: Nicholas T. Parsons
: The Shortest History of Austria
: Old Street Publishing
: 9781913083540
: Shortest History
: 1
: CHF 7.50
:
: Regional- und Ländergeschichte
: English
: 256
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
'Incisive but comprehensive, entertaining and well-illustrated, this is the perfect introduction to what was once a huge empire and is now a small but (undeservedly) very lucky country' TIM BLANNING Austria is a small country with a glorious history but a troubled past. It sits at the crossroads of central Europe: the furthest the Ottomans reached in the seventeenth century, a back-channel between east and west during the Cold War, and today a member of the European Union with its neutrality challenged by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In The Shortest History of Austria, Nicholas T. Parsons expertly tells the story of Austria from its origins at the outer reaches of the Roman Empire to its dominance of central Europe under the Habsburgs, and from the rebuilding of the republic after the devastation of World War II to the political tensions of today. As he ranges from the Romans to the Reformation, from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the Anschluss, and from Mozart to Gustav Klimt to Harry Lime, Parsons reveals the drama of Austria's history - and the crucial role the country has played in the story of Europe.

Nicholas T. Parsons is the author of Blue Guide Austria and Vienna: A Cultural and Literary History, as well as Worth the Detour, a history of the guidebook as a literary genre, and The Joy of Bad Verse, a celebration of successfully bad poets. For thirty years, he has been writing about central Europe, and in particular Austria, which he regards as a second home.

750–400 BC. Hallstatt Civilisation (early Iron Age)

150BC. Celts establish the Kingdom of Noricum centred on Carinthia

15BC. Roman province of Rhaetia includes North Tyrol and Vorarlberg

10AD. Romans subjugate Noricum and establish the province of Pannonia

25AD. Romans consolidate theLimes (fortified frontier) along the Danube from Passau to Carnuntum

304AD. Christianity reaches the Danube

375AD. The so-calledVölkerwanderung (Great Migrations) begins with tribes arriving from the East

Mid-5th Century. The Huns penetrate and devastate Central and parts of Western Europe

488AD. Roman withdrawal from Danubian territories. They take with them the remains of Austria’s first saint, a Roman official revered as Saint Severinus, the Apostle of Noricum

791AD. The Austrian region becomes theOstmark of Charlemagne

800AD. Charlemagne crowned Roman Emperor of the West

Babenbergs 976–1246

976AD. Margrave Leopold of Babenberg is rewarded for military assistance by Emperor Otto II with territory named for the first time in a legal document asOstarrîchi (Austria)

1156 Under Henry II of Babenberg, Austria becomes a hereditary duchy with Vienna as its capital

1192 Richard the Lionheart of England is arrested and imprisoned in Austria

1194 With ransom money raised, Richard the Lionheart is released from imprisonment and returns to England

1246 Frederick the Quarrelsome, the last of the Babenbergs, is killed fighting the Magyars

1252 Otakar II of Bohemia occupies the Duchy of Austria

Habsburgs 1273–1918

1273 Rudolf of Habsburg elected German King

1278 Rudolf of Habsburg defeats Otakar II of Bohemia on the Marchfeld, east of Vienna

1335 Expansion of Habsburg territory under Albert II to include Carinthia and Carniola

1358–65 Under Duke Rudolf IV ‘the Founder’, the University of Vienna is established.

1363 Rudolf IV obtains Tyrol and increases Habsburg territory in Vorarlberg

1452 Friedrich III (ruled 1439–93) is the first Habsburg elected Holy Roman Emperor (and the last emperor to be crowned in Rome)

1474 Completion of acquisition of Vorarlberg

1477 Beginnings of Habsburgs’ ‘marriage diplomacy’. Habsburgs acquire the Netherlands and Franche-Comté of Burgundy by marriage contract

1485–90 Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, occupies Vienna

1493–1519 Emperor Maximilian I establishes his court at Innsbruck

1499 Switzerland wins independence from imperial rule by defeating the Swabian League

1515 Double (proxy) marriage of Maximilian I’s grandchildren to the heirs of the Bohemian and Hungarian thrones

1521 Martin Luther excommunicated. Later, at the Diet of Worms he is also made a political outlaw. The Reformation begins to spread throughout Habsburg lands. Lutheranism dominates in German-speaking urban or mining centres. Subsequently, Calvinism predominates in Hungary-Transylvania

1522 Separation of Habsburg Empire under Charles V into Spanish and Central European lines

1529 First Turkish siege of Vienna

1545–63 The Council of Trent attempts to reconcile Catholicism and Protestantism

1555 Peace of Augsburg. Subjects to follow the faith – Lutheranism or Catholicism – of their rulers

1570–1640 The Counter-Reformation attempts to reimpose Catholicism across Europe

1571 Don John of Austria inflicts major naval defeat on the Turks at Lepanto on the Gulf of Corinth

1583–1612 Emperor Rudolf II rules from Prague and makes it a centre of Mannerist art, the sciences, astronomy and the occult

1618 The Defenestration of Prague. Enraged Protestants eject King Ferdinand’s hardline Catholic representatives from a window of the Hradčany Castle

1620 The Battle of the White Mountain marks a significant victory for the Counter-Reformation. The victory sparks the Thirty Years War in Germany (1618–48)

1622 Catholics regain control of Vienna University. Counter-Reformation making steady advances in most Habsburg lands from 1621

1648 The Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War and establishes (in principle) freedom of religion for individuals

1658–1705 Reign of the ‘Baroque Emperor’ Leopold I. Consolidation of Habsburg territories. Italian artists, architects and musicians dominate the culture of Austria

1679 Worst year of plague in Vienna ever recorded

1683 Failure of second Turkish siege of Vienna

1686 Expulsion of Turks from Buda

1699 The Peace of Karlovitz ‘saves Europe’ from the Turks

1701–14 War of the Spanish Succession following the extinction of the Habsburg line in Spain

1711–40 Emperor Charles VI. Baroque building boom in Austria led by great Austrian architects

1717 Prince Eugene of Savoy’s brilliant campaign drives Turks back as far as Belgrade, Subsequently, Austria reacquires Hungary, Croatia and Transylvania

1740 Maria Theresa becomes Archduchess of Austria. Austria invaded by the Bavarian claimant to the imperial throne, while Frederick II of Prussia occupies (Austrian) Silesia. A French-led coalition moves on Austria / Bohemia

1745 Maria Theresa becomes Empress as consort of Francis Stephen of Lorraine, elected Holy Roman Emperor as Francis I

1780–90 Joseph II’s ‘enlightened absolutism’ brings in social reforms such as the Patent (1781) and Edict (1782) of Tolerance guaranteeing religious freedom. Significant reduction of discrimination against Jews

1787 Mozart’s operaDon Giovanni rapturously received in Prague

1794 Ludwig van Beethoven settles in Vienna

1804 Emperor Francis II brings into being (as Francis I) the Austrian Empire

1806 The Holy Roman Empire is dissolved by Napoleon

1813 Napoleon is defeated at Leipzig at the Battle of the Nations

1814–15 The Congress of Vienna. Conservative post-war settlement is orchestrated by Prince Metternich

1848 Revolutions in Europe and across the Empire. Francis Joseph becomes Austrian Emperor

1866 Defeat of Austrians by Prussians at Königgrätz in Bohemia and setbacks in Italy lead to the Compromise with Hungary (1867) and the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

1873 Vienna’s World Fair and its last cholera epidemic. First stock market crash.

1889 Crown Prince Rudolf and his lover Mary Vetsera commit suicide in the Mayerling hunting lodge

1898 Empress Elisabeth assassinated by an anarchist in Geneva

1908 Austria annexes Bosnia and the Herzegovina, the last extension of Habsburg territory

1914–18 World War I, following assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne

1916 Emperor Francis Joseph dies

First Republic

1918–19 Collapse of the Habsburg Empire. Austria reduced to its present dimensions and forbidden by the victorious allies to merge with Germany

1920 Founding of the Salzburger Festspiele by Max Reinhardt

1922 Last Habsburg Emperor, Charles I, dies in exile in Madeira

1925 After prolonged hyperinflation, the Austrian currency is rebased and renamed theSchilling

1927 Police shoot eighty-nine rioters and the Palace of Justice burns down after the High Court acquits right-wing paramilitaries of killing two members of the Socialist Schutzbund. Tensions between right and left in Austria reach a high point

1933–38 Austria under clerico-fascist rule...