Austria's Country Status: A Historical Perspective

Austria's history dates back to the late Iron Age when it was occupied by the Hallstatt Celtic culture. In the first 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 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 of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1273, the House of Habsburg and House of Habsburg-Lorraine began to dominate Austria, which lasted until 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.

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.

The Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Noricum

The Kingdom of Noricum was a federation of tribes that included most of modern Austria and part of Slovenia. It was founded around 400 BC, and had its capital at the royal residence at Virunum on the Magdalensberg.

Around 800 BC, the region was inhabited mostly by the people of the Hallstatt culture. Around 450 BC, they merged with the people of other areas in the south-western regions of Germany and eastern France.

In the first century AD, Noricum became a province of the Roman Empire. Its borders were the Danube to the north, Raetia and Vindelici to the west, Pannonia to the east and south-east, and Italia (Venetia et Histria) to the south.

The Noricum kingdom was a major provider of weaponry for the Roman army from the mid-Republic onwards. The famous Noric steel was largely used in the making of Roman weapons. Gold and salt were found in considerable quantities. The plant called saliunca (the wild nard, a relative of the lavender) grew in abundance and was used as a perfume according to Pliny the Elder.

The inhabitants developed a culture rich in art, salt mining, cattle breeding, and agriculture. When part of the area became a Roman province, the Romans introduced water management and the already important trade relations between the people north and south of the Alps increased.

Noricum was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 16 BC. For a long time previously, the Noricans had enjoyed independence under princes of their own and carried on commerce with the Romans. In 48 BC they took the side of Julius Caesar in the civil war against Pompey. In 16 BC, having joined with the Pannonians in invading Histria, they were defeated by Publius Silius Nerva, proconsul of Illyricum. Thereafter, Noricum became a Roman province.

The Duchy of Bavaria

The medieval Bavarian stem duchy covered present-day Southeastern Germany and most parts of Austria along the Danube river, up to the Hungarian border which then ran along the Leitha tributary in the east. It included the Altbayern regions of the modern state of Bavaria, with the lands of the Nordgau march (the later Upper Palatinate), but without its Swabian and Franconian regions. The separation of the Duchy of Carinthia in 976 entailed the loss of large East Alpine territories covering the present-day Austrian states of Carinthia and Styria as well as the adjacent Carniolan region in today's Slovenia. The eastern March of Austria—roughly corresponding to the present state of Lower Austria— was likewise elevated to a duchy in its own right by 1156.

The Duchy of Austria

In 1192, the Babenbergs also acquired the Duchy of Styria. With the death of Frederick II in 1246, the line of the Babenbergs was extinguished.

In 1453, the archducal title of the Austrian rulers, invented by Duke Rudolf IV in the forged Privilegium Maius of 1359, was officially acknowledged by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III.

The Austrian Empire

However, the rise of nationalism and the desire for independence among the various ethnic groups within the empire posed significant challenges. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 by a Bosnian Serb nationalist triggered World War I, which ultimately led to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

After the war, the empire was dissolved, and Austria became a republic. The Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919 confirmed the new order in Central Europe, and Austria was reduced to a rump state, losing significant territories to the newly formed or enlarged states in the region.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire

The Empire was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War and was dissolved shortly after Hungary terminated the union with Austria on 31 October 1918. The Kingdom of Hungary and the First Austrian Republic were treated as its successors de jure, whereas the independence of the First Czechoslovak Republic, the Second Polish Republic, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, respectively, and most of the territorial demands of the Kingdom of Romania and the Kingdom of Italy were also recognized by the victorious powers in 1920.

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