Austria's Southern Expansion: Benefits And Strategic Advantages

Austria's expansion south was driven by a desire to increase its territory, population, and tax revenues. It also pushed the Ottoman Empire further away from Vienna, which had been besieged by large Ottoman armies in 1529 and 1683.

The Austrian Empire was proclaimed by Francis II in 1804 in response to Napoleon's declaration of the First French Empire

The Austrian Empire remained part of the Holy Roman Empire until the latter's dissolution in 1806. It continued fighting against Napoleon throughout the Napoleonic Wars, except for a period between 1809 and 1813, when Austria was first allied with Napoleon during the invasion of Russia and later neutral during the first few weeks of the Sixth Coalition War.

Austria and its allies emerged victorious in the war, leading to the Congress of Vienna, which reaffirmed the empire as one of the great powers of the 19th century. Klemens von Metternich, who became Foreign Minister in 1809, played a major role in the Congress of Vienna and was the chief architect of the "Metternich congress" or "Metternich system".

Austria-Hungary was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918

The Austrian half of the empire, Cisleithania, consisted of seventeen historical crown lands, including Bohemia, Bukovina, Carinthia, Carniola, Dalmatia, Galicia, Küstenland, Lower Austria, Moravia, Salzburg, Silesia, Styria, Tyrol, Upper Austria and Vorarlberg. The Hungarian half, Transleithania, was dominated by the Magyars, but also included the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, and the free city of Rijeka/Fiume.

The two halves of the empire were treated as separate sovereign states, with their own constitutions, governments and parliaments. The citizens of each half were treated as foreigners in the other half. The two halves were also quite different in terms of their internal structure, with the Austrian half being a multi-ethnic state that granted numerous rights to its various nationalities, while the Hungarian half was dominated by the Magyars, who held the non-Magyar ethnic groups as minorities.

The two halves of the empire were united by their common army and foreign policy, with the monarch, Emperor Franz Joseph, personifying the unity of the empire. The two halves also shared a common finance ministry, responsible for financing the two "common" portfolios. The two halves conducted unified diplomatic and defence policies, with the foreign affairs and defence ministries under the direct authority of the monarch.

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was a response to the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, which had resulted in the dissolution of the German Confederation and the exclusion of Austria from German affairs. The Compromise was also a recognition of the need to compromise with Hungary in order to retain the empire's great power status, following the loss of northern Italian territories to the Kingdom of Italy in the 1859 Franco-Austrian War.

The annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938

After 1933, when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, desire for unification could be identified with the Nazis, for whom it was an integral part of the Nazi "Heim ins Reich" ("back home to the realm") concept, which sought to incorporate as many Volksdeutsche (ethnic Germans outside Germany) as possible into a "Greater Germany". Nazi Germany's agents cultivated pro-unification tendencies in Austria, and sought to undermine the Austrian government, which was controlled by the Austrofascist Fatherland Front, which opposed unification. During an attempted coup in 1934, Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated by Austrian Nazis. The defeat of the coup prompted many leading Austrian Nazis to go into exile in Germany, where they continued their efforts to unify the two countries.

In early 1938, under increasing pressure from pro-unification activists, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg announced that there would be a referendum on a possible union with Germany versus maintaining Austria's sovereignty to be held on 13 March. Portraying this as defying the popular will in Austria and Germany, Hitler threatened an invasion and secretly pressured Schuschnigg to resign. A day before the planned referendum, on 12 March, the German Army crossed the border into Austria, unopposed by the Austrian military. A plebiscite was held on 10 April, in which the ballot was not secret, and threats and coercion were employed to manipulate the vote, resulting in 99.7% approval for the Anschluss. While the population's true opinions are unknown, it has been estimated that about 70% of Austrians would have voted to preserve Austrian independence.

The Austrian Republic was established in 1945

Austria's history is complex, with the territory understood by the term 'Austria' undergoing drastic changes over time. The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a multinational European great power from 1804 to 1867. It was created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, it was the third most populous monarchy in Europe, after the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom.

The Austrian Empire was proclaimed by Francis II in 1804 in response to Napoleon's declaration of the First French Empire. It unified all Habsburg possessions under one central government. The Kingdom of Hungary, as Regnum Independens, was administered by its own institutions separately from the rest of the empire.

The Austrian Empire was part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806. The Austrian Empire continued fighting against Napoleon throughout the Napoleonic Wars, except for a period between 1809 and 1813, when Austria was first allied with Napoleon during the invasion of Russia and later neutral during the first few weeks of the Sixth Coalition War.

The Austrian Empire and its allies emerged victorious in the war, leading to the Congress of Vienna, which reaffirmed the empire as one of the great powers of the 19th century. The Austrian Empire was the main beneficiary from the Congress of Vienna and it established an alliance with Britain, Prussia, and Russia, forming the Quadruple Alliance.

The Austrian Empire also gained new territories from the Congress of Vienna, and its influence expanded to the north through the German Confederation and also into Italy. Klemens von Metternich, who became Foreign Minister in 1809, was the chief architect of the Congress of Vienna. He also had a major influence in European politics, known for his strong conservative views and approach.

Under Metternich, nationalist revolts in Austrian north Italy and in the German states were forcibly crushed. At home, he pursued a similar policy to suppress revolutionary and liberal ideals. Metternich's policies were strongly against revolution and liberalism, which he believed to be a form of legalized revolution. Metternich believed that absolute monarchy was the only proper system of government.

The Austrian Empire participated in the First War of Schleswig (1848-1850) and the Crimean War. However, the Revolutions of 1848 threatened the empire, and the Austrian army was defeated in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. This led to the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which joined the Kingdom of Hungary and the Empire of Austria to form Austria-Hungary.

The Austrian State Treaty in 1955

The Austrian State Treaty, also known as the Austrian Independence Treaty, was signed on 15 May 1955 in Vienna, at the Schloss Belvedere, among the Allied occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union) and the Austrian government. The treaty re-established a free, sovereign and democratic Austria. It came into force on 27 July 1955.

The treaty was based on the Moscow Declaration of 30 October 1943, in which the Allies agreed that Austria would be regarded as the first victim of Nazi aggression and treated as a liberated and independent country after the war. In the immediate aftermath of World War II, Austria was divided into four zones and jointly occupied by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, the United States, and France. Vienna was similarly subdivided, but the central district was collectively administered by the Allied Control Council.

The Austrian State Treaty was the result of negotiations with the Soviet foreign minister, Molotov, which secured the breakthrough in February 1955. After Austrian promises of perpetual neutrality, Austria was accorded full independence on 15 May 1955, and the last occupation troops left on 25 October that year.

The treaty included the following important points:

• Recognition of the Austrian state and its government
• The minority rights of the Slovene and Croat minorities were expressly detailed
• Anschluss (Austria's political union with Germany) was forbidden
• Nazi and fascist organisations were prohibited
• Austria's neutrality was not included in the original text of the treaty but was declared by parliament on 26 October 1955, after the last Allied troops were to leave Austria according to the treaty
• The Allies left Austrian territory on 25 October 1955
• 26 October came to be celebrated as a national holiday

The Austrian State Treaty was significant in establishing Austria as a sovereign and democratic country, ending its occupation by the Allied powers and setting the foundation for its future neutrality.

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