the area was the core of the Hallstatt culture. The Romans conquered Noricum in 16 BC and made it a province, which lasted until 476. The remaining regions of modern-day Austria that were not part of the province of Noricum were divided between the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Raetia.

Christianization in the region began in the late Roman period, in the 4th and 5th centuries, followed by the arrival of Germanic tribes during the Migration Period. Austria emerged as a unified state from the remnants of the Eastern and Hungarian March at the end of the first millennium. It first served as a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, then became a Duchy in 1156 and was made an Archduchy in 1453.

Austria has had a complex history, with drastic changes to its territory over time. It ceased to exist as an independent country when it was annexed by the Third Reich in 1938, but after World War II, it was liberated and occupied by Allied forces. In 1955, Austria regained its sovereignty, becoming the Second Austrian Republic, and declared its perpetual neutrality.

The Roman Empire's rule over Austria

Present-day Petronell-Carnuntum in eastern Austria was an important army camp turned capital city in what became known as the Pannonia Superior. Carnuntum was home to 50,000 people for nearly 400 years.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area was first invaded by the Germanic Rugii which made this region part of their "Rugiland". In 487, most of modern Austria was conquered by Odoacer, a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube, which incorporated most of today's Austria in his Kingdom of Italy. By 493, it was conquered by the Germanic Ostrogoths which created their own kingdom, the Ostrogothic Kingdom. Following the Kingdom's fall the area was invaded by the Alemanni, Baiuvarii, Slavs, and Avars.

The Babenbergs' rule over Austria

The Babenbergs were a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves, descending from the Popponids and originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria). The Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its elevation to a duchy in 1156, and from then until the extinction of the line in 1246, whereafter they were succeeded by the House of Habsburg.

The Babenberg family can be broken down into two distinct groups: the Elder or Franconian House of Babenberg and the Younger or Austrian House of Babenberg, or simply the House of Babenberg. The Elder House claimed to have originated from the first, but scholars have not been able to verify that claim. The Younger House ruled over Austria from 976 onwards.

Leopold I, possibly a descendant of the Luitpolding duke Arnulf of Bavaria, was first mentioned as a faithful follower of Emperor Otto I. He remained a loyal supporter of Otto's son and successor Otto II and in 976 appears as count of the Bavarian Eastern March, then a district not more than 60 miles in breadth on the eastern frontier of the duchy, which grew into the Margraviate of Austria. Leopold, who received the territory as a reward for his fidelity to Emperor Otto II during the uprising of Duke Henry II of Bavaria, extended its area down the Danube river into what is today Lower Austria at the expense of the retreating Magyars.

Leopold was succeeded in 994 by his son Henry I, who continued his father's policy, and was followed in 1018 by his brother Adalbert, whose marked loyalty to Emperor Henry II and his Salian successor Henry III was rewarded by many tokens of favour. Adalbert expanded the Austrian territory up to the present borders on the Leitha, March and Thaya rivers. He was succeeded in 1055 by his son, Ernest.

Leopold II, margrave from 1075, quarrelled with Emperor Henry IV during the Investiture Controversy, when he supported the papal side of Bishop Altmann of Passau. Though Leopold had to cope with the invading troops of Duke Vratislaus II of Bohemia and was defeated at the 1082 Battle of Mailberg, the emperor was unable to oust him from his march or to prevent the succession of his son Leopold III in 1096. Between 1075 and 1095 the dynasty had its seat at Babenberg Castle of Gars am Kamp.

Leopold III supported Henry V, the son of Emperor Henry IV, in his rising against his father, but was soon drawn over to the emperor's side. In 1106 he married the daughter of Henry IV, Agnes, widow of Duke Frederick I of Swabia. In 1125 he declined the royal crown in favour of Lothair of Supplinburg. His zeal in founding monasteries, such as Klosterneuburg Monastery, earned for him his surname "the Pious", and canonization in the fifteenth century. He is regarded as the patron saint of Lower and Upper Austria.

One of Leopold's younger sons was Bishop Otto of Freising. His eldest son Leopold IV became margrave in 1136, and in 1139 received the Duchy of Bavaria from the hands of King Conrad III, who had banned the Welf duke Henry the Proud.

Leopold's brother Henry Jasomirgott (allegedly named after his favourite oath, "Yes, so [help] me God!") was made Count Palatine of the Rhine in 1140, and became Margrave of Austria on Leopold's death in 1141. Having married Gertrude, the widow of Henry the Proud, he was invested in 1143 with the Duchy of Bavaria, and resigned his office as count palatine. In 1147 he participated in the Second Crusade, and after his return, renounced Bavaria at the instance of the new king Frederick Barbarossa who gave the duchy of Bavaria to Henry the Proud's son, Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony. As compensation for this, Austria, the capital of which had been transferred to Vienna about 1155, was elevated into a duchy according to the Privilegium Minus.

The second duke was Henry's son Leopold V, who succeeded him in 1177 and took part in the crusades of 1182 and 1190 as well as the Third Crusade. In Palestine, he quarrelled with King Richard I of England, captured him on his homeward journey and handed him over to Emperor Henry VI. Leopold increased the territories of the Babenbergs by acquiring the Duchy of Styria under the will of his kinsman Duke Ottokar IV. He died in 1194, and Austria fell to one son, Frederick, and Styria to another, Leopold; but on Frederick's death in 1198 they were again united by Leopold as Duke Leopold VI, surnamed "the Glorious".

The new duke fought in the crusades in Spain, Egypt, and Palestine, but is more celebrated as a lawgiver, a patron of letters, and a founder of many towns. Under him Vienna became the centre of culture in Germany and the great school of Minnesingers. His later years were spent in strife with his son Frederick, and he died in 1230 at San Germano, now renamed Cassino, whither he had gone to arrange the peace between Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX.

Frederick II, Leopold VI's son by Theodora Angelina, succeeded his father as duke upon the elder man's death in 1230. Frederick II soon earned the epithet "the Quarrelsome" from his ongoing disputes with the kings of Hungary and Bohemia and with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Duke Frederick deprived his mother and sisters of their possessions, was hated by his subjects on account of his oppressive rule, and, in 1236, was placed under the imperial ban and driven from Austria. However, he was later restored to his duchy when Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated. Subsequently, Duke Frederick II treated with Emperor Frederick II in vain to make Austria a kingdom.

The male line of the Babenbergs became extinct in 1246, when Frederick II was killed in battle (the Henneberg branch of the Franconian Babenbergs lived on until 1583 when its lands were divided among the two branches of the Wettin family).

Frederick's heir general was Gertrude of Austria, the only child of his late elder brother, Henry of Austria by that man's wife, Agnes of Thuringia. However, neither her husbands nor her son succeeded in settling the Babenberg inheritance under their power. Gertrude's only surviving child, Agnes of Baden, tried to reclaim at least part of her inheritance through her third husband Ulrich II of Heunburg, but was unsuccessful.

After some years of struggle known as the Austrian Interregnum or War of the Babenberg Succession (1246–1256/78/82), the Duchies of Austria and Styria fell to Ottokar II of Bohemia, and subsequently to Rudolph I of Habsburg, whose descendants were to rule Austria until 1918.

The Habsburgs' rule over Austria

The Habsburgs were a major European dynasty that ruled over Austria for centuries. The dynasty takes its name from the Habsburg Castle, built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland by Radbot of Klettgau. The first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108.

In 1438, Duke Albert V of Austria was chosen as the successor to his father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund. Although Albert himself only reigned for a year, every emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was a Habsburg, with only one exception.

In 1526, following the Battle of Mohács, Bohemia and the part of Hungary not occupied by the Ottomans came under Austrian rule. Ottoman expansion into Hungary led to frequent conflicts between the two empires, particularly evident in the Long War of 1593 to 1606. The Turks made incursions into Styria nearly 20 times, of which some are cited as "burning, pillaging, and taking thousands of slaves".

In 1804, Austria established its own empire, which became a great power and one of the largest states in Europe. The empire's defeat in wars and the loss of territories in the 1860s paved the way for the establishment of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

Austria's independence and neutrality

Austria is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The country has a population of around 9 million.

Austria's history can be traced back to the late Iron Age when it was occupied by the Hallstatt Celtic culture. In the late 1st century BC, the lands south of the Danube became part of the Roman Empire. In the 6th century, the Bavarii, a Germanic people, occupied these lands until it fell to the Frankish Empire established by the Germanic Franks in the 9th century. The name Ostarrîchi (Austria) has been in use since 996 AD when it was a margravate of the Duchy of Bavaria and from 1156 an independent duchy (later archduchy) of the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806).

Austria was dominated by the House of Habsburg and House of Habsburg-Lorraine from 1273 to 1918. In 1806, when Emperor Francis II of Austria dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, Austria became the Austrian Empire, and was also part of the German Confederation until the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. In 1867, Austria formed a dual monarchy with Hungary: the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When this empire collapsed after the end of World War I in 1918, Austria was reduced to the main, mostly German-speaking areas of the empire (its current frontiers), and adopted the name, the Republic of German-Austria. However, union with Germany and the chosen country name were forbidden by the Allies at the Treaty of Versailles. This led to the creation of the First Austrian Republic (1919–1933).

Following the First Republic, Austrofascism tried to keep Austria independent from the German Reich. Engelbert Dollfuss accepted that most Austrians were German and Austrian, but wanted Austria to remain independent from Germany. In 1938, Austrian-born Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Germany, which was supported by a large majority of Austrians. After the German defeat in World War II, the German identity in Austria was weakened. Ten years after the Second World War Austria again became an independent republic as the Second Austrian Republic in 1955. Austria joined the European Union in 1995.

Austria is a semi-presidential representative democracy with a popularly elected president as head of state and a chancellor as head of government and chief executive. Austria has the 13th highest nominal GDP per capita with high standards of living. The country has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 and of the European Union since 1995. It hosts the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and is a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Interpol. It also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999.

Austria declared its perpetual neutrality in 1955 and has shaped its foreign policy on the basis of neutrality. However, Austria began to reassess its definition of neutrality following the fall of the Soviet Union, granting overflight rights for the UN-sanctioned action against Iraq in 1991, and since 1995, it has developed participation in the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy. Also in 1995, it joined NATO's Partnership for Peace (although it was careful to do so only after Russia joined) and subsequently participated in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia. Meanwhile, the only part of the Constitutional Law on Neutrality of 1955 still fully valid is not to allow foreign military bases in Austria.

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