Austria History: Difference between revisions

''[[Austria Genealogy|Austria]]''  

=== Political and Administrative History ===

The German speaking peoples of Austria are closely related to those speaking the Germanic languages in other countries. Other ethnic groups include Czechs in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, Croatians in Dalmatia and Slavonia, Poles in Galicia and Silesia, Ukrainians in Bukovina and Galicia, Italians in Tirol and Istria, Slovenes in Carinthia, Carnola and Steiermark, and Hungarians in Hungary and Slovakia.  

Austria was part of the First German Empire that was created in the 10th century by Saxon kings. It was an independent duchy within the empire by 1156. It came under the rule of the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1253. The Habsburg rulers of the Empire conquered Bohemia in 1278 and ruled Austria and other parts of the empire until 1918. Austrian holdings within the empire eventually included the areas corresponding to the modern states of Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and parts of western Poland and northern Italy. Outside of the formal boundaries of the Empire the Habsburgs also ruled Hungary, Transylvania, Galicia and Croatia. They lost control over Italy and Switzerland in 1648.  

In 1806 the Habsburg emperors were forced to retreat eastward from Napoleon’s advances, while the French assumed control of the remaining German territories except Prussia. At the demise of the French Republic in 1815, the German states including Austria formed a customs union, but Austria refused offers to join the Prussian Kingdom in reorganizing the German Empire. The Austrian monarchs, with their extensive holdings in the East, instead developed their own eastern (Austrian) Empire. In 1867 the Habsburgs made concessions to Hungary to form the Austro-Hungarian Empire or dual-monarchy which lasted until 1918.  

After the defeat of Austria-Hungary in the First World War, its eastern territories were awarded to the new states of Poland, Romania and Hungary. Southern lands went to Yugoslavia and Italy, and northern territories were brought together to form the country of Czechoslovakia. The few remaining Austrian lands were denied permission to join with Germany, and a separate Austrian Republic was established in 1919. This lasted until the Second World War when Austrian, Czech, Polish and other areas were again added to Germany. Following the Second World War the occupational zones of Austria were combined to form the new Republic of Austria.  

==== SUMMARY OF AUSTRIAN POLITICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY ====

=== Religious History ===

The Catholic Church prevailed in the Austrian Empire for many years prior to the Protestant Reformation in the early 1500s. Many important records began to be kept by Church officials concerning land, tax, court and other civil affairs. The Reformation provided much of the impetus for the widespread recording of parish registers even in the predominantly Catholic areas of Austria. Some early Protestant records date from 1523, and early Catholic records from 1560. The strong Catholic orientation of the Habsburgs succeeded in returning the Czech and Hungarian lands to the Catholic fold after a century of Protestant record keeping there. The Thirty-Years’ War 1618-1648 and other conflicts caused extensive damage to records in many areas.  

Early in the 1400s reformer John Huss in Bohemia succeeded in creating a climate for change. His movement and the United Brethren who broke from the Hussites in 1467 preceded the general Reformation that engulfed Europe during the years 1520-1560. Lutheranism followed by Calvinism became popular in Bohemia and Moravia, as well as in Slovakia, Hungary and Transylvania. Unitarianism was popular in Transylvania. Anabaptists, Orthodox adherents and Jews were also prevalent. Ottoman rule in Hungary brought Muslim subjugation to all of these denominations in the 1600s. Lutheranism became strong in Slovenia and Salzburg in the 1520s, but was not so widespread in other western areas which remained primarily Roman Catholic.  

The Catholic Counter-Reformation succeeded in regaining the entire territory for Catholicism. In turn many Czech Protestants fled to Germany, and Lutherans, particularly Salzburgers went to Prussia and Germany. Reformed Protestants went to Hungary, Poland and Transylvania. Hungary continued a Protestant tradition despite the Catholic status of the Empire. Orthodox adherants were prominent in Bukovina, Croatia and Slavonia, although they also were compelled to pledge their loyalty to the Pope in the 1600s, thus forming the Uniat or Greek-Catholic denomination. Jews were prevalent in Galicia and Bukovina.  

In 1880, 78% of the population of Austria-Hungary was Roman Catholic, 10% Protestant, 6% Orthodox, and 5% Jewish and 1% Muslim. In 1991 religious affiliation in Austria was 89% Roman Catholic, 6% Protestant, 2% Muslim, 1% Orthodox and 2% other.

==== REFORMATION IN AUSTRIA ====

| Brethren 1467-

| Bohemia, Moravia

| Austria, Salzburg, Slovenia Bohemia, Moravia Hungary, Slovakia Banat, Transylvania

| Hungary Banat, Transylvania

| Hutterites (Anabaptists) 1528-

|-

| Banat, Transylvania Slavonia (Croatia) Galicia

=== Population Statistics ===

 

 

 

The area of Austria is 32,378 square miles, a little smaller than Maine. The capital is Vienna (Wien, pop. 1.5 million). Other important cities are Graz (238,000), Linz (203,000), Salzburg (144,000) and Innsbruck (118,000).<ref name="profile">The Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “Family History Record Profile: Austria,” Word document, private files of the FamilySearch Content Strategy Team, 1987-1999.</ref>  

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