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145-596: The following table shows the annual development of the Austrian Traded Index since 1985. As of March 2021, the index includes the following companies. Since 2011, the following companies have been removed from the ATX: The ATX closed the year of 2018 at 2.745,78. In 2015, the Austrian Traded Index closed at 2.396,94 (Dec 30, 2015). The previous years' closing values were 2.401,21 (2012), 2.546,54 (2013), and 2.160,08 (2014). This Austria -related article

290-596: A Greater Austria or just the German Confederation without Austria at all. As Austria was not willing to relinquish its German-speaking territories to what would become the German Empire of 1848 , the crown of the newly formed empire was offered to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV . In 1864, Austria and Prussia fought together against Denmark and secured the independence from Denmark of

435-749: A League of Nations mandate of the former German Cameroon and a free hand in the Ethiopian Empire from France in return for Italian support against Germany in the Stresa Front . This was refused by French Prime Minister Édouard Herriot , who was not yet sufficiently worried about the prospect of a German resurgence. The failed resolution of the Abyssinia Crisis led to the Second Italo-Ethiopian War , in which Italy annexed Ethiopia to its empire. Italy's stance towards Spain shifted between

580-602: A Marcel wave . The young women who pioneered these trends were called " flappers ". Not all was new: "normalcy" returned to politics in the wake of hyper-emotional wartime passions in the United States, France, and Germany. The leftist revolutions in Finland, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Spain were defeated by conservatives, but succeeded in Russia, which became the base for Soviet communism and Marxism–Leninism . In Italy,

725-706: A chancellor as head of government and chief executive. Austria has the 13th highest nominal GDP per capita with high standards of living. The country has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 and of the European Union since 1995. It hosts the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and is a founding member of

870-560: A client state following British guidance. Egypt joined the League of Nations. Egypt's King Fuad and his son King Farouk and their conservative allies stayed in power with lavish lifestyles thanks to an informal alliance with Britain who would protect them from both secular and Muslim radicalism. Mandatory Iraq , a British mandate since 1920, gained official independence as the Kingdom of Iraq in 1932 when King Faisal agreed to British terms of

1015-782: A non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in August 1939, Germany invaded Poland after Poland's refusal to cede the Free City of Danzig in September 1939. Britain and France declared war and World War II began – somewhat sooner than the Nazis expected or were ready for. After establishing the " Rome-Berlin Axis " with Benito Mussolini , and signing the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan – which

1160-729: A democratic republic and part of the new German republic. The constitution, renaming the Staatsrat as Bundesregierung (federal government) and Nationalversammlung as Nationalrat (national council) was passed on 10 November 1920. The Treaty of Saint-Germain of 1919 (for Hungary the Treaty of Trianon of 1920) confirmed and consolidated the new order of Central Europe which to a great extent had been established in November 1918, creating new states and altering others. The German-speaking parts of Austria which had been part of Austria-Hungary were reduced to

1305-413: A disgust with cultural liberalism . Fascists believed in power, violence, male superiority, and a "natural" hierarchy, often led by dictators such as Benito Mussolini or Adolf Hitler . Fascism in power meant that liberalism and human rights were discarded, and individual pursuits and values were subordinated to what the party decided was best. The Japanese modelled their industrial economy closely on

1450-555: A government, called Staatsrat . This new government was invited by the Emperor to take part in the decision on the planned armistice with Italy but refrained from this business. This left the responsibility for the end of the war, on 3 November 1918, solely to the emperor and his government. On 11 November, the emperor, advised by ministers of the old and the new governments, declared he would not take part in state business any more; on 12 November, German-Austria, by law, declared itself to be

1595-543: A limit that would be determined by the mandatory power. This led to increasing conflict with the Arab population, who openly revolted in 1936 . As the threat of war with Germany increased during the 1930s, Britain judged the support of Arabs as more important than the establishment of a Jewish homeland, and shifted to a pro-Arab stance, limiting Jewish immigration and in turn triggering a Jewish insurgency . The Dominions (Canada, Newfoundland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and

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1740-504: A local (Bavarian) dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976. The word "Austria" is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. At the time, the Danube basin of Austria ( Upper and Lower Austria ) was the easternmost extent of Bavaria. The area that is now Austria was settled in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, having been the core of

1885-484: A major role in several countries in Latin America. Fascist parties sprang up, attuned to local right-wing traditions, but also possessing common features that typically included extreme militaristic nationalism, a desire for economic self-containment, threats and aggression toward neighbouring countries, oppression of minorities, a ridicule of democracy while using its techniques to mobilise an angry middle-class base, and

2030-565: A military alliance and an assured flow of oil. In Palestine , Britain was presented with the problem of mediating between the Palestinian Arabs and increasing numbers of Jewish settlers . The Balfour Declaration , which had been incorporated into the terms of the mandate, stated that a national home for the Jewish people would be established in Palestine, and Jewish immigration allowed up to

2175-635: A payment to Turkey , the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, though he failed in an attempt to extract a mandate of a portion of Iraq from Britain. The month following the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne, Mussolini ordered the invasion of the Greek island of Corfu after the Corfu incident . The Italian press supported the move, noting that Corfu had been a Venetian possession for four hundred years. The matter

2320-638: A population of around 9 million. The area of today's Austria has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic period . Around 400 BC, it was inhabited by the Celts and then annexed by the Romans in the late 1st century BC. Christianization in the region began in the 4th and 5th centuries, during the late Roman period , followed by the arrival of numerous Germanic tribes during the Migration Period . Austria, as

2465-701: A referendum which confirmed the union with Germany in April 1938. Parliamentary elections were held in Germany (including recently annexed Austria) on 10 April 1938. They were the final elections to the Reichstag during Nazi rule, and they took the form of a single-question referendum asking whether voters approved of a single Nazi-party list for the 813-member Reichstag, as well as the recent annexation of Austria (the Anschluss ). Jews, Roma and Sinti were not allowed to vote. Turnout in

2610-464: A result, Ottokar II of Bohemia effectively assumed control of the duchies of Austria, Styria, and Carinthia . His reign came to an end with his defeat at Dürnkrut at the hands of Rudolph I of Germany in 1278. Thereafter, until World War I, Austria's history was largely that of its ruling dynasty, the Habsburgs . In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Habsburgs began to accumulate other provinces in

2755-468: A rump state named the Republic of German-Austria (German: Republik Deutschösterreich ), though excluding the predominantly German-speaking South Tyrol . The desire for the annexation of Austria to Germany was a popular opinion shared by all social circles in both Austria and Germany. On 12 November, German-Austria was declared a republic, and named Social Democrat Karl Renner as provisional chancellor. On

2900-417: A sharp reduction in new business starts. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry . Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming communities and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by about 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternative sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as mining and logging suffered

3045-523: A stable state. Albanian society was deeply divided by religion and language, with a border dispute with Greece and an undeveloped, rural economy. In 1939, Italy invaded and annexed Albania as a separate kingdom in personal union with the Italian crown. Italy had long built strong links with the Albanian leadership and considered it firmly within its sphere of influence. Mussolini wanted a spectacular success over

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3190-621: A unified state, emerged from the remnants of the Eastern and Hungarian March at the end of the first millennium , first as a frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire , it then developed into a duchy in 1156, and was made an Archduchy in 1453. Being the heartland of the Habsburg monarchy since the late 13th century, Austria was a major imperial power in Central Europe for centuries and from

3335-605: A vehement opponent of the Nazis, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, an honorary citizen of hundreds of places in Austria and partly envisaged by Schuschnigg as a monarchical option, was in Belgium at the time. He spoke out against the Anschluss and was then wanted by the Nazi regime and his property would have been expropriated and he would have been shot immediately if he were caught. In 1938,

3480-565: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about stock exchanges is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Austria – in Europe  (green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (green)  –  [ Legend ] Austria , formally the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe , lying in

3625-541: Is now Austria's National Day , a public holiday. The status of Tyrol was a lingering problem between Austria and Italy . To this day, there are 20 different squares in Austrian cities called "Südtiroler Platz" (South Tyrolean Square) in memory of the supposed loss of the Austrian territories. Terrorist acts by the South Tyrolean independence movement have been documented in the 1950s and 1960s. A great degree of autonomy

3770-653: The Ausgleich , provided for a dual sovereignty, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary , under Franz Joseph I . The Austrian-Hungarian rule of this diverse empire included various groups, including Germans , Hungarians , Croats, Czechs, Poles , Rusyns , Serbs, Slovaks, Slovenes, and Ukrainians, as well as large Italian and Romanian communities. As a result, ruling Austria-Hungary became increasingly difficult in an age of emerging nationalist movements, requiring considerable reliance on an expanded secret police. Yet,

3915-594: The Austrofascists imposed a new constitution ("Maiverfassung") which cemented Dollfuss's power, but on 25 July he was assassinated in an Austrian Nazi coup attempt . His successor Kurt Schuschnigg acknowledged the fact that Austria was a "German state" and he also believed that Austrians were "better Germans" but he wished that Austria would remain independent. He announced a referendum on 9 March 1938, to be held on 13 March, concerning Austria's independence from Germany. On 12 March 1938, Austrian Nazis took over

4060-779: The Bolsheviks managed to regain control of Belarus and Ukraine, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, forming the Soviet Union . In the Near East , Egypt and Iraq gained independence. During the Great Depression , countries in Latin America nationalised many foreign companies (most of which belonged to the United States ) in a bid to strengthen their own economies. The territorial ambitions of

4205-551: The Congress Party led by Mohandas Gandhi . In Britain, public opinion was divided over the morality of the massacre between those who saw it as having saved India from anarchy and those who viewed it with revulsion. Egypt had been under de facto British control since the 1880s, despite its nominal ownership by the Ottoman Empire . In 1922, the Kingdom of Egypt was granted formal independence , though it continued to be

4350-564: The Eastern Alps . It is a federation of nine states , one of which is the capital, Vienna , the most populous city and state. Austria is bordered by Germany to the northwest, the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia to the northeast, Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The landlocked country occupies an area of 83,879 km (32,386 sq mi) and has

4495-837: The Entente , the Americans came up with the Dawes Plan and Wall Street invested heavily in Germany, which repaid its reparations to nations that, in turn, used the dollars to pay off their war debts to Washington. By the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread, with the second half of the decade known as the Roaring Twenties . The important stages of interwar diplomacy and international relations included resolutions of wartime issues, such as reparations owed by Germany and boundaries; American involvement in European finances and disarmament projects;

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4640-516: The Federal Constitutional Law of 1920, which had been terminated by dictator Dollfuss on 1 May 1934, was declared valid again. The total number of Austrian military deaths from 1939 to 1945 was 260,000. The total number of Jewish Austrian Holocaust victims was 65,000. About 140,000 Jewish Austrians had fled from the country in 1938–39. Thousands of Austrians had taken part in serious Nazi crimes (hundreds of thousands of people died in

4785-524: The German Reich . After Austria, Hitler turned to Czechoslovakia , where the 3.5 million-strong Sudeten German minority was demanding equal rights and self-government. At the Munich Conference of September 1938, Hitler, the Italian leader Benito Mussolini, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier agreed upon the cession of Sudeten territory to

4930-582: The Hallstatt culture by the 6th century BC . The city of Hallstatt , in fact, has the oldest archaeological evidence of the Celts in Europe. The Celtic Kingdom of Noricum that included most of modern Austria and parts of modern Slovenia was conquered by the Roman Empire in 16 BC and made a province called Noricum which lasted until the year of 476. The regions of today's Austria which were not located within

5075-592: The Imperial Japanese Army and supported by other right-wing societies. The IJA's nationalism ended civilian rule in Japan until after 1945. The Army, however, was itself divided into cliques and factions with different strategic viewpoints. One faction viewed the Soviet Union as the main enemy; the other sought to build a mighty empire based in Manchuria and northern China. The Navy, while smaller and less influential,

5220-632: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was settled with the Carinthian Plebiscite in October 1920 and allocated the major part of the territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Crownland of Carinthia to Austria. This set the border on the Karavanke mountain range, with many Slovenes remaining in Austria. After the war, inflation began to devalue the Krone, which was still Austria's currency. In the autumn of 1922, Austria

5365-800: The Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp alone), a fact which was officially acknowledged by Chancellor Franz Vranitzky in 1992. Allied-occupied Austria was after World War II divided into military occupation zones. Austria was governed by the Allied Commission for Austria . As stipulated in the Moscow Declaration of 1943 a subtle difference was seen in the treatment of Austria by the Allies. The Austrian government, consisting of Social Democrats, Conservatives, and Communists resided in Vienna , which

5510-409: The May 15 Incident and the military took more power, leading to rapid democratic backsliding . In September 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army —acting on its own without government approval— seized control of Manchuria , an area in northeastern China that was controlled by the powerful warlord Zhang Xueliang . It created the puppet government of Manchukuo . Britain and France effectively controlled

5655-482: The National Fascist Party came to power under Benito Mussolini after threatening a March on Rome in 1922. Most independent countries enacted women's suffrage in the interwar era, including Canada in 1917 (though Quebec held out longer), Britain in 1918, and the United States in 1920. There were a few major countries that held out until after the Second World War (such as France, Switzerland, and Portugal). Leslie Hume argues: The women's contribution to

5800-455: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Interpol . It also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The native name for Austria, Österreich , derives from the Old High German Ostarrîchi , which meant "eastern realm" and which first appeared in the "Ostarrîchi document" of 996. This word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into

5945-424: The Ostrogothic Kingdom . Following the Kingdom's fall the area was invaded by the Alemanni , Baiuvarii , Slavs , and Avars . Charlemagne , King of the Franks , conquered the area in 788, encouraged colonisation, and introduced Christianity. As part of Eastern Francia , the core areas that now encompass Austria were bequeathed to the house of Babenberg . The area was known as the marchia Orientalis and

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6090-415: The Ottoman Empire , Austria-Hungary took the opportunity to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914 by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip was used by leading Austrian politicians and generals to persuade the emperor to declare war on Serbia, thereby risking and prompting the outbreak of World War I, which eventually led to the dissolution of

6235-412: The Twenty-One Demands of 1915. Its occupation of Siberia proved unproductive. Japan's wartime diplomacy and limited military action had produced few results, and at the Paris Versailles peace conference at the end of the war, Japan was frustrated in its ambitions. At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, its Racial Equality Proposal led to increasing diplomatic isolation. The 1902 alliance with Britain

6380-484: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Emperor Franz Joseph declared war on Serbia , which ultimately escalated into World War I . The empire's defeat and subsequent collapse led to the proclamation of the Republic of German-Austria in 1918 and the First Austrian Republic in 1919. During the interwar period , anti-parliamentarian sentiments culminated in the formation of an Austrofascist dictatorship under Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934. A year before

6525-417: The conservative and Catholic elements and the army revolted against the newly elected government of the Second Spanish Republic , and full-scale civil war erupted. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany gave munitions and strong military units to the rebel Nationalist faction , led by General Francisco Franco . The Republican (or "Loyalist") government , was on the defensive, but it received significant help from

6670-414: The fall of the Roman Empire , the area was first invaded by the Germanic Rugii which made this region part of their " Rugiland ". In 487, most of modern Austria was conquered by Odoacer , a barbarian soldier and statesman from the Middle Danube , which incorporated most of today's Austria in his Kingdom of Italy . By 493, it was conquered by the Germanic Ostrogoths which created their own kingdom,

6815-420: The naval sphere, the primary question was whether battleships would maintain their dominance of the seas or be rendered virtually obsolete by naval aviation . The military deliberations and controversies characteristic of the interwar period would ultimately find resolution via the events of WWII, which served as a foundation for many of the tenets, doctrines , and strategies of modern warfare . Overall,

6960-400: The 'traditional' branches of the regular infantry , horse cavalry , and artillery . In the air, the question of allocating air forces to strategic bombing versus dedicating such forces to frontline close air support was the primary contention, with some arguing that interceptor development was outpacing bombers , and others maintaining that " the bomber will always get through ." In

7105-412: The 16th century, Vienna was also serving as the Holy Roman Empire's administrative capital. Before the dissolution of the empire two years later, in 1804, Austria established its own empire , which became a great power and one of the largest states in Europe. The empire's defeat in wars and the loss of territories in the 1860s paved the way for the establishment of Austria-Hungary in 1867. After

7250-459: The 1920s and the 1930s. The Fascist regime in the 1920s held deep antagonism towards Spain due to Miguel Primo de Rivera 's pro-French foreign policy. In 1926, Mussolini began aiding the Catalan separatist movement , which was led by Francesc Macià , against the Spanish government. With the rise of the left-wing Republican government replacing the Spanish monarchy , Spanish monarchists and fascists repeatedly approached Italy for aid in overthrowing

7395-491: The 1920s. Economic disaster led to a distrust in the effectiveness of democracy and its collapse in much of Europe and Latin America, including the Baltic and Balkan countries, Poland, Spain, and Portugal. Powerful expansionary anti-democratic regimes emerged in Italy, Japan, and Germany. Fascism took control of the Kingdom of Italy in 1922; as the Great Depression worsened, Nazism emerged victorious in Germany, fascism spread to many other countries in Europe, and also played

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7540-541: The Americans, planned for the supposed "Alpine Fortress Operation" of a national redoubt, that was largely to have taken place on Austrian soil in the mountains of the Eastern Alps . However, it never materialised because of the rapid collapse of the Reich. Karl Renner and Adolf Schärf (Socialist Party of Austria [Social Democrats and Revolutionary Socialists]), Leopold Kunschak (Austria's People's Party [former Christian Social People's Party]), and Johann Koplenig (Communist Party of Austria) declared Austria's secession from

7685-410: The Army's aggression in Manchuria, and announced it was withdrawing. On the contrary, the Army completed the conquest of Manchuria, and the civilian cabinet resigned. The political parties were divided on the issue of military expansion. Prime Minister Tsuyoshi tried to negotiate with China but was assassinated in the May 15 Incident in 1932, which ushered in an era of nationalism and militarism led by

7830-407: The Austro-Hungarian Empire. Over one million Austro-Hungarian soldiers died in World War I. On 21 October 1918, the elected German members of the Reichsrat (parliament of Imperial Austria) met in Vienna as the Provisional National Assembly for German Austria ( Provisorische Nationalversammlung für Deutschösterreich ). On 30 October the assembly founded the Republic of German-Austria by appointing

7975-418: The Axis military alliance with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. In 1930, the London disarmament conference angered the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces . The Imperial Japanese Navy demanded parity with the United States, Britain and France, but was rejected and the conference kept the 1921 ratios. Japan was required to scrap a capital ship . Extremists assassinated Japanese Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi in

8120-499: The First World War and Russian Civil War . In advanced economies the prosperity reached middle class households and many in the working class with radio , automobiles , telephones , and electric lighting and appliances . There was unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media began to focus on celebrities, especially sports heroes and movie stars. Major cities built large sports stadiums for

8265-409: The First World War. It expected a reward, but failed to get self-government as the government was still kept in control of British hands and feared another rebellion like that of 1857 . The Government of India Act 1919 failed to satisfy demand for self-rule. Mounting tension, particularly in the Punjab region , culminated in the Amritsar Massacre in 1919. Indian nationalism surged and centred in

8410-446: The French-dominated Suez Canal Company accept an Italian representative on its board of directors. Italy opposed the French monopoly over the Suez Canal because, under the French-dominated Suez Canal Company, all merchant traffic to the Italian East Africa colony was forced to pay tolls on entering the canal. Albanian Prime Minister and President Ahmet Zogu , who had, in 1928, proclaimed himself King of Albania , failed to create

8555-449: The French-run Suez Canal . Three weeks later, Mussolini told Ciano that he intended for an Italian takeover of Albania. Mussolini professed that Italy would only be able to "breathe easily" if it had acquired a contiguous colonial domain in Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans, and when ten million Italians had settled in them. In 1938, Italy demanded a sphere of influence in the Suez Canal in Egypt , specifically demanding that

8700-578: The German Austrians and the other ethnic groups. Many Austrians, especially those involved with the pan-German movements, desired a reinforcement of an ethnic German identity and hoped that the empire would collapse, which would allow an annexation of Austria by Germany . A lot of Austrian pan-German nationalists protested passionately against minister-president Kasimir Count Badeni 's language decree of 1897, which made German and Czech co-official languages in Bohemia and required new government officials to be fluent in both languages. This meant in practice that

8845-461: The German Reich by Czechoslovakia . Hitler thereupon declared that all of German Reich's territorial claims had been fulfilled. However, hardly six months after the Munich Agreement, in March 1939, Hitler used the smouldering quarrel between Slovaks and Czechs as a pretext for taking over the rest of Czechoslovakia as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . In the same month, he secured the return of Memel from Lithuania to Germany. Chamberlain

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8990-468: The German national colours (black, red, and yellow), although they were both temporarily banned in Austrian schools, as a way to show discontent towards the multi-ethnic empire. Austria's exclusion from Germany caused many Austrians a problem with their national identity and prompted the Social Democratic Leader Otto Bauer to state that it was "the conflict between our Austrian and German character". The Austro-Hungarian Empire caused ethnic tension between

9135-641: The Irish Free State) were self-governing and gained semi-independence in the World War, while Britain still controlled foreign policy and defence in all except Ireland. The right of the Dominions to set their own foreign policy was recognised in 1923 and formalised by the 1931 Statute of Westminster . The Irish Free State effectively broke all ties with Britain in 1937, leaving the Commonwealth and becoming an independent republic . French census statistics from 1938 show an imperial population with France at over 150 million people, outside of France itself, of 102.8 million people living on 13.5 million square kilometers. Of

9280-405: The Jews. Hitler's diplomatic strategy in the 1930s was to make seemingly reasonable demands, threatening war if they were not met. When opponents tried to appease him, he accepted the gains that were offered, then went to the next target. That aggressive strategy worked as Germany pulled out of the League of Nations , rejected the Versailles Treaty , and began to rearm. Retaking the Territory of

9425-443: The League of Nations, which issued the Lytton Report in 1932, saying that Japan had genuine grievances, but it acted illegally in seizing the entire province. Japan quit the League, and Britain and France took no action. US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson announced that the United States would also not recognise Japan's conquest as legitimate. Germany welcomed Japan's actions. The civilian government in Tokyo tried to minimise

9570-414: The Mediterranean": The bars of this prison are Corsica , Tunisia , Malta , and Cyprus . The guards of this prison are Gibraltar and Suez . Corsica is a pistol pointed at the heart of Italy; Tunisia at Sicily. Malta and Cyprus constitute a threat to all our positions in the eastern and western Mediterranean. Greece, Turkey, and Egypt have been ready to form a chain with Great Britain and to complete

9715-458: The Nazis renamed Austria the " Ostmark ", a name which it had until 1942, when it was renamed the "Alpine and Danubian Gaue" (Alpen-und Donau-Reichsgaue). Though Austrians made up only 8% of the population of the Third Reich, some of the most prominent Nazis were native Austrians, including Adolf Hitler , Ernst Kaltenbrunner , Arthur Seyss-Inquart , Franz Stangl , Alois Brunner , Friedrich Rainer , and Odilo Globocnik , as were over 13% of

9860-433: The Republican forces. The Soviet Union provided armaments but never enough to equip the heterogeneous government militias and the " International Brigades " of outside far-left volunteers. The civil war did not escalate into a larger conflict, but did become a worldwide ideological battleground that pitted all the Communists and many socialists and liberals against Catholics , conservatives and fascists. Worldwide there

10005-417: The Republican government, in which Italy agreed to support them to establish a pro-Italian government in Spain. In July 1936, Francisco Franco of the Nationalist faction in the Spanish Civil War requested Italian support against the ruling Republican faction, and guaranteed that, if Italy supported the Nationalists, "future relations would be more than friendly" and that Italian support "would have permitted

10150-399: The Rhineland, and Germany was not allowed to have a real army, navy, or air force. Reparations were demanded, especially by France, involving shipments of raw materials, as well as annual payments. When Germany defaulted on its reparation payments, French and Belgian troops occupied the heavily industrialised Ruhr district (January 1923). The German government encouraged the population of

10295-429: The Ruhr to passive resistance : shops would not sell goods to the foreign soldiers, coal mines would not dig for the foreign troops, trams in which members of the occupation army had taken seat would be left abandoned in the middle of the street. The German government printed vast quantities of paper money, causing hyperinflation , which also damaged the French economy . The passive resistance proved effective, insofar as

10440-690: The Saar Basin in the aftermath of a plebiscite that favoured returning to Germany, Hitler's Germany remilitarised the Rhineland , formed the Pact of Steel alliance with Mussolini's Italy, and sent massive military aid to Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Germany seized Austria , considered to be a German state, in 1938, and took over Czechoslovakia after the Munich Agreement with Britain and France. Forming

10585-647: The Social Democrats and the Conservatives, had paramilitary armies; the Social Democrats' Republikanischer Schutzbund was now declared illegal, but was still operative as the 12–15 February 1934 Austrian Civil War broke out. In February 1934, several members of the Schutzbund were executed, the Social Democratic party was outlawed, and many of its members were imprisoned or emigrated. On 1 May 1934,

10730-399: The Soviet Union de jure recognition, and the two signatories mutually agreed to cancel all pre-war debts and renounced war claims. In October 1925 the Treaty of Locarno was signed by Germany, France, Belgium, Britain, and Italy; it recognised Germany's borders with France and Belgium. Moreover, Britain, Italy, and Belgium undertook to assist France in the case that German troops marched into

10875-626: The Soviet Union and Japan , leading to multiple clashes along the Soviet and Japanese occupied Manchurian border; fascist diplomacy, including the aggressive moves by Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany; the Spanish Civil War ; Italy's invasion and occupation of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in the Horn of Africa ; the appeasement of Germany's expansionist moves against the German-speaking nation of Austria ,

11020-493: The Soviet Union and Mexico. Led by Great Britain and France, and including the United States, most countries remained neutral and refused to provide armaments to either side. The powerful fear was that this localised conflict would escalate into a European conflagration that no one wanted. The Spanish Civil War was marked by numerous small battles and sieges, and many atrocities, until the Nationalists won in 1939 by overwhelming

11165-662: The Soviets, Japanese, Italians, and Germans led to the expansion of their domains. Militarily, the period would see a markedly rapid advance in technology which, alongside lessons learned from WWI, would catalyze new strategic and tactical innovations. While the period would largely see a continuation of the development of the technologies pioneered in WWI, debates emerged as to the most effective use of these advancements. On land, discussions focused on how armoured , mechanized , and motorized forces should be employed, particularly in-relation to

11310-507: The Spanish and French for control of Morocco. The Spanish had faced unrest off and on from the 1890s, but in 1921, Spanish forces were massacred at the Battle of Annual . El-Krim founded an independent Rif Republic that operated until 1926, but had no international recognition. Eventually, France and Spain agreed to end the revolt. They sent in 200,000 soldiers, forcing el-Krim to surrender in 1926; he

11455-564: The Third Reich by the Declaration of Independence on 27 April 1945 and set up a provisional government in Vienna under state Chancellor Renner the same day, with the approval of the victorious Red Army and backed by Joseph Stalin . (The date is officially named the birthday of the second republic.) At the end of April, most of western and southern Austria were still under Nazi rule. On 1 May 1945,

11600-613: The United States or Japan, Britain opted not to renew the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and instead signed the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty , in which Britain accepted naval parity with the United States. The issue of the empire's security was a serious concern in Britain, as it was vital to the British pride, its finance, and its trade-oriented economy. India strongly supported the Empire in

11745-685: The beginning, with successive defeats at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte , meaning the end of the old Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Two years earlier, the Empire of Austria was founded. From 1792 to 1801, the Austrians had suffered 754,700 casualties. In 1814, Austria was part of the Allied forces that invaded France and brought to an end the Napoleonic Wars . It emerged from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as one of

11890-605: The civil service would almost exclusively hire Czechs because most middle-class Czechs spoke German but not the other way around. The support of ultramontane Catholic politicians and clergy for this reform triggered the launch of the Away from Rome movement, which was initiated by supporters of Schönerer and called on "German" Christians to leave the Roman Catholic Church. As the Second Constitutional Era began in

12035-483: The continent's four dominant powers and a recognised great power . The same year, the German Confederation ( Deutscher Bund ) was founded under the presidency of Austria. Because of unsolved social, political, and national conflicts, the German lands were shaken by the 1848 revolutions aiming to create a unified Germany. The various different possibilities for a united Germany were: a Greater Germany , or

12180-521: The demilitarised Rhineland. Locarno paved the way for Germany's admission to the League of Nations in 1926. Hitler came to power in January 1933, and inaugurated an aggressive power designed to give Germany economic and political domination across central Europe. He did not attempt to recover the lost colonies. Until August 1939, the Nazis denounced Communists and the Soviet Union as the greatest enemy, along with

12325-806: The devastation of the First World War and the destabilising effects of not just the collapse of the Russian Empire , but the destruction of the German , Austro-Hungarian , and Ottoman Empires , as well. There were numerous new or restored countries in Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, some small in size, such as Lithuania and Latvia , and some larger, such as Poland and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes . The United States gained dominance in world finance. Thus, when Germany could no longer afford war reparations to Britain, France and other former members of

12470-557: The dominant power in the Mediterranean that would be able to challenge France or Britain, as well as attain access to the Atlantic and Indian Oceans . Mussolini alleged that Italy required uncontested access to the world's oceans and shipping lanes to ensure its national sovereignty. This was elaborated on in a document he later drew up in 1939 called "The March to the Oceans", and included in

12615-538: The duchies of Schleswig and Holstein . As they could not agree on how the two duchies should be administered, though, they fought the Austro-Prussian War in 1866. Defeated by Prussia in the Battle of Königgrätz , Austria had to leave the German Confederation and no longer took part in German politics. After the defeated Hungarian Revolution of 1848 , the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 ,

12760-509: The election was officially 99.5%, with 98.9% voting "yes". In the case of Austria, Adolf Hitler's native soil, 99.71% of an electorate of 4,484,475 officially went to the ballots, with a positive tally of 99.73 percent. Although most Austrians favored the Anschluss , in certain parts of Austria, the German soldiers were not always welcomed with flowers and joy, especially in Vienna, which had Austria's largest Jewish population. Nevertheless, despite

12905-612: The empire made in the previous years. He enjoyed the imminent extinction of the House of Habsburg . Charles VI was willing to offer concrete advantages in territory and authority in exchange for recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 . Therefore, his daughter Maria Theresa was recognized as his heir. With the rise of Prussia , the Austria–Prussia rivalry began in Germany. Austria participated, together with Prussia and Russia, in

13050-503: The expectations and failures of the League of Nations ; the relationships of the new countries to the old; the distrustful relations of the Soviet Union to the capitalist world; peace and disarmament efforts; responses to the Great Depression starting in 1929; the collapse of world trade; the collapse of democratic regimes one by one; the growth of efforts at economic autarky; Japanese aggressiveness toward China , occupying large amounts of Chinese land, as well as border disputes between

13195-428: The fans, in addition to palatial cinemas. The mechanisation of agriculture continued apace, producing an expansion of output that lowered prices, and made many farm workers redundant. Often they moved to nearby industrial towns and cities. The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression that took place after 1929. The timing varied across nations; in most countries it started in 1929 and lasted until

13340-490: The first Austrian Republic . Over three million German-speaking Austrians found themselves living outside the new Austrian Republic as minorities in the newly formed or enlarged states of Czechoslovakia , Yugoslavia , Hungary , and Italy. These included the provinces of South Tyrol , and German Bohemia . The status of German Bohemia and Sudetenland later played a role in World War II. The border between Austria and

13485-399: The first and the third of the three Partitions of Poland in 1772 and 1795 respectively. From that time, Austria became the birthplace of classical music and played host to different composers including Joseph Haydn , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Ludwig van Beethoven , and Franz Schubert . Austria later became engaged in a war with Revolutionary France , which was highly unsuccessful in

13630-508: The government of Austria tried its best to be accommodating in some respects: for example, the Reichsgesetzblatt , publishing the laws and ordinances of Cisleithania , was issued in eight languages; and all national groups were entitled to schools in their own language and to the use of their mother tongue at state offices. Many Austrians of all different social circles such as Georg Ritter von Schönerer promoted strong pan-Germanism in

13775-442: The government, while German troops occupied the country, which prevented Schuschnigg's referendum from taking place. On 13 March 1938, the Anschluss ( lit.   ' joining ' or ' connection ' ) of Austria was officially declared. Two days later, Austrian-born Adolf Hitler announced what he called the "reunification" of his home country with the "rest of the German Reich " on Vienna's Heldenplatz . He established

13920-750: The heiress Maria of Burgundy , thus acquiring most of the Netherlands for the family. In 1496, his son Philip the Fair married Joanna the Mad , the heiress of Castile and Aragon , thus acquiring Spain and its Italian, African, Asian , and New World appendages for the Habsburgs. In 1526, following the Battle of Mohács , Bohemia and the part of Hungary not occupied by the Ottomans came under Austrian rule. Ottoman expansion into Hungary led to frequent conflicts between

14065-532: The hope of reinforcing an ethnic German identity and the annexation of Austria to Germany. Some Austrians such as Karl Lueger also used pan-Germanism as a form of populism to further their own political goals. Although Bismarck's policies excluded Austria and the German Austrians from Germany, many Austrian pan-Germans idolised him and wore blue cornflowers, known to be the favourite flower of German Emperor William I , in their buttonholes, along with cockades in

14210-637: The influence of Rome to prevail over that of Berlin in the future politics of Spain". Italy intervened in the civil war with the intention of occupying the Balearic Islands and creating a client state in Spain. Italy sought the control of the Balearic Islands due to its strategic position—Italy could use the islands as a base to disrupt the lines of communication between France and its North African colonies and between British Gibraltar and Malta . After

14355-542: The innovations of WWI and the interwar period would see a shift away from 'traditional' line- and front-based warfare and towards a significantly more mobile, mechanized, and asymmetric form of combat. Following the Armistice of Compiègne on 11 November 1918 that ended World War I, the years 1918–1924 were marked by turmoil as the Russian Civil War continued to rage on, and Eastern Europe struggled to recover from

14500-504: The late 1930s. It was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. The depression originated in the United States and became worldwide news with the stock market crash of 29 October 1929 (known as Black Tuesday ). Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%. By comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession . Some economies started to recover by

14645-572: The lead. U.S. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes sponsored the Washington Naval Conference of 1921 in determining how many capital ships each major country was allowed. The new allocations were actually followed and there were no naval races in the 1920s. Britain played a leading role in the 1927 Geneva Naval Conference and the 1930 London Conference that led to the London Naval Treaty , which added cruisers and submarines to

14790-726: The list of ship allocations. However the refusal of Japan, Germany, Italy and the USSR to go along with this led to the meaningless Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. Naval disarmament had collapsed and the issue became rearming for a war against Germany and Japan. The Roaring Twenties highlighted novel and highly visible social and cultural trends and innovations. These trends, made possible by sustained economic prosperity, were most visible in major cities like New York City , Chicago , Paris , Berlin , and London . The Jazz Age began and Art Deco peaked. For women, knee-length skirts and dresses became socially acceptable, as did bobbed hair with

14935-554: The long reign of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor following the successful defence of Vienna against the Turks in 1683, under the command of the King of Poland John III Sobieski , the Great Turkish War resulted in most of Hungary being controlled by Austria. This arrangement was formalized in the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor relinquished many of the gains

15080-663: The major Chinese cities and industrial areas. A puppet government was set up. In the U.S., government and public opinion—even including those who were isolationist regarding Europe—was resolutely opposed to Japan and gave strong support to China. Meanwhile, the Japanese Army fared badly in large battles with the Soviet Red Army in Mongolia at the Battles of Khalkhin Gol in summer 1939. The USSR

15225-548: The members of the SS and 40% of the staff at the Nazi extermination camps . In the Reichsgau , besides the main camp KZ-Mauthausen , there were numerous sub-camps in all provinces where Jews and other prisoners were killed, tortured and exploited. At this time, because the territory was outside the operational radius of Allied aircraft, the armaments industry was greatly expanded through the forced labor of concentration camp prisoners, this

15370-606: The mid-1930s. However, in many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the beginning of World War II. The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries both rich and poor . Personal income , tax revenue , profits , and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the United States rose to 25% and in some countries rose as high as 33%. Prices fell sharply, especially for mining and agricultural commodities. Business profits fell sharply as well, with

15515-437: The most advanced Western European models. They started with textiles, railways, and shipping, expanding to electricity and machinery. The most serious weakness was a shortage of raw materials. Industry ran short of copper, and coal became a net importer. A deep flaw in the aggressive military strategy was a heavy dependence on imports including 100 per cent of the aluminium, 85 per cent of the iron ore, and especially 79 per cent of

15660-509: The most. The Weimar Republic in Germany gave way to two episodes of political and economic turmoil, the first culminated in the German hyperinflation of 1923 and the failed Beer Hall Putsch of that same year. The second convulsion, brought on by the worldwide depression and Germany's disastrous monetary policies, resulted in the further rise of Nazism . In Asia, Japan became an ever more assertive power, especially with regard to China . Democracy and prosperity largely went together in

15805-488: The occupation became a loss-making deal for the French government. But the hyperinflation caused many prudent savers to lose all the money they had saved. Weimar added new internal enemies every year, as anti-democratic Nazis , Nationalists , and Communists battled each other in the streets. Germany was the first state to establish diplomatic relations with the new Soviet Union . Under the Treaty of Rapallo , Germany accorded

15950-714: The oceans. In the Balkans , the Fascist regime claimed Dalmatia and held ambitions over Albania , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Macedonia , and Greece based on the precedent of previous Roman dominance in these regions. Dalmatia and Slovenia were to be directly annexed into Italy while the remainder of the Balkans was to be transformed into Italian client states. The regime also sought to establish protective patron-client relationships with Austria , Hungary , Romania , and Bulgaria . In both 1932 and 1935, Italy demanded

16095-461: The official records of a meeting of the Grand Council of Fascism . This text asserted that maritime position determined a nation's independence: countries with free access to the high seas were independent; while those who lacked this, were not. Italy, which only had access to an inland sea without French and British acquiescence, was only a "semi-independent nation", and alleged to be a "prisoner in

16240-784: The oil supplies. It was one thing to go to war with China or Russia, but quite another to be in conflict with the key suppliers, especially the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands, of oil and iron. Japan joined the Allies of the First World War to make territorial gains. Together with the British Empire, it divided up Germany's territories scattered in the Pacific and on the Chinese coast ; they did not amount to very much. The other Allies pushed back hard against Japan's efforts to dominate China through

16385-428: The outbreak of World War II , Austria was annexed into Nazi Germany by Adolf Hitler , and it became a sub-national division . After its liberation in 1945 and a decade of Allied occupation , the country regained its sovereignty and declared its perpetual neutrality in 1955. Austria is a federal parliamentary republic and representative democracy with a popularly elected president as head of state and

16530-409: The politico-military encirclement of Italy. Thus Greece, Turkey, and Egypt must be considered vital enemies of Italy's expansion ... The aim of Italian policy, which cannot have, and does not have continental objectives of a European territorial nature except Albania, is first of all to break the bars of this prison ... Once the bars are broken, Italian policy can only have one motto—to march to

16675-497: The propaganda and the manipulation and rigging which surrounded the ballot box result, there was massive genuine support for Hitler for fulfilling the Anschluss , since many Germans from both Austria and Germany saw it as completing the long overdue unification of all Germans into one state. On 13 March 1938, Austria was annexed by the Third Reich and ceased to exist as an independent country (the Anschluss ). The Aryanisation of

16820-533: The province of Noricum were divided between the Roman provinces of Pannonia , which encompassed parts of eastern Austria, and Raetia , which encompassed the areas of present-day Vorarlberg and Tyrol . Present-day Petronell- Carnuntum in eastern Austria was an important army camp turned capital city in what became known as the Pannonia Superior . Carnuntum was home to 50,000 people for nearly 400 years. After

16965-659: The region inhabited by ethnic Germans called the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia , the remilitarisation of the League of Nations demilitarised zone of the German Rhineland region, and the last, desperate stages of rearmament as the Second World War increasingly loomed. Disarmament was a very popular public policy. However, the League of Nations played little role in this effort, with the United States and Britain taking

17110-419: The same day it drafted a provisional constitution that stated that "German-Austria is a democratic republic" (Article 1) and "German-Austria is an integral part of the German reich" (Article 2). The Treaty of Saint Germain and the Treaty of Versailles explicitly forbade union between Austria and Germany. The treaties also forced German-Austria to rename itself as "Republic of Austria" which consequently led to

17255-885: The total population, 64.7 million lived in Africa and 31.2 million lived in Asia; 900,000 lived in the French West Indies or islands in the South Pacific. The largest colonies were French Indochina with 26.8 million (in five separate colonies), French Algeria with 6.6 million, the French protectorate in Morocco , with 5.4 million, and French West Africa with 35.2 million in nine colonies. The total includes 1.9 million Europeans, and 350,000 "assimilated" natives. The Berber independence leader Abd el-Krim (1882–1963) organised armed resistance against

17400-420: The two empires, particularly evident in the Long War of 1593 to 1606. The Turks made incursions into Styria nearly 20 times, of which some are cited as "burning, pillaging, and taking thousands of slaves". In late September 1529, Suleiman the Magnificent launched the first siege of Vienna , which unsuccessfully ended, according to Ottoman historians, with the snowfalls of an early beginning winter. During

17545-443: The vicinity of the Duchy of Austria. In 1438, Duke Albert V of Austria was chosen as the successor to his father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund . Although Albert himself only reigned for a year, henceforth every emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was a Habsburg, with only one exception. The Habsburgs began also to accumulate territory far from the hereditary lands. In 1477, Archduke Maximilian , only son of Emperor Frederick III , married

17690-421: The victory by Franco and the Nationalists in the war, Allied intelligence was informed that Italy was pressuring Spain to permit an Italian occupation of the Balearic Islands . After Great Britain signed the Anglo-Italian Easter Accords in 1938, Mussolini and Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano issued demands for concessions in the Mediterranean by France, particularly regarding French Somaliland , Tunisia and

17835-428: The war effort combined with failures of the previous systems' of Government made it more difficult than hitherto to maintain that women were, both by constitution and temperament, unfit to vote. If women could work in munitions factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth. But the vote was much more than simply a reward for war work; the point was that women's participation in

17980-452: The war helped to dispel the fears that surrounded women's entry into the public arena. In Europe, according to Derek Aldcroft and Steven Morewood, "Nearly all countries registered some economic progress in the 1920s and most of them managed to regain or surpass their pre-war income and production levels by the end of the decade." The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Greece did especially well, while Eastern Europe did poorly, due to

18125-622: The wealth of Jewish Austrians started immediately in mid-March, with a so-called "wild" (i.e. extra-legal) phase, but it was soon structured legally and bureaucratically so the assets which Jewish citizens possessed could be stripped from them. At that time, Adolf Eichmann , who grew up in Austria, was transferred to Vienna and ordered to persecute the Jews. During the November pogrom in 1938 ("Reichskristallnacht"), Jews and Jewish institutions such as synagogues were subjected to violent attacks in Vienna, Klagenfurt, Linz, Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck and several cities in Lower Austria. Otto von Habsburg ,

18270-498: The world's largest economies. Politically, the era coincided with the rise of communism , starting in Russia with the October Revolution and Russian Civil War , at the end of WWI, and ended with the rise of fascism , particularly in Germany and Italy. China was in the midst of a half-century of instability and the Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang the Chinese Communist Party and many warlords. The empires of Britain , France , and others faced challenges as imperialism

18415-429: The world. Petroleum-based energy production and associated mechanisation led to the prosperous Roaring Twenties , a time of social and economic mobility for the middle class . Automobiles , electric lighting , radio , and more became common among populations in the first world . The era's indulgences were followed by the Great Depression , an unprecedented worldwide economic downturn that severely damaged many of

18560-419: Was a decline in pacifism and a growing sense that another world war was imminent, and that it would be worth fighting for. The changing world order that the war had brought about, in particular the growth of the United States and Japan as naval powers, and the rise of independence movements in India and Ireland, caused a major reassessment of British imperial policy. Forced to choose between alignment with

18705-420: Was able to send the Allies information about armaments factories where V-1 flying bombs , V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks , and aircraft ( Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , etc.) were manufactured, information which was important to the success of Operation Crossbow and Operation Hydra , both of which were preliminary missions before the launch of Operation Overlord . This resistance group, which

18850-437: Was also factionalised. Large-scale warfare, known as the Second Sino-Japanese War , began in August 1937, with naval and infantry attacks focused on Shanghai , which quickly spread to other major cities. There were numerous large-scale atrocities against Chinese civilians, such as the Nanjing massacre in December 1937, with mass murder and mass rape. By 1939 military lines had stabilised, with Japan in control of almost all of

18995-419: Was especially the case with regard to the manufacture of fighter planes, tanks and missiles. Most of the resistance groups were soon crushed by the Gestapo . While the plans of the group around Karl Burian to blow up the Gestapo's headquarters in Vienna were uncovered, the important group around the later executed priest Heinrich Maier managed to contact the Allies . This so-called Maier-Messner group

19140-546: Was exiled in the Pacific until 1947. Morocco was now pacified, and became the base from which Spanish Nationalists would launch their rebellion against the Spanish Republic in 1936. The humiliating peace terms in the Treaty of Versailles provoked bitter indignation throughout Germany, and seriously weakened the new democratic regime. The Treaty stripped Germany of all of its overseas colonies , of Alsace–Lorraine , and of predominantly Polish districts. The Allied armies occupied industrial sectors in western Germany including

19285-434: Was forced to acknowledge that his policy of appeasement towards Hitler had failed. In 1922, the leader of the Italian Fascist movement, Benito Mussolini , was appointed Prime Minister of Italy after the March on Rome . Mussolini resolved the question of sovereignty over the Dodecanese at the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne , which formalised Italian administration of both Libya and the Dodecanese Islands , in return for

19430-422: Was given to Leopold of Babenberg in 976. The first record showing the name Austria is from 996, where it is written as Ostarrîchi , referring to the territory of the Babenberg March. In 1156, the Privilegium Minus elevated Austria to the status of a duchy. 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. As

19575-413: Was granted an international loan supervised by the League of Nations . The purpose of the loan was to avert bankruptcy, stabilise the currency, and improve Austria's general economic condition. The loan meant that Austria passed from an independent state to the control exercised by the League of Nations. In 1925, the Austrian schilling was introduced, replacing the Krone at a rate of 10,000:1. Later, it

19720-465: Was granted to Tyrol by the Italian national government. Interwar period In the history of the 20th century , the interwar period (or interbellum ) lasted from 11   November 1918 to 1   September 1939 (20   years, 9   months, 21   days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II (WWII). It was relatively short, yet featured many social, political, military, and economic changes throughout

19865-441: Was in contact with the American secret service ( OSS ), soon provided information about mass executions and concentration camps such as Auschwitz . The group's aim was to cause Nazi Germany to lose the war as quickly as possible and re-establish an independent Austria. Vienna fell on 13 April 1945, during the Soviet Vienna offensive , just before the total collapse of the Third Reich. The invading Allied powers, in particular

20010-625: Was increasingly viewed negatively and independence movements emerged in many colonies ; in Europe, after protracted low-level fighting most of Ireland became independent. The Russian , Ottoman , Austro-Hungarian , and German Empires were dismantled, with the Ottoman territories and German colonies redistributed among the Allies , chiefly Britain and France. The western parts of the Russian Empire, Estonia , Finland , Latvia , Lithuania , and Poland became independent nations in their own right, and Bessarabia (now Moldova and parts of Ukraine ) chose to reunify with Romania . In Russia,

20155-407: Was joined by Italy a year later in 1937 – Hitler felt able to take the offensive in foreign policy. On 12 March 1938, German troops marched into Austria, where an attempted Nazi coup had been unsuccessful in 1934. When Austrian-born Hitler entered Vienna , he was greeted by loud cheers. Four weeks later, 99% of Austrians voted in favour of the annexation ( Anschluss ) of their country Austria to

20300-401: Was nicknamed the "Alpine dollar" due to its stability. From 1925 to 1929 the economy enjoyed a short high before nearly crashing after Black Tuesday . The First Austrian Republic lasted until 1933, when Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss , using what he called "self-switch-off of Parliament" , established an autocratic regime tending towards Italian fascism . The two big parties at this time,

20445-421: Was not renewed in 1922 because of heavy pressure on Britain from Canada and the United States. In the 1920s Japanese diplomacy was rooted in a largely liberal democratic political system, and favoured internationalism. By 1930, however, Japan was rapidly reversing itself, rejecting democracy at home, as the Army seized more and more power, and rejecting internationalism and liberalism. By the late 1930s it had joined

20590-458: Was responsible for directing the nationalized industries under the directorship of Minister Peter Krauland (party ÖVP). On 15 May 1955, after talks which lasted for years and were influenced by the Cold War Austria regained full independence by concluding the Austrian State Treaty with the allies of World War II. On 26 October 1955, all occupation troops had left and Austria declared its permanent neutrality by an act of parliament. This day

20735-475: Was surrounded by the Soviet zone. This Austrian government was recognised by the allies of World War II in October 1945 despite concerns that Karl Renner could be Stalin's puppet. On 26 July 1946 the Austrian Parliament passed its first nationalization law and approximately 70 mining and manufacturing companies were seized by the Austrian state. The Ministry of Property Protection and Economic Planning ( Ministerium für Vermögenssicherung und Wirtschaftsplanung )

20880-465: Was taken by Greece to the League of Nations , where Mussolini was convinced by Britain to evacuate Royal Italian Army troops, in return for reparations from Greece. The confrontation led Britain and Italy to resolve the question of Jubaland in 1924, which was merged into Italian Somaliland . During the late 1920s, imperial expansion became an increasingly favoured theme in Mussolini's speeches. Amongst Mussolini's aims were that Italy had to become

21025-423: Was too powerful. Tokyo and Moscow signed a nonaggression treaty in April 1941 , as the militarists turned their attention to the European colonies to the south which had urgently-needed oil fields. To one degree or another, Spain had been unstable politically for centuries, and in 1936–1939 was wracked by one of the bloodiest civil wars of the 20th century. The real importance comes from outside countries. In Spain

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