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TheAustrian Empire and its predecessor, theArchduchy of Austria, was one of the most prevalent states in Europe throughout its history. The following is Austria's military history from the 18th century.
After a series of impressive victories in theGreat Turkish War, Austria found itself at war withFrance again along theGrand Alliance. Still, Austria and its allies managed to win impressive victories likeTurin andBlenheim, plus the Austrians successfully crushed uprisings inHungary andBavaria. However, the French victory atDenain secured theBourbon throne inSpain. Still, the Austrians fought well and enjoyed great territorial gains in theTreaty of Rastatt.
In 1716 theOttomans once again invaded Austria, but the military geniusPrince Eugene of Savoy outmatched them in the battles ofPetrovaradin andBelgrade, expanding Austria to its greatest territorial extent. Meanwhile, the Spanish wanted torecapture their lost territories, but Austria and its allies stopped them.
In the 1730s the skill of Austrian soldiers & generals would temporarily decline. Crushing defeats against the French and Ottomans atGuastalla &Grocka caused the Austrians to lose most of their previously gained territories.
Worse, in 1740Prussia invadedSilesia to become a great power. Austria'sdefeat against a tiny country convinced many other countries tofinally partition it. Prussia, France, Spain,Bavaria,Saxony,Naples,Sardinia andModena then created an alliance to finally wipe out Austria from the European map. At first, the invasion of Austria went well: The Franco-Bavarian armies quickly invadedUpper Austria and then tookBohemia along with Saxony. Meanwhile, Maria Theresa called the Hungarians for her help and appointedLudwig Andreas von Khevenhüller as commander-in-chief. Despite not getting help fromBritain,Russia andthe Netherlands or the promised 60,000 Hungarian troops (only 1/3 of them were ready for combat) yet, Khevenhüller was able to launch a massive offensive that annihilated huge parts of the Franco-Bavarian armies (alone in Linz 10,000 French surrendered). Munich was taken. However, Prussia wasstill able to take Silesia and leave the war. Meanwhile, Modena was occupied, Sardinia switched sides, and Spain & Naples were unable to control entire North Italy thanks toOtto Ferdinand von Abensperg und Traun. Saxony switched sides as well in 1743. In 1744Frederick the Great even tried to conquer Bohemia, but Austro-Saxon forces harassed his supply lines and forced him to retreat. His victory atHohenfriedberg however allowed him to keep Silesia, despite the decisiveBavarian defeat. The war ended in 1748.
Maria Theresa then began massive military reforms. When the Seven Years' War started, Prussia enjoyed initial success by conqueringSaxony andPrague. However, the Austrians took advantage of their poor performance and defeated the Prussians atKolín &Hochkirch. AfterKunersdorf the Prussians were so close to defeat that only theMiracle of the House of Brandenburg saved them from certain destruction. In a last-ditch effort, Prussia beat Austria atTorgau and so the war became an inconclusive stalemate, which was arguably still more satisfactory for Prussia.
After that, Austria didn't see so many military actions. It joined thePolish partitions, fought anotherinconclusive struggle against Prussia, and beat the Ottomans along with Russia in theAustro-Turkish War.
Austria entered theFrench Revolutionary Wars with a rough start after France had declared war on Austria. Although Austria was successfully able to defendtheGerman territories, the youngNapoleon Bonaparte crushed the Austrians inNorth Italy. The 2nd Coalition War went no better, with humiliating defeats atMarengo andHohenlinden taking place.
TheNapoleonic Wars greatly became unpopular in Austria, butBritain constantly convinced Austria to join it. When Austria finally joined in 1805, its armycapitulated at Ulm and was together defeated with the Russians atAusterlitz.Francis I's brotherArchduke Charles basically then tried to make reforms to make the Austrian army more effective. Although not completed yet, the Austrians, aftersomeearlysetbacks inflicted Napoleon's first major defeat atAspern-Essling. However, Napoleon was still able to defeat Archduke Charles atWagram and force him to sue for peace despite the heavy French casualties. Austria then practiced in theFrench invasion of Russia with no significant fighting, but after the French disaster finally rejoined the Coalition again. The Austrians took part in theGerman &Italian campaigns and forced Napoleon to surrender along the other great powers. Austria played a decisive role indethroning Murat after beating him atTolentino. Napoleon's fate was finally sealed atWaterloo.
Austria enjoyed a quite peaceful period from 1816 and 1847. It only put down some minor rebellions and naval expeditions inMorocco andEgypt. Austrian admiralArchduke Friedrich led the Anglo-Austrian-Ottoman troops ahead of all others against the Bergcastell and by 6 o'clock in the afternoonSidon was taken.[1] 1,500 men of the crew were taken prisoner. Following thebombardment of Acre on 3-4 November 1840, he then decided to attack the citadel that night and personally led a small landing party of Austrian, British, and Ottoman troops and took the citadel of Acre after the Egyptian garrison had fled. They hoisted the Ottoman, British and Austrian flags over the citadel.
In 1848 Austria facedtwo dangerousrevolutions and the army was once needed again. WhileJoseph Radetzky von Radetz beat the Italians atCustoza andNovara, Austrian commanders in Hungary neededRussian help.
The revolutions significantly weakened Austria, plus it became isolated after theCrimean War in order to avoid another Hungarian revolution. Sardinia then successfully provoked Austria to declare war on them, resulting in France intervening and decisively defeating Austria atSolferino.
Then Austria joined theSecond Schleswig War to defeatDenmark. While Prussia suffered initial defeats against tiny Denmark atMysunde andJasmund, Austria on the other hand beat them atKönigshügel,Sankelmark,Vejle andHeligoland. However, Prussia managed to secure a decisive victory against Denmark atDybbøl.
Still, Austria & Prussia quickly broke their alliance and fought against each other for German leadership. Due to superior Prussian leadership, better-trained troops, a more developed economy, faster railways, and faster rifles, the Prussians decisively won atKöniggrätz. Although Austria wassuccessfulagainst Italy, they were unable to stop the Prussian advance. This war not only caused Austria to lose German leadership, but it was also the beginning of Austria's permanent military decline.
From 1867 to 1918, theAustro-Hungarian Army was the ground force of theAustro-Hungarian Empire. It was composed of thecommon army (recruited from anywhere), theAustrian Landwehr (recruited only fromCisleithania), and theHungarian Honvéd (recruited only fromTransleithania).
These are official names inGerman:
TheAustro-Hungarian Navy was the naval force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its official name in German was theKaiserlich und königliche Kriegsmarine ("Imperial and Royal Navy", also known by the acronym k.u.k.).
This army existed from the establishment of theDual Monarchy in 1867 until the end of World War I in 1918. The army first saw action in theAustro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 andBoxer Rebellion.
In 1914Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a Serbo-Bosnian student namedGavrilo Princip.[2] The Austro-Hungarian military leaderConrad von Hötzendorf saw it finally as a chance to attackSerbia.[3] When Serbiafailed to accept all ultimatum terms, Austria-Hungary struck.
Serbian Front: Although Austria-Hungary had slightly more troops and significant technological advances, the Serbs had more experienced generals and highly motivated troops. The wholeSerbian campaign ended in failure for Austria-Hungary and German & Bulgarian help was required in 1915. However, Austria-Hungarysuccessfully took Montenegro in 1916.
Despite early victories atKraśnik &Komarów, the Austro-Hungarians quickly lost the entirety ofGalicia. With German help, theRussians were repelled in from most of the region. However, theBrusilov offensive utterly mauled the Austro-Hungarian army, becoming completely dependent on the Germans for the rest of the war.
Italian Front: This was probably the only front where the Austro-Hungarians were partially effective by holding back multipleIsonzo offensives for over 2 years. In 1917 Austro-German forces finally broke the stalemate atCaporetto until they were stopped at thePiave River. The Danube Monarchy finally collapsed atVittorio Veneto.
Between 1918 and 1921, the military forces were known asVolkswehr (people's defense).
From 1921 to the present (except World War II, (1938–1945)), the name of themilitary of Austria isBundesheer ("Federal Army"). The branches are Land Forces (KdoLdSK) and Air Forces (KdoLuSK).
In 1955, Austria declared its neutrality and made neutrality a constitutional law. The main purpose of the Austrian military, since then, has been the protection of Austria's neutrality.