TheHabsburg monarchy,[i] also known asHabsburg Empire, orHabsburg Realm[j] (/ˈhæpsbɜːrɡ/), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and otherpolities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by theHouse of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is also referred to as theAustrian monarchy, theAustrian Empire (Latin:Monarchia Austriaca) or theDanubian monarchy.[k][2]
The history of the Habsburg monarchy can be traced back to the election ofRudolf I asKing of Germany in 1273[2] and his acquisition of theDuchy of Austria for the Habsburgs in 1282. In 1482,Maximilian I acquired theNetherlands through marriage. Both realms passed to his grandson and successor,Charles V, who also inherited theSpanish throne andits colonial possessions, and thus came to rule the Habsburg empire at its greatest territorial extent. The abdication of Charles V in 1556 led to a division within the dynasty between his sonPhilip II of Spain and his brotherFerdinand I, who had served as his lieutenant and the elected king ofHungary,Croatia andBohemia. The Spanish branch (which heldall of Iberia, theNetherlands, and lands in Italy) became extinct in the male line in 1700, but continued through the female line through theHouse of Bourbon. The Austrian branch (which ruled theHoly Roman Empire, Hungary, Bohemia and various other lands) was itself split into different branches in 1564 but reunited 101 years later. It became extinct in the male line in 1740, but continued through the female line as theHouse of Habsburg-Lorraine.
The Habsburg monarchy was a union of crowns, with only partial shared laws and institutions other than the Habsburg court itself; the provinces were divided in three groups: theArchduchy proper,Inner Austria that includedStyria andCarniola, andFurther Austria withTyrol and theSwabian lands. The territorial possessions of the monarchy were thus united only by virtue of a common monarch. The Habsburg realms were unified in 1804 with the formation of theAustrian Empire and later split in two with theAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. The monarchy began to fracture in the face of inevitable defeat during the final years ofWorld War I and ultimately disbanded with the proclamation of theRepublic of German-Austria and theFirst Hungarian Republic in late 1918.[3][4]
Inhistoriography, the terms "Austria" or "Austrians" are frequently used as shorthand for the Habsburg monarchy since the 18th century. From 1438 to 1806, the rulers of the House of Habsburg almost continuously reigned asHoly Roman Emperors. However, the realms of theHoly Roman Empire were mostly self-governing and are thus not considered to have been part of the Habsburg monarchy. Hence, the Habsburg monarchy (of the Austrian branch) is often called "Austria" bymetonymy. Around 1700, theLatin termmonarchia austriaca came into use as a term of convenience.[5] Within the empire alone, the vast possessions included the original Hereditary Lands, theErblande, from before 1526; theLands of the Bohemian Crown; the formerly SpanishAustrian Netherlands from 1714 until 1794; and some fiefs inImperial Italy. Outside the empire, they encompassed all theKingdom of Hungary as well as conquests made at the expense of theOttoman Empire. The dynastic capital wasVienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was inPrague.[6]
At this point, the Habsburg possessions were so vast that Charles V was constantly travelling throughout his dominions and therefore needed deputies and regents, such asIsabella of Portugal in Spain andMargaret of Austria in the Low Countries, to govern his various realms. At theDiet of Worms in 1521, Emperor Charles V came to terms with his younger brotherFerdinand. According to theHabsburgcompact of Worms (1521), confirmed a year later inBrussels, Ferdinand was madeArchduke, as a regent of Charles V in the Austrian hereditary lands.[8][9]
Charles V divided the House in 1556 by ceding Austria along with the Imperial crown to Ferdinand (as decided at theImperial election, 1531), and theSpanish Empire to his sonPhilip. The Spanish branch (which also held the Netherlands, theKingdom of Portugal between 1580 and 1640, and theMezzogiorno of Italy) became extinct in 1700. The Austrian branch (which also ruled the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary and Bohemia) was itself divided between different branches of the family from 1564 until 1665, but thereafter it remained a singlepersonal union. It became extinct in the male line in 1740, but through the marriage of QueenMaria Theresa withFrancis of Lorraine, the dynasty continued as theHouse of Habsburg-Lorraine.
Austrian Empire (German:Kaisertum Österreich): This was the official name of the new Habsburg empire created in 1804, immediately prior to the Holy Roman Empire being dissolved in 1806. In this context, the English wordempire refers to a territory ruled by anemperor, and not to a "widespreading domain".
Austria-Hungary (German:Österreich-Ungarn), 1867–1918: This name was commonly used in international relations, although the official name wasAustro-Hungarian Monarchy (German:Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie).[11][12][13][14]
Crownlands orcrown lands (Kronländer) (1849–1918): This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire (1849–1867), and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Kingdom of Hungary (more exactly the Lands of the Hungarian Crown) was not considered a "crownland" anymore after the establishment of Austria-Hungary in 1867, so that the "crownlands" became identical with what was called the Kingdoms and Lands represented in the Imperial Council (Die im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder).
The Hungarian parts of the empire were called "Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen" or "Lands of Holy (St.) Stephen's Crown" (Länder der Heiligen Stephans Krone). The Bohemian (Czech) Lands were called "Lands of the St. Wenceslaus' Crown" (Länder der Wenzels-Krone).
Names of some smaller territories:
ThePrince-Archbishopric of Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars; before that it was ruled by the prince-archbishops of Salzburg as a sovereign territory.
Hereditary Lands (Erblande orErbländer; mostly usedÖsterreichische Erblande) or German Hereditary Lands (in the Austrian monarchy) or Austrian Hereditary Lands (Middle Ages – 1849/1918): In a narrower sense these were the "original" Habsburg territories, principally theArchduchy of Austria (Oesterreich),Duchy of Styria (Steiermark),Duchy of Carinthia (Kaernten),Duchy of Carniola (Krain),County of Tyrol (Tirol) andVorarlberg. In a wider sense theLands of the Bohemian Crown were also included (from 1526; definitively from 1620/27) in the Hereditary Lands. The term was replaced by the term "Crownlands" (see above) in the 1849March Constitution, but it was also used afterwards. TheErblande also included many small territories that were principalities, duchies or counties in other parts of the Holy Roman Empire, such asFurther Austria.
Growth of the Habsburg monarchy in central EuropeThe Habsburg monarchy at the time ofJoseph II's death in 1790. The red line marks the borders of theHoly Roman Empire.
The territories ruled by the Austrian monarchy changed over the centuries, but the core always consisted of four blocs:
The Hereditary Lands, which covered most of the modern states ofAustria andSlovenia, as well as territories in northeasternItaly and (before 1797) southwesternGermany. To these were added in 1779 theInn Quarter of Bavaria and in 1803 thePrince-Bishoprics ofTrent andBrixen. TheNapoleonic Wars caused disruptions where many parts of the Hereditary lands were lost, but all these, along with the former Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg, which had previously been temporarily annexed between 1805 and 1809, were recovered at theCongress of Vienna 1815, with the exception of Further Austria. The Hereditary provinces included:
Vorarlberg (actually a collection of provinces, only united in the 19th century)
TheVorlande, a group of territories inBreisgau and elsewhere in southwestern Germany lost in 1801 (although theAlsatian territories (Sundgau) which had formed a part of it had been lost as early as 1648)
Silesia, Most of Silesia was conquered byPrussia in 1740–1742 and the remnants which stayed under Habsburg sovereignty were ruled asDuchy of Upper and Lower Silesia (Austrian Silesia).
TheKingdom of Hungary – two-thirds of the former territory that was administered by the medieval Kingdom of Hungary was conquered by theOttoman Empire and the Princes of vassal OttomanTransylvania, while the Habsburg administration was restricted to the western and northern territories of the former kingdom, which remained to be officially referred as theKingdom of Hungary. In 1699, at the end of theOttoman–Habsburg wars, one part of the territories that were administered by the former medieval Kingdom of Hungary came under Habsburg administration, with some other areas being acquired in 1718 (some of the territories that were part of medieval kingdom, notably those in the south of theSava andDanube rivers, remained under Ottoman administration).
Europa regina, symbolizing a Habsburg-dominated EuropeSoldiers of theMilitary Frontier against the incursions of the Ottoman Turks, 1756
Over the course of its history, other lands were, at times, under Austrian Habsburg rule (some of these territories weresecundogenitures, i.e. ruled by other lines of Habsburg dynasty):
The boundaries of some of these territories varied over the period indicated, and others were ruled by a subordinate (secundogeniture) Habsburg line. The Habsburgs also held the title ofHoly Roman Emperor between 1438 and 1740, and again from 1745 to 1806.
Within the early modern Habsburg monarchy, each entity was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid-17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same person—junior members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. Serious attempts at centralization began underMaria Theresa and especially her sonJoseph II, Holy Roman Emperor in the mid to late 18th century, but many of these were abandoned following large scale resistance to Joseph's more radical reform attempts, although a more cautious policy of centralization continued during the revolutionary period and theMetternichian period that followed.
Another attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the variousrevolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a centralized bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary was placed undermartial law, being divided into a series of military districts, and theDiet of Hungary was forced to dissolve after therevolution was suppressed by Austrian troops under the command ofJulius Jacob von Haynau. Following the Habsburg defeats in theSecond Italian War of Independence (1859) andAustro-Prussian War (1866), these policies were gradually abandoned.[16]
After experimentation in the early 1860s, the famousAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was arrived at, by which the so-called dual monarchy ofAustria-Hungary was set up. In this system, the Kingdom of Hungary ("Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of St. Stephen.") was an equal sovereign with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. Although the non-Hungarian Habsburg lands were referred to as "Austria", received their own central parliament (theReichsrat, orImperial Council) and ministries, as their official name – the "Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council". When Bosnia and Herzegovina wasannexed (after 30 years ofoccupation and administration), it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy. Instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance.
During thedissolution of Austria-Hungary, the Austrian territories collapsed under the weight of the various ethnic independence movements that came to the fore with its defeat in World War I. After its dissolution, the new republics ofAustria (the German-Austrian territories of the Hereditary lands) and theFirst Hungarian Republic were created. In the peace settlement that followed, significant territories were ceded toRomania andItaly and the remainder of the monarchy's territory was shared out among the new states ofPoland, theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), andCzechoslovakia.
^Ströhl, Hugo Gerhard (1890).Oesterreichisch-Ungarische Wappenrolle: die Wappen ihrer K.u.k. Majestäten, die Wappen der durchlauchtigsten Herren Erzherzoge, die Staatswappen von Oesterreich und Ungarn, die Wappen der Kronländer und der ungarischen Comitate, die Flaggen, Fahnen und Cocarden beider Reichshälften, sowie das Wappen des souverainen Fürstenthumes [An Austro-Hungarian Roll of Arms] (in German).
^Taylor, A.J.P. (1976).The Habsburg monarchy, 1809–1918: a history of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary. University of Chicago Press.
—— (May 2020). "Remembering the Fall of the Habsburg Monarchy One Hundred Years on: Three Master Interpretations".Austrian History Yearbook.51:269–291.doi:10.1017/S0067237820000181.S2CID216447628.
Fichtner, Paula Sutter (2003).The Habsburg Monarchy, 1490–1848: Attributes of Empire, Palgrave Macmillan.
Goleșteanu-Jacobs, Raluca (2023), Habsburg Galicia and the Romanian Kingdom Sociocultural Development, 1866–1914, Poland-Transnational Histories, Routledge
Henderson, Nicholas. "Joseph II"History Today (Sept 1955) 5#9 pp. 613–621.
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