Habsburg Monarchy

Habsburg Monarchy
Habsburgermonarchie
Part of the Holy Roman Empire (partly)
1526–1804
Imperial Coat of arms
(current Leopold II and Francis II)
Motto
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus
"Let justice be done, though the world perish"
Anthem
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser
"God Save Emperor Francis"
The Habsburg Monarchy in 1789.
Capital Vienna
(1526–1583)
Prague
(1583–1611)
Vienna
(1611–1804)
Languages Official languages:
Latin, Germanb
Other languages:
Hungarian, Czech, Croatian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Ruthenian, Serbian, French
Religion Official religion:
Roman Catholic
Recognized religions:
Calvinism, Lutheranism, Orthodox Christianity, Judaism, Utraquisma
Government Feudal Monarchy
Monarch
   1526–1564 Ferdinand I (first)
  1792–1804 Francis II (last)
State Chancellor
  1753–1793 Wenzel Anton
Historical era Early modern/Napoleonic
   Battle of Mohács 29 August 1526
  Battle of Vienna 14 July 1683
  War of Succession 1740–1748
  Austro–Turkish War 1787–1791
  Treaty of Sistova 4 August 1791
   Empire proclaimed 11 August 1804
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Archduchy of Austria
Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Bohemia
Kingdom of Croatia
Principality of Transylvania
Austrian Empire
Today part of  Austria
 Belgium
 Bosnia-Herzegovina
 Croatia
 Czech Republic
 France
 Germany
 Hungary
 Italy
 Liechtenstein
 Luxembourg
 Netherlands
 Poland
 Romania
 Serbia
 Slovakia
 Slovenia
  Switzerland
 Ukraine
^a Main Czech Church, in the Kingdom of Bohemia recognized until 1627 when it was forbidden.
^b German replaced Latin as the official language of the Empire in 1784.[1]

The Habsburg Monarchy (German: Habsburgermonarchie) or Empire, is an unofficial appellation among historians for the countries and provinces that were ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg between 1521 and 1780 and then by the successor branch of Habsburg-Lorraine until 1918. The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611,[2] when it was moved to Prague. From 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[3][4]

The head of the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg was often elected Holy Roman Emperor: from 1415 until the Empire's dissolution in 1806, Charles VII of Bavaria (1742-1745) was the only Holy Roman Emperor who was not Habsburg ruler of Austria.[5][6] The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, and most of the Empire was ruled by other dynasties.

This Austrian Habsburg Monarchy must not be confused with the House of Habsburg, existing since the 11th century, whose vast domains were split up in 1521 between this "junior" Austrian branch and the "senior" Spanish branch.

Name

The monarchy had no official name. Instead, various names included:

Origins and expansion

The Habsburg family originated with the Habsburg Castle in modern Switzerland, and after 1279 came to rule in Austria ("the Habsburg Hereditary Lands"). The Habsburg family grew to European prominence with the marriage and adoption treaty by Emperor Maximilian I at the First Congress of Vienna in 1515, and the subsequent death of adopted Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in 1526.[2]

Following the death of Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in the Battle of Mohács against the Turks, his brother-in-law Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was elected the next King of Bohemia and Hungary.[7]

Terminology

Names of the territory that (with some exceptions) finally became Austria-Hungary:

The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called "Lands of the Holy Hungarian 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:

Vienna, Austria's capital became a state January 1, 1922, after being residence and capital of the Austrian Empire (Reichshaupt und Residenzstadt Wien) for the Habsburg monarchs for centuries. Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into "Austria above the Enns" and "Austria below the Enns" (the Enns river is the state-border between Upper- and Lower Austria). Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen (1779) following the "War of the Bavarian Succession" by the so-called Innviertel ("Inn Quarter"), formerly part of Bavaria.

Characteristics

Within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province 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 under Maria Theresa and especially her son Joseph II 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 the long Metternichian period which followed.

An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the various revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a centralized bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, being divided into a series of districts. Following the Habsburg defeats in the Wars of 1859 and 1866, this policy was abandoned, and after several years of experimentation in the early 1860s, the famous Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was arrived at, by which the so-called Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary was set up. In this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, 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, often, but erroneously, referred to as "Austria", received their own central parliament (the Reichsrat, or Imperial Council) and ministries, as their official name – the "Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council" – shows that they remained something less than a genuine unitary state. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed (after a long period of occupation and administration), it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy. Instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance.

Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I. In the peace settlement that followed, significant territories were ceded to Romania and Italy, new republics of Austria (the German-Austrian territories of the Hereditary lands) and Hungary (the Magyar core of the old kingdom) were created, and the remainder of the monarchy's territory was shared out among the new states of Poland, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and Czechoslovakia.

Territories

Growth of the Habsburg Monarchy

The territories ruled by the branch changed over the centuries, but the core always consisted of four blocs:

Europa regina, symbolizing a Habsburg-dominated Europe.
Soldiers of the Military 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 were secundogenitures, 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 of Holy Roman Emperor between 1438 and 1740, and again from 1745 to 1806.

Habsburg territories outside the Habsburg Monarchy

Habsburg territories in 1700. The Habsburg Monarchy is shown in yellow, while the territories of the senior Spanish Habsburgs are shown in red.

The Habsburg monarchy should not be confused with various other territories ruled at different times by members of the Habsburg dynasty. The senior Spanish line of the Habsburgs ruled over Habsburg Spain and various other territories from 1516 until it became extinct in 1700. A junior line ruled over Tuscany between 1765 and 1801, and again from 1814 to 1859. While exiled from Tuscany, this line ruled at Salzburg from 1803 to 1805, and in Würzburg from 1805 to 1814. Another line ruled the Duchy of Modena from 1814 to 1859, while Empress Marie Louise, Napoleon's second wife and the daughter of Austrian Emperor Francis, ruled over the Duchy of Parma between 1814 and 1847. Also, the Second Mexican Empire, from 1863 to 1867, was headed by Maximilian I of Mexico, the brother of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria.

History

For a historical account, see:

Rulers of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1521–1918

Habsburg

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Infanta Maria of Spain with their children.

Habsburg-Lorraine

Family tree

In literature

The most famous memoir on the decline of the Habsburg Empire is Stefan Zweig's The World of Yesterday.[11]

Notes

  1. "Smoldering Embers: Czech-German Cultural Competition, 1848–1948" by C. Brandon Hone. Utah State University.
  2. 1 2 "Czech Republic - Historic Centre of Prague (1992)" Heindorffhus, August 2007, HeindorffHus-Czech.
  3. Vienna website; http://www.wien-vienna.com/austrohungary.php
  4. Encyclopædia Britannica online article Austria-Hungary; http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44386/Austria-Hungary
  5. Metropolitan Museum of Art; http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/habs/hd_habs.htm
  6. University of Wisconsin; http://faculty.history.wisc.edu/sommerville/351/holy%20roman%20empire.htm
  7. "Ferdinand I". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  8. Simon Adams (30 July 2005). The Balkans. Black Rabbit Books. pp. 1974–. ISBN 978-1-58340-603-8.
  9. SCOTT LACKEY (30 October 1995). The Rebirth of the Habsburg Army: Friedrich Beck and the Rise of the General Staff. ABC-CLIO. pp. 166–. ISBN 978-0-313-03131-1.
  10. Carl Cavanagh Hodge (2008). Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800-1914: A-K. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 59–. ISBN 978-0-313-33406-1.
  11. Giorgio Manacorda (2010) Nota bibliografica in Roth La Marcia di Radetzky, Newton Classici quotation:
    Stefan Zweig, l'autore del più famoso libro sull'Impero asburgico, Die Welt von Gestern

Further reading

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