The history of Austria covers the history of Austria and its predecessor states, from the farming communities of the early Stone Age, through to the present sovereign state. The name Ostarrîchi (Austria) has been in use since 996 CE when it was a margravate of the Duchy of Bavaria and from 1156 an independent archduchy of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation (Heiliges Römisches Reich 962–1806). During this time Austria was dominated by the Austrian House of Habsburg (Haus Österreich) from 1273 to 1806 when the empire came to an end. Austria then emerged in to the nineteenth century as the Austrian Empire, a part of the German Confederation until the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 excluded her, after which Austria continued as the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918) as a dual kingdom with Hungary. When this empire collapsed in 1918 after the end of World War I, Austria was reduced to the main German speaking areas of the empire corresponding to its current frontiers and adopted the name German Austria, since it wanted to join the new German Weimar Republic. This union was forbidden by the victorious Allies at the Treaty of Versailles. Following the First Republic (1918-1933) Austrofascism tried to keep Austria independent from the German Reich and in 1938 was annexed by Nazi Germany with the support of a large part of the Austrian people. After the Second World War Austria again became an independent republic as the Second Republic in 1955 and joined the European Union in 1995.
Read more about History Of Austria: Historiography, Overview, Geography and Geology, Early Middle Ages, Babenberg Austria, The Beginnings of The Habsburg Monarchy (1278–1526), Austria in The Reformation (1526–1618), Austria in The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648), Austria's Rise To Power (1657–1714), Charles VI and Maria Theresa (1711–1780), French Revolution and Napoleon (1792–1815), Austria in The First World War 1914–1918, Anschluss and Unification With Germany (1938–1945)
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“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“All the terrors of the French Republic, which held Austria in awe, were unable to command her diplomacy. But Napoleon sent to Vienna M. de Narbonne, one of the old noblesse, with the morals, manners, and name of that interest, saying, that it was indispensable to send to the old aristocracy of Europe men of the same connection, which, in fact, constitutes a sort of free- masonry. M. de Narbonne, in less than a fortnight, penetrated all the secrets of the imperial cabinet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)