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 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 they fell to the Frankish Empire established by the Germanic Franks in the 9th century. In the year 976 AD, the first state of Austria formed. The name Ostarrîchi (Austria) has been in use since 996 AD when it 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 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 the Allies at the Treaty of Versailles. This led to the creation of the First Austrian Republic (1919–1933).
Following the First Republic, Kurt Schuschnigg and the Fatherland Front 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 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.
Historiography
Since the territory understood by the term 'Austria' underwent drastic changes over time, dealing with 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 the Czech Republic. Within Austria there are regionally and temporally varying affinities to adjacent countries.
Prehistory
Paleolithic
The Alps were inaccessible during 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 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 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
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.
Neolithic
During 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 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.
Copper Age
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 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.
Bronze Age
By the beginning of 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.
Iron Age
The Iron Age in Austria 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.
Hallstatt 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 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 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.
La Tène (Celtic) culture
In the later Iron Age, the Celtic La Tène culture spread to Austria. This culture gave rise to 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 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.
Roman era
During 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. Austria north of the Danube was outside the empire and inhabited by a powerful cluster of Germanic peoples, including the Naristi, Marcomanni and Quadi, who had a close relationship with the Roman empire, disrupted occasionally by major conflicts.
During Emperor Claudius's reign (41–54 AD), Noricum 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 northern and southern part (Noricum ripense and Noricum Mediterraneum). Across the Ziller in the west, corresponding approximately to the present provinces of Vorarlberg and Tyrol, lay the province of Raetia. Present day Burgenland in the east was in Pannonia. To the south was Region 10, Venetia et Histria.
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 the modern Klagenfurt), Teurnia (near Spittal), and Lauriacum (Enns). Archaeological sites from the Roman period include Kleinklein (Styria) and Zollfeld (Magdalensberg). Christianity appeared in Roman Austria in the 2nd century, prompting Church organization that can be traced back to the 4th century.
The Marcomanni and their allies fought Rome in a devastating round of conflicts in the late second century, the so-called Marcomannic Wars. Although the Marcomanni even managed to invade Italy itself, they were eventually defeated and forced to accept a much weakened position. By 300 AD many or perhaps most of them were moved south of the Danube, into the empire. The Rugii and Heruli may have already moved into the Marcomanni's traditional region north of the Danube in the third or fourth century. The Laterculus Veronensis shows that Heruli and Rugii were already present somewhere near the empire 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 their western neighbours, the Quadi.
In 378 AD, Roman forces suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Adrianople, caused by a sudden movement of peoples coming from the east, most notably Goths, Alans and Huns. In Pannonia, on the east of Austria, the Romans were forced to try new approaches to settling newcomers in large numbers. One of the most important armed groups at Adrianople, led by Alatheus and Saphrax, was allowed to settle there, and expected to do military service for Rome, and stop raiding further west. In practice the region east of Austria was no longer under full Roman control.
Middle ages
End of Roman presence
As the Roman Empire's control over the Austrian border region crumbled, the ability of Raetia, Noricum, and especially Pannonia to defend themselves became increasingly problematic. A Gothic leader Radagaisus overran part of the country in 405.
After several raids on Italy, the Visigoths of Alaric I arrived in Noricum in 408. As described by Zosimus, Alaric set out from Emona (modern Ljubljana), which lay between Pannonia Superior and Noricum over the Carnic Alps, arriving at Virunum in Noricum, as had been agreed to by the Roman general Stilicho following several skirmishes between the two. At Stilicho's instigation, the Roman Senate voted to pay a large amount of money to Alaric to maintain peace. Conflict continued, with Alaric demanding Noricum and other territory, and even sacking Rome in 410. He died on the route home that year.
During this period, in 409, Saint Jerome wrote a letter mentioning that many of the peoples from around what is now eastern Austria, even from within the empire, had moved west and were occupying Gaul at that time: "Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Alemanni and—alas! for the commonweal!—even Pannonians".
In 427 the chronicle of Marcellinus Comes says that the provinces of Pannonia, "which had been held by the Huns for fifty years, were reclaimed by the Romans." In about 430 the Roman general Aëtius fought in the region first against the Juthungi, and then against rebels in Noricum. He then also defeated Vindelici, the inhabitants of the northern part of Roman Raetia. There was a short period of stability around 431. However, in 433 Aëtius effectively ceded Pannonia to Attila and his Huns.
In 451 the Huns and their allies must have poured through Noricum and Raetia on their way to Gaul, where they were defeated by Aëtius and his allies at 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 the sons of Attila and their Ostrogothic allies were defeated by other warlords still in the region. The victors were able to consolidate independent kingdoms north and east of the Middle Danube. In the north of present-day Austria, where the Marcomanni had been, were the Rugii and Heruli. South of the Danube there was still a significant Roman population, as described in the biography of Severinus of Noricum by Eugippius.