Fertile Crescent :
79-462: Schwanthaler: This Austrian history article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . History of Austria Timeline The history of Austria covers the history of Austria and its predecessor states. In the late Iron Age Austria was occupied by people of the Hallstatt Celtic culture ( c. 800 BC), they first organized as a Celtic kingdom referred to by
158-771: A History of Austria raises a number of questions, e.g., whether it is confined to the current or former Republic of Austria, or extends also to all lands formerly ruled by the rulers of Austria. Furthermore, should Austrian history include the period 1938–1945, when it nominally did not exist? Of the lands now part of the second Republic of Austria, many were added over time – only two of the nine provinces (Lower and Upper Austria) are strictly 'Austria', while other parts of its former sovereign territory are now part of other countries e.g., Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and Czechia. Within Austria there are regionally and temporally varying affinities to adjacent countries. The Alps were inaccessible during
237-529: A comes or dux as appointed by the emperor. These terms are usually translated as count or duke, but these terms conveyed very different meanings in the Early Middle Ages , so to avoid misunderstanding historians usually employ the Latin versions when discussing the titles and their holders. In Lombardic speaking countries, the title was eventually regularized to margrave (German: markgraf ) i.e. "count of
316-760: A Germanic people who had been moving southwards in several steps, and had occupied the Rugian territory. During the 540s, the Lombards crossed the Danube into Roman Pannonia, in the west of present day Austria, bringing them into conflict with the Gepids . After defeating them with help from the Avars in 567 , the Lombards recruited many locals and moved into northern Italy, starting in 568. The Avars and their vassal Slavs subsequently began moving into
395-464: A king of Suevi , by crossing the frozen Danube from the east. These Suevi were at this time in a confederation with the Alemanni , in an Alpine region with streams that flowed loudly into the Danube, Baiuvarii (early Bavarians) on the east, Franks on the west, Burgundians on the south, and Thuringians on the north. This is one of the first mentions of the early Bavarians. They subsequently came to dominate
474-438: A letter mentioning that many of the peoples from around the region east of Austria, even from within the empire, were occupying Gaul at that time: "Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and—alas! for the commonweal!—even Pannonians". There was a short period of stability around 431. In 427 the chronicle of Marcellinus Comes says that the provinces of Pannonia, "which had been held by
553-607: A major defeat to the Goths, Alans and Huns at the Battle of Adrianople , which was caused by a sudden movement of peoples coming from present-day Ukraine. The Romans recovered control, but the Romans were apparently forced to try new approaches to settling newcomers in large numbers. One of the armed groups responsible for the defeat, led by Alatheus and Saphrax , were settled into the Pannonian part of
632-668: Is represented by the Hallstatt culture , which succeeded the Urnfield culture, under influences from the Mediterranean civilizations and Steppe peoples. This gradually transitioned into the Celtic La Tène culture . This early Iron Age culture is named after Hallstatt the type site in Upper Austria . The culture is often described in two zones, Western and Eastern, through which flowed
711-622: Is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe , Africa and Asia . The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology. The Middle Paleolithic broadly spanned from 300,000 to 50,000 years ago. There are considerable dating differences between regions. The Middle Paleolithic was succeeded by
790-593: The Austro-Prussian War of 1866. In 1867, Austria formed a dual monarchy with Hungary: the Austro-Hungarian Empire . When this empire collapsed after the end of World War I in 1918, Austria was reduced to the main, mostly German-speaking areas of the empire (its current frontiers), and adopted the name, the Republic of German-Austria . However, union with Germany and the chosen country name were forbidden by
869-690: The Avar March , corresponding roughly to present day Lower Austria , bordered by the rivers Enns , Raab and Drava , while to the south lay the March of Carinthia . Both marches were collectively referred to as the Marcha orientalis (Eastern March), a prefecture of the Duchy of Bavaria. In 805, the Avars, with Charlemagne's permission, led by the Avar Khagan, settled south-eastward from Vienna . A new threat appeared in 862,
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#1732855316044948-581: The Bronze Age fortifications were appearing, protecting the commercial centers of the mining, processing, and trading of copper and tin . This flourishing culture is reflected in the grave artifacts, such as at Pitten, in Nußdorf ob der Traisen , Lower Austria. In the late Bronze Age appeared the Urnfield culture , in which salt mining commenced in the northern salt mines at Hallstatt . The Iron Age in Austria
1027-697: The Burgenland (e.g., Oberpullendorf ) high-quality iron ore was mined and processed, then exported to the Romans as ferrum noricum ( Noric iron ). This led to the creation of a Roman trading outpost on the Magdalensberg in the early 1st century b.c. , later replaced by the Roman town Virunum. Fortified hilltop settlements , e.g. Kulm (east Styria ), Idunum (mod. Villach ), Burg ( Schwarzenbach ), and Braunsberg ( Hainburg ), were centers of public life. Some cities, such as Linz , date back to this period also. During
1106-630: The Carnic Alps arriving at Virunum in Noricum, as had been agreed to by the Roman general Stilicho , following several skirmishes between the two. Alaric was voted a large amount of money to maintain peace, by the Roman Senate, at Stilicho 's instigation. From there he directed his operations against Italy, demanding Noricum among another territory, finally sacking Rome in 410 but dying on the route home that year. During this period, in 409, Saint Jerome wrote
1185-661: The Enns River . Bavaria became a Margraviate under Engeldeo (890–895) and was re-established as a Duchy under Arnulf the Bad (907–937) who united it with the Duchy of Carinthia , occupying most of the eastern alps. This proved short lived. His son Eberhard (937–938) found himself in conflict with the German King, Otto I (Otto the Great) who deposed him. The next Duke was Henry I (947–955), who
1264-763: The Hungarians , following the pattern of displacement from more eastern territories by superior forces. By 896 the Hungarians were present in large numbers on the Hungarian Plain from which they raided the Frankish domains. They defeated the Moravians and in 907 defeated the Bavarians at the Battle of Pressburg and by 909 had overrun the marches forcing the Franks and Bavarians back to
1343-702: The Ice Age , so human habitation dates no earlier than the Middle Paleolithic era, during the time of the Neanderthals . The oldest traces of human habitation in Austria, more than 250,000 years ago, were found in the Repolust Cave at Badl, near Peggau in the Graz-Umgebung district of Styria . These include stone tools, bone tools, and pottery fragments together with mammalian remains. Some 70,000-year-old evidence
1422-528: The Lake Constance area to the west occupied by the Alemanni ( Vorarlberg ). Pockets of the Celto-Romanic population persisted, such as around Salzburg , and Roman place names persisted, such as Juvavum (Salzburg). In addition this population was distinguished by Christianity and by their language, a Latin dialect ( Romansch ). Salzburg was already a bishopric (739), and by 798 an archbishopric. Although
1501-681: The Mauer neighborhood of the southern Vienna district of Liesing dates from this period. In the Lengyel culture , which followed Linear Pottery in Lower Austria, circular ditches were constructed. Traces of the Copper Age in Austria were identified in the Carpathian Basin hoard at Stollhof , Hohe Wand , Lower Austria. Hilltop settlements from this era are common in eastern Austria. During this time
1580-603: The Neolithic era, most of those areas of Austria that were amenable to agriculture and were sources of raw materials were settled. Remains include those of the Linear pottery culture , one of the first agrarian cultures in Europe. The first recorded rural settlement from this time was at Brunn am Gebirge in Mödling . Austria's first industrial monument, the chert mine at Mauer-Antonshöhe in
1659-465: The Roman empire , the territory of present day Austria corresponded roughly with the Roman province of Noricum which was annexed by the empire around 15 BC, beginning 500 years of "Austria Romana" (as it became known in the 19th century). The western and eastern extremities of present day Austria were within the Roman provinces of Raetia , and Pannonia . During Emperor Claudius 's reign (41–54 AD), Noricum
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#17328553160441738-707: The Upper Paleolithic subdivision which first began between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago. Pettit and White date the Early Middle Paleolithic in Great Britain to about 325,000 to 180,000 years ago (late Marine Isotope Stage 9 to late Marine Isotope Stage 7), and the Late Middle Paleolithic as about 60,000 to 35,000 years ago. The Middle Paleolithic was in the geological Chibanian (Middle Pleistocene ) and Late Pleistocene ages. According to
1817-516: The ǃKung and Mbuti peoples . Both Neanderthal and modern human societies took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle Paleolithic. Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have arisen in Middle Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply. It has usually been assumed that women gathered plants and firewood and men hunted and scavenged dead animals through
1896-697: The Allies at the Treaty of Versailles . This led to the creation of the First Austrian Republic (1919–1933). Following the First Republic, Austrofascism tried to keep Austria independent from the German Reich . Engelbert Dollfuss accepted that most Austrians were German and Austrian, but wanted Austria to remain independent from Germany. In 1938, Austrian-born Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Germany , which
1975-675: The Bavarians extended south to later-known South Tyrol , and east to the Enns . The administrative center was at Regensburg . Those groups mixed with the Rhaeto-Romanic population and pushed it up into the mountains along the Puster Valley . In the south of modern Austria, Slavs had settled in the valleys of the Drava, Mura and Save by 600. The westward Slavic migration stopped further Bavarian migration eastwards by 610. Their most westward expansion
2054-714: The Danube soon afterwards. The Laterculus Veronensis shows that Heruli and Rugii were already present somewhere in western Europe in about 314. Similar listings from later in the 4th century, the Cosmographia of Julius Honorius , and probably also the Liber Generationis , both listed the Heruli together with the Marcomanni and Quadi, in whose traditional region the Herule kingdom would later be found. In 380 AD, Roman forces suffered
2133-483: The Eastern Alps in the wake of the expansion of their Avar overlords during the 7th century, mixed with the Celto-Romanic population, and established the realm of Carantania (later Carinthia ), which covered much of eastern and central Austrian territory and was the first independent Slavic state in Europe, centered at Zollfeld . Together with the indigenous population they were able to resist further encroachment of
2212-520: The Frankish west, such as Rupert and Virgil of the Hiberno-Scottish mission . After centuries of tension and war on the Danube border which ran through present day Austria, the power of the Marcomanni seems to have been broken by 300 AD. Many, perhaps most of them, had been moved within the empire. It seems that the Rugii and Heruli may have already moved into the Marcomanni's traditional region north of
2291-666: The Franks and Bavarians against the eastern Avars in 791, so that by 803 they had fallen back to the east of the Fischa and Leitha rivers. These conquests enabled the establishment of a system of defensive marches (military borderlands) from the Danube to the Adriatic. By around 800, Österreich, the "Kingdom of the East," had been joined to the Holy Roman Empire. Among these was an eastern march,
2370-712: The Germanic Bavarians steadily replaced Romansch as the main language, they adopted many Roman customs and became increasingly Christianized. Similarly in the east, German replaced the Slavic language. The March of Austria's neighbours were the Duchy of Bavaria to the west, the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland to the North, the Kingdom of Hungary to the east and the Duchy of Carinthia to the south. In this setting, Austria, still subject to Bavaria
2449-426: The Huns for fifty years, were reclaimed by the Romans". However, in 433 Flavius Aëtius effectively ceded Pannonia to Attila . In 451 the Huns and their allies, now under the command of Attila must have poured through the area on their way to Gaul where they were defeated the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains that year. Attila died a few years later in 453, and this was followed by the Battle of Nedao in 454, when
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2528-454: The Imperial family. Leopold then concentrated on pacifying the nobility. His monastic foundations, particularly Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz , led to his posthumous canonisation in 1458, and he became Austria's patron saint . Leopold III was succeeded by his son, Leopold IV 'The Generous' (1137–1141). Leopold further enhanced the status of Austria by also becoming Duke of Bavaria in 1139, as Leopold I. Bavaria itself had been in
2607-555: The Middle Stone Age inhabitants of the region now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo hunted large 1.8-metre (6 ft) long catfish with specialized barbed fishing points as early as 90,000 years ago, and Neandertals and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens in Africa began to catch shellfish for food as revealed by shellfish cooking in Neanderthal sites in Italy about 110,000 years ago and Middle Paleolithic Homo sapiens sites at Pinnacle Point , in Africa. Anthropologists such as Tim D. White suggest that cannibalism
2686-407: The Moula rock shelter in France – may imply that Neanderthals, like some contemporary human cultures, may have practiced excarnation for presumably religious reasons (see Neanderthal behavior § Cannibalism or ritual defleshing? ). The earliest undisputed evidence of artistic expression during the Paleolithic period comes from Middle Paleolithic/ Middle Stone Age sites such as Blombos Cave in
2765-426: The Neanderthals hunted large game animals mostly by ambushing them and attacking them with mêlée weapons such as thrusting spears rather than attacking them from a distance with projectile weapons. An ongoing controversy about the nature of Middle Paleolithic tools is whether there were a series of functionally specific and preconceived tool forms or whether there was a simple continuum of tool morphology that reflect
2844-545: The Paleolithic. However, Steven L. Kuhn and Mary Stiner from the University of Arizona suggest that this sex-based division of labor did not exist prior to the Upper Paleolithic . The sexual division of labor may have evolved after 45,000 years ago to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently. Although gathering and hunting comprised most of the food supply during the Middle Paleolithic, people began to supplement their diet with seafood and began smoking and drying meat to preserve and store it. For instance
2923-403: The Pannonian area, having previously established themselves from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans . After the Avars suffered setbacks in the east in 626, the Slavs rebelled, establishing their own territories. The Carantanians (Alpine Slavs) elected a Bavarian, Odilo, as their Count, and successfully resisted further Avar subjugation. The Carantanians migrated westward along the Drava into
3002-556: The Roman empire, including the east of Austria, and expected to do military service for Rome. As the Roman Empire's control over these border regions crumbled, the ability of Raetia, Noricum, and Pannonia to defend themselves became increasingly problematic. The Gothic leader Radagaisus overran part of the country in 405. After several raids on Italy, the Visigoths arrived in Noricum in 408, under Alaric I . As described by Zosimus , Alaric set out from Emona (modern Ljubljana ) which lay between Pannonia Superior and Noricum over
3081-425: The Romans as Noricum , dating from c. 800 to 400 BC. At the end of the 1st century BC, the lands south of the Danube became part of the Roman Empire . In the Migration Period , the 6th century, the Bavarii , a Germanic people, occupied these lands until it fell to the Frankish Empire established by the Germanic Franks in the 9th century. The name Ostarrîchi (Austria) has been in use since 996 AD when it
3160-463: The Slavs maintained their language and identity until the early 20th century, when assimilation reduced them to a small minority. Bavarian relationship with the Franks varied, achieving temporary independence by 717, only to be subjugated by Charles Martel . Finally Charlemagne (Emperor 800–814) deposed the last Agilolfing duke, Tassilo III , assuming direct Carolingian control in 788, with non-hereditary Bavarian kings. Charlemagne subsequently led
3239-425: The Upper Paleolithic. Nonetheless it remains possible that Middle Paleolithic societies never practiced cannibalism and that the damage to recovered human bones was either the result of excarnation or predation by carnivores such as saber-toothed cats , lions and hyenas . Around 200,000 BP Middle Paleolithic Stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the prepared-core technique , that
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3318-403: The bodies were buried for secular reasons. According to recent archeological findings from Homo heidelbergensis sites in the Atapuerca Mountains , the practice of intentional burial may have begun much earlier during the late Lower Paleolithic , but this theory is widely questioned in the scientific community. Cut-marks on Neandertal bones from various sites – such as Combe Grenal and
3397-465: The earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. Paleolithic groups such as the Neanderthals who possessed a Middle Paleolithic level of technology appear to have hunted large game just as well as Upper Paleolithic modern humans and the Neanderthals in particular may have likewise hunted with projectile weapons. Nonetheless Neanderthal usage of projectile weapons in hunting occurred very rarely (or perhaps never) and
3476-401: The extent of edge maintenance, as Harold L. Dibble has suggested. The use of fire became widespread for the first time in human prehistory during the Middle Paleolithic, and humans began to cook their food c. 250,000 years ago. Some scientists have hypothesized that hominids began cooking food to defrost frozen meat which would help ensure their survival in cold regions. Robert K. Wayne ,
3555-466: The first-recorded local tribal ( Taurisci , Ambidravi , Ambisontes ) and place names. Out of this arose Noricum (2nd century to c . 15 b.c. ) – a confederation of Alpine Celtic tribes (traditionally twelve) under the leadership of the Norici . It was confined to present-day southern and eastern Austria and part of Slovenia . The West was settled by the Raeti . Dürrnberg and Hallein (Salzburg) were Celtic salt settlements. In eastern Styria and
3634-447: The following Upper Paleolithic period. Middle Paleolithic burials at sites such as Krapina in Croatia (dated to c. 130,000 BP) and the Qafzeh and Es Skhul caves in Israel ( c. 100,000 BP) have led some anthropologists and archeologists (such as Philip Lieberman ) to believe that Middle Paleolithic cultures may have possessed a developing religious ideology which included concepts such as an afterlife ; other scholars suggest
3713-729: The form of bracelets, beads, art rock, ochre used as body paint and perhaps in ritual, though earlier examples of artistic expression such as the Venus of Tan-Tan and the patterns found on elephant bones from Bilzingsleben in Thuringia may have been produced by Acheulean tool-users such as Homo erectus prior to the start of the Middle Paleolithic period. Activities such as catching large fish and hunting large game animals with specialized tools indicate increased group-wide cooperation and more elaborate social organization. In addition to developing advanced cultural traits, humans also first began to take part in long-distance trade between groups for rare commodities (such as ochre (which
3792-485: The hands of the Welf (Guelph) dynasty, who were pitted against the Hohenstaufen . The latter came to the imperial throne in 1138 in the person of Conrad III (1138–1152); the Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Proud , was himself a candidate for the imperial crown and disputed the election of Conrad, and was subsequently deprived of the Duchy, which was given to Leopold IV. When Leopold died, his lands were inherited by his brother Henry II (Heinrich Jasomirgott) (1141–1177). In
3871-408: The inhabitants sought out and developed raw materials in the central Alpine areas. The most important find is considered to be the Iceman Ötzi , a well-preserved mummy of a man frozen in the Alps dating from approximately 3,300 BC, although these finds are now in Italy on the Austrian border. Another culture is the Mondsee group , represented by stilt houses in the Alpine lakes. By the beginning of
3950-409: The mark". The first recorded instance of the name 'Austria' appeared in 996, in a document of King Otto III written as Ostarrîchi , referring to the territory of the Babenberg March. In addition, for a long time the form Osterlant was in use, the inhabitants being referred to as Ostermann or Osterfrau . The Latinized name Austria applied to this area appears in the 12th Century writings in
4029-425: The meantime, Conrad had been succeeded as emperor by his nephew Frederick I Barbarossa (1155–1190), who was descended from both the Welfs and Hohenstauffens and sought to end the conflicts within Germany. To this end he returned Bavaria to the Welfs in 1156, but as compensation elevated Austria to a duchy through an instrument known as the Privilegium Minus . Henry II thus became Duke of Austria in exchange for losing
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#17328553160444108-410: The modern Klagenfurt ), Teurnia (near Spittal ), and Lauriacum ( Enns ). Archaeological sites from the Roman period include Kleinklein (Styria) and Zollfeld ( Magdalensberg ). Christianity appeared in Austria in the 2nd century, prompting Church organization that can be traced back to the 4th century. After the arrival of the Bavarii , Austria became the object of new missionary efforts from
4187-482: The neighboring Franks and Avars in the southeastern Alps. Meanwhile, the Germanic tribe of the Bavarii ( Frankish vassals), had developed in the 5th and 6th century in the west of the country and in later-known Bavaria , while Alemans had settled in later-known Vorarlberg . In the northern alps the Bavarians were established as a stem dukedom by around 550, under Agilolfing rule until 788 as an eastern Frankish Empire outpost. Those lands that were occupied by
4266-492: The province of Raetia . Present day Burgenland in the east was in Pannonia. To the south was Region 10, Venetia et Histria . The Danubian limes , formed a defensive line separating Upper and Lower Austria from Germanic tribes , most importantly the Marcomanni . The Romans built many Austrian cities that survive today. They include Vindobona ( Vienna ), Juvavum ( Salzburg ), Valdidena ( Innsbruck ), and Brigantium ( Bregenz ). Other important towns were Virunum (north of
4345-411: The rest. However they embarked on a programme of consolidating their power base. One such method was to employ indentures servants such as the Kuenringern family as Ministeriales and given considerable military and administrative duties. They survived as a dynasty through good fortune and skill at power politics, in that era dominated by the continual struggle between emperor and papacy . The path
4424-403: The rivers Enns , Ybbs and Inn . The West Hallstatt area was in contact with the Greek colonies on the Ligurian coast. In the Alps, contacts with the Etruscans and under Greek influence regions in Italy were maintained. The East had close links with the Steppe Peoples who had passed over the Carpathian Basin from the southern Russian steppes. The population of Hallstatt drew its wealth from
4503-444: The salt industry. Imports of luxury goods stretching from the North and Baltic seas to Africa have been discovered in the cemetery at Hallstatt. The oldest evidence of an Austrian wine industry was discovered in Zagersdorf , Burgenland in a grave mound. The Cult Wagon of Strettweg , Styria is evidence of contemporary religious life. In the later Iron Age , the Celtic La Tène culture spread to Austria. This culture gave rise to
4582-480: The same area, a double infant burial site was discovered at Krems-Wachtberg, dating from Gravettian culture (27,000 years old), the oldest burial ground found in Austria to date. Mesolithic remains include rock shelters (abris) from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine Valley , a funeral site at Elsbethen and a few other sites with microlithic artifacts which demonstrate the transition from living as hunter-gatherers and sedentary farmers and ranchers. During
4661-437: The sons of Attila and their Ostrogothic allies were defeated, The victors were able to consolidate independent kingdoms north of the Middle Danube. North of the Danube in present day Austria where the Marcomanni had been were the Rugii, and Heruli. In 468 the Ostrogoths won the Battle of Bolia , giving them hegemony over the Pannonian kingdoms. During the cold winter of 469/470, the Ostrogoths unexpectedly attacked Hunimund ,
4740-492: The status of Duchy in 1180. However the territory of the Duchy of Styria extended far beyond the current state of Styria , including parts of present-day Slovenia ( Lower Styria ), and also parts of Upper Austria (the Traungau, the area around Wels and Steyr ) and Lower Austria (the county of Pitten , today's districts of Wiener Neustadt and Neunkirchen ). Middle Paleolithic Europe : Africa : Siberia : The Middle Paleolithic (or Middle Palaeolithic )
4819-430: The territory eastward along the Danube valley, so that by 1002 it reached Vienna . The eastward expansion was finally halted by the newly Christianized Hungarians in 1030, when King Stephen (1001–1038) of Hungary defeated the Emperor, Conrad II (1024–1039) at Vienna. A 'core' territory had finally been established. The land contained the remnant of many prior civilisations, but the Bavarians predominated, except in
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#17328553160444898-474: The theory of the recent African origin of modern humans , anatomically modern humans began migrating out of Africa during the Middle Stone Age/Middle Paleolithic around 125,000 years ago and began to replace earlier pre-existent Homo species such as the Neanderthals and Homo erectus . The earliest evidence of behavioral modernity first appears during the Middle Paleolithic; undisputed evidence of behavioral modernity, however, only becomes common during
4977-465: The time of Leopold III (1095–1136). (compare Austrasia as the name for the north-eastern part of the Frankish Empire). The term Ostmark is not historically certain and appears to be a translation of marchia orientalis that came up only much later. The Babenbergs pursued a policy of settling the country, clearing forests and founding towns and monasteries. They ruled the March from Pöchlarn initially, and later from Melk , continually expanding
5056-440: The title of Duke of Bavaria. Austria was now an independent dominion within the Holy Roman Empire, and Henry moved his official residence to Vienna that year. In 1186 the Georgenberg Pact bequeathed Austria's southern neighbour, the Duchy of Styria to Austria upon the death of the childless Duke of Styria, Ottokar IV , which occurred in 1192. Styria had been carved out of the northern marches of Carinthia , and only raised to
5135-408: The western alpine parts of present day western Austria. In 476 Odoacer became ruler of Italy with barbarian forces including Heruli and Rugii, and other peoples from the Danubian region. Remnants of the Roman organization survived south of the Danube in the form of fortified strongholds, but the barbarians raided frequently, as described in the biography Severinus of Noricum by Eugippius . Noricum
5214-410: Was Otto's brother. In 955 Otto successfully forced back the Hungarians at the Battle of Lechfeld , beginning a slow reconquest of the eastern lands, including Istria and Carniola . During the reign of Henry's son, Henry II (the Quarrelsome) (955–976) Otto became the first Holy Roman Emperor (962) and Bavaria became a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire . Otto I re-established the eastern march, and
5293-414: Was a margravate of the Duchy of Bavaria and from 1156 an independent duchy (later archduchy ) of the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806). Austria was dominated by the House of Habsburg and House of Habsburg-Lorraine from 1273 to 1918. In 1806, when Emperor Francis II of Austria dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, Austria became the Austrian Empire , and was also part of the German Confederation until
5372-401: Was a relatively small player. The Babenberg Margraves controlled very little of modern Austria. Salzburg, historically part of Bavaria became an ecclesiastical territory, while Styria was part of the Carinthian Duchy. The Babenbergs had relatively small holdings, with not only Salzburg but the lands of the Diocese of Passau lying in the hands of the church, and the nobility controlling much of
5451-422: Was bounded on the east approximately by the Vienna Woods , the current eastern border of Styria , and parts of the Danube , Eisack , Drava rivers. Under Diocletian (284–305), Noricum was divided along the main Alpine ridge into a north ( Noricum ripense ) and a south ( Noricum Mediterraneum ). Across the Ziller in the west, corresponding approximately to the present provinces of Vorarlberg and Tyrol , lay
5530-466: Was common in human societies prior to the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic, based on the large amount of "butchered human" bones found in Neandertal and other Middle Paleolithic sites. Cannibalism in the Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages. However it is also possible that Middle Paleolithic cannibalism occurred for religious reasons which would coincide with the development of religious practices thought to have occurred during
5609-407: Was eventually abandoned in 488, while Raetia was abandoned by the Romans to the Alamanni . In 493 Theoderic the Great , an Ostrogothic king, killed Odoacer and took control of Italy. By 500 the Herulian kingdom on the Danube, apparently by now under a king named Rodulph, had conquered their neighbours the Rugii, and become allies with Theoderic in Italy. In 508 Rodulph was killed by the Langobards ,
5688-632: Was found in the Gudenus Cave in northwestern Lower Austria. Upper Paleolithic remains are more numerous in Lower Austria. The best known are in the Wachau region, including the sites of the two oldest pieces of art in Austria. These are figurative representations of women, the Venus of Galgenberg found near Stratzing and thought to be 32,000 years old, and the nearby Venus of Willendorf (26,000 years old) found at Willendorf , near Krems an der Donau . In 2005 in
5767-515: Was later incorporated into the Carolingian empire , first as a tribal margravate under Slavic dukes and, after the failed rebellion of Ljudevit Posavski in the early 9th century, under Frankish-appointed noblemen. During the following centuries, Bavarian settlers went down the Danube and up the Alps, a process through which Austria was to become a mostly German-speaking country. Only in southern Carinthia,
5846-505: Was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques. Wallace and Shea split the core artifacts into two different types: formal cores and expedient cores. Formal cores are designed to extract the maximum amount from the raw material while expedient cores are based more upon functional need. This method increased efficiency by permitting the creation of more controlled and consistent flakes. This method allowed Middle Paleolithic humans correspondingly to create stone-tipped spears, which were
5925-578: Was not always smooth. The fifth Margrave, Leopold II 'The Fair' (1075–1095) was temporarily deposed by the Emperor Henry IV (1084–1105) after finding himself on the wrong side of the Investiture Dispute . However Leopold's son, Leopold III 'The Good' (1095–1136) backed Henry's rebellious son, Henry V (1111–1125), contributed to his victory and was rewarded with the hand of Henry's sister Agnes von Waiblingen in 1106, thus allying himself with
6004-640: Was often used for religious purposes such as ritual )) and raw materials during the Middle Paleolithic as early as 120,000 years ago. Inter-group trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e., famine or drought). Evidence from archeology and comparative ethnography indicates that Middle Paleolithic people lived in small, egalitarian band societies similar to those of Upper Paleolithic societies and some modern hunter-gatherers such as
6083-410: Was reached in 650 at the Puster Valley , but gradually fell back to the Enns by 780. The settlement boundary between Slavs and Bavarians roughly corresponds to a line from Freistadt through Linz , Salzburg ( Lungau ), to East Tyrol ( Lesachtal ), with Avars and Slavs occupying eastern Austria and modern Bohemia . Carantania, under pressure of the Avars, became a vassal to Bavaria in 745 and
6162-527: Was succeeded by Otto II in 967, and found himself in conflict with Henry who he deposed, allowing him to re-organise the duchies of his empire. Otto considerably reduced Bavaria, re-establishing Carinthia to the south. To the east, he established a new Bavarian Eastern March , subsequently known as Austria, under Leopold , count of Babenberg in 976. Leopold I, also known as Leopold the Illustrious ruled Austria from 976 to 994. The marches were overseen by
6241-755: Was supported by a large majority of Austrians . After the German defeat in World War II, the German identity in Austria was weakened. Ten years after the Second World War Austria again became an independent republic as the Second Austrian Republic in 1955. Austria joined the European Union in 1995. Since the territory understood by the term 'Austria' underwent drastic changes over time, dealing with
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