It's a bit depressing seeing Austria only be mentioned being btfo by Frederick, Napoleon and WWI...

It's a bit depressing seeing Austria only be mentioned being btfo by Frederick, Napoleon and WWI. Can we get a thread about moments of Austrian triumph and victory (and not just as part of a larger coalition, like Leipzig).

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karánsebes
twitter.com/AnonBabble

their largest triumphs were expanding via dynasty and diplomacy

>it's depressing to read about those times real countries BTFO the Austro-kuks
What about that time Austria BTFO'd itself?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karánsebes

This is one of reddit's favourite memes.

Austria was successful in avoiding the Nationalist Hysteria until defeat in WWI forced it to them.

So their triumph is just *not* having something happen to them?

Christ, is their history really that dull?

This, Austrian interaction with the other great powers through the Napoleanic wars is interesting
Other interesting stuff too- Great Turkish War, Eugene of Savoy and general cool early modern history.

That one time when Austrian Navy- never a Naval power- was outnumbered by the more modern Navy of the Italian Kingdom and mcfucking won.

Yfw ramming attacks conducted by Austrian Ironclads on 7 separate occassions that BTFO Italian warships memed Naval Architects in Europe to think ramming was still a viable naval tactic.

Yfw an Austrian wooden steamer rammed an Italian ironclad and it fucking backed off.

kek, so even with vastly superior technology the italians were still btfo

This is it. The one thing that the Austrians can claim as their fame, being not as complete and utter shit as the Italians.

Yeah it's reddit as fuck, not to mention it never happened and only appeared in some humouristic magazine half a century later.

It was Austrians who did most of the fighting against Napoleon.

"... the Austrian army ... carried most of the burden of the war on land.
Though repeatedly defeated, it always rose again..." - Gunther Rothemberg

Austria was the most implacable of Napoleon's continental enemies:
Austria at war with France - 108 months
Prussia at war with France - 58 months
Russia at war with France - 55 months.

Austria also has a long history of unrelenting combat against the Ottomans. It basically served as a guard post of Europe for more than two centuries.

30 Years War.

Sure, they had to have other people fight for him, but the maneuvering of Ferdinand is impressive. He was able to take Bohemia back and catholicize it and form the Austrian Empire despite starting the war with virtually nothing. Giving Maximilian the Palletinate insured that the constitutional order of the HRE wouldn't have a strong supporter and he was able to muster considerable support from all over the HRE.

It was really Spain that fucked it all up by not sealing the deal on the English alliance and marriage after Tilly defeated the Protestant armies. If they keep England and France out Germany is mostly unfied centuries earlier.

>vastly superior technology
Nah, the ships were a mess full of problems.

Austria played on hard mode, forging an empire out of Germans, Czechs, Magyars, Romanians, Italians, Croats, etc.

It made the age of nationalism and revolution a lot harder for them and they still almost pulled it off.

In terms of culture they are peers of the French, in terms of defense of the faith and against the Turk they are peerless.

Beating Italians isn’t really an achievement user

There's a book called "For God and Kaiser" that explains Austrian military history from the Thirty Years War until 1921, so that is a great resource about Austrian military success and strategy. Generally speaking, Austria had the capability to win dozens of battles they lost, but their unwillingness to commit all their forces (because the entire role of the Austrian Army was to defend the Hapsburg family) caused any decisive victories they could have achieved to spin into stalemates, defeats, or only tactical victories (battle of Aspern-Essling, for example) as Austrian generals always needed soldiers to stay uncommitted in thee fight to protect Vienna should the battle be lost

OP here. Sounds interesting, I'll check it out.

Seconding this book here, it is superbly written and kinda funny. One important thing that it does note that when the Austrians fought anyone other than the French, they almost invariably won. Their only notable wartime defeats before WW1 was the wars against napoleon and the second war with Prussia. They even managed to stop Frederick the Great from dissolving then nation when Maria Theresa took the throne.

Didn't they lose against Italy in the mid-19th century though?

You forgot Austria being btfo by Bismarck.

No, they lost to the French armies supporting Italy. They btfo the Italians every time they tried to engage. The only reason that Italy exists as a state today is that Napoleon III was salty about the wealthy northern Italian territories the Austrians had.

Okay, fair enough, but they also lost against the Prussians shortly afterwards. So, I mean, the 18th to 20th centuries were kind of really bad for Austria in terms of military affairs.

>The only reason that Italy exists today
Is because of pic related.

Well, they did win the war against Denmark, but aside from kicking Italy around like the retarded child it was, Austria had the bad luck to always be prepared to fight the last war.

>be Habsburgs
>16th century -be champions of counter-reformation and bastion of Catholicism
>17th century - be defenders of Europe against Turk hordes
>18th century -be paragons of Enlightened despotism
>19th century - be guardians of the ancien regime, sworn to fight against liberalism and nationalism

It's actually astounding in how many ways the Habsburgs shaped and determined Europe for what it is. Truly a universal ruling family, no one else has right to bear Imperial titles besides them.

Europe truly died in 1918 with Austria.

Well, if you look at them as HRE (as they remained its Emperor for a loooong time) instead of just Austria, things get way better in military accounting

Since Austria actually fought other members of the HRE I'd say they *weren't* the same thing.

Yes, but I mean when the HRE had to confront foreign enemies during Habsburg lordship