How could Austria build this empire if they sucked at warfare? I get that they got the land via marriage, but they had to keep it somehow, right?
How could Austria build this empire if they sucked at warfare? I get that they got the land via marriage...
Ayden Bennett
Gabriel Perry
Napoopan pretty much handed the territories to them. They lost Venice pretty quickly though.
Hunter Gonzalez
Hungary (also includes Slovakia, Croatia and Transylvania) and Bohemia are the main ones. They kept control of Hungary through victories in the Great Ottoman Wars - they had Eugene of Savoy, the man was a damn genius. Bohemia was kept through the wonders of the HRE's insane political system. The region of Galicia was acquired when splitting up the Poles. Meanwhile you have the Carpathians holding the borders from Russia/Ukraine/Poland and the Alps holding the ones from Germany and Italy. The Italian parts (including the rest of Dalmatia and Istria) were a reward for the Napoleonic Wars. Bosnia-Herzegovina was essentially a gift to try and keep the Ottoman Empire from collapsing.
Jeremiah Ramirez
But Austria was a major power before Napoleon. And they didn’t do much during the coalition wars compared to England, Prussia and Russia. Why give them anything after Napoleon was defeated? And I’ve never read about any great Austrian military campaigns. Hell, even when Vienna was saved it was thanks to Sobieski.
Cameron Jackson
So what did they do to warrant control of polish lands/transcarpathia/ everything post Napoleon?
Carson Carter
The A-H Empire was just Austria in slow decline, you can see the weakness in that they had to pretend to treat Hungary as equals. Far more interesting is the pre-Napoleonic Austrian Empire i.e. the Habsburg hegemony, which I believe you're hinting at.
This was an Imperial European great power that lasted hundreds of years, was not based on any single nation-state and covered huge parts of Europe. I think it's completely fascinating but don't know too much about the Habsburgs myself. What I do know is that the "Austrian Empire" is better thought of as the Habsburg dynasty, and the same family for a long time controlled Spain (and the Spanish Empire), the Netherlands, parts of Italy and some of the HRE.
So you can understand if other European powers were reluctant to smash Austria, often they would've been unable to without lots of allies.
Does anyone know a good history book to learn about the Austrian Empire?
Hudson Turner
>Why give them anything after Napoleon was defeated?
And to answer this question, the other European powers knew Austria was weak and were scared of Russia.
Adam Davis
>Bohemia was kept through the wonders of the HRE's insane political system.
And various (and varying) parts of the HRE were effectively austrian vassals or sattelites, but the whole system is just a little to complex to enter the popular view of history.
>And I’ve never read about any great Austrian military campaigns.
"Winning" slow wars of attrition, then getting a few extra territories out of the peace treaty most of the time is not as glamorous as kicking ass and taking names.
>Hell, even when Vienna was saved it was thanks to Sobieski.
Less than a third of the coalition forces were actually polish. Not to say they weren't vital to the victory, but austria was not the military pushover popular history makes them out to be.
Brody Morgan
...
Ayden Hughes
>And various (and varying) parts of the HRE were effectively austrian vassals or sattelites, but the whole system is just a little to complex to enter the popular view of history.
Yeah, the HRE is just a complex, bizarre mess, though it does matter quite a bit that "the Austrian Empire" (really, the Hapsburgs) did keep Bohemia after the HRE fell apart, especially with how important that region is just in general.
Carson Lopez
The entire first half of the Thirty Years War is Imperial (Austrian led) victories. The revolt in Bohemia is put down. The Protestant armies get BTFO in a string of battles, and Denmark gets wrecked.
Oliver Baker
>Dieser Inhalt ist in dieser Landes-Domain nicht verfügbar
Also, starting "Prinz Eugen" with "Prussias Gloria" warrants drowning in Almdudler.
Connor Gonzalez
>Also, starting "Prinz Eugen" with "Prussias Gloria
that's how the original uploader started some of his vids, it's like his signature intro, he uploaded german patriotic songs from different historic periods
Jack Rivera
>but they had to keep it somehow, right?
funny how they used to rely on russia and prussia to help them manage and deal with major uprisings
Liam Wilson
If only there was some kind of melody that all germans...
youtube.com
Naah, let's take one composed by a literal piefke.
Liam Sanchez
well lets be real here, the Austrians were the rightful rulers of Germany, the 30 years war and the rise of Prussia were a mistake
Evan Brooks
The emperor was the rightful ruler. Tying imperial power to one subdivision and foreign lands, and letting other subdivisions become powers in their own right was the mistake.
Although he tried, but
>the 30 years war
perfidious french and swedes prevented it.
Blake Gonzalez
To be honest their reputation for failure and incompetence is dramatically overstated. Statistically they won the majority of wars they fought, and even when they lost wars they were never defeated to an existential degree (like France was in 1815). The Austrian Empire valued defence first-and-foremost, rather than offence; they saw protecting Vienna and the Habsburg dynasty as more important than huge offensive actions intended to destroy the enemy. This was the principle that enabled them to survive several major defeats at the hands of Napoleon from 1800 to 1809.
The Habsburgs also placed a far greater emphasis on diplomacy than any other European state did. They genuinely did see war as secondary to diplomacy if possible; they humbled themselves before Napoleon and even allowed him to marry the Emperor's daughter, but all the while they were subtly re-building diplomatic ties with Prussia and Russia. The Austrians ensured they never faced such an overwhelming coalition of enemies like Frederick did during the Seven Years War or Napoleon did during the 1813-1815 campaigns. They always had at least one major power on their side.
The Austrians also did actually have their fair share of talented military leaders, such as Wallenstein in the Thirty Years War, Eugene in the Turkish Wars and the War of the Spanish Succession, Archduke Charles in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and Radetsky in the wars with Italy.
Finally, the Austrians also had an almost Roman-like resistance to giving up. Even after suffering crushing defeats at the hands of Frederick II and Napoleon, they kept picking themselves back up, building new armies and going forth to do battle again and again. They learned from the mistakes of past wars and strove to improve themselves constantly. Both Frederick and Napoleon noted bitterly how the Austrians seemed to just refuse to give up.
Joseph Sanchez
To add onto this: I highly recommend the book "For God and Kaiser", which is a military history of the Austrian Empire from the Thirty Years War to World War One. I finished reading it half an hour ago and it was excellent. Very informative and engaging, and it dispelled with the widespread belief that Austria constantly sucked at warfare. It also shows how the Habsburgs were the last "true" royal dynasty of Europe, so for monarchists (like me) it was a great read, and gave me an appreciation of Austria and the Habsburgs I didn't have before (having always viewed them as just the villains to my heroes like Frederick and Napoleon).
Jaxson Moore
>And they didn’t do much during the coalition wars compared to England
Austria did the brunt of the fighting for much of the coalition wars, Jesus.
Jace Sanders
>Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia
Though marriage
>Galicia
Divided between Russia and Prussia
>Venician/Tyrol land
Durring Napoleonic wars
>Bosnia
Annexation crisis
Most of the territories they got from Hungary who gained them by Magyar migration and union with Croatia.
Austria did had to deffend them from Ottomans(they were shit at it), but in the end Turks became weak and lost control of territories when they lost wars to Holy League
Chase Powell
Thanks
Lincoln Collins
you're wrong there buddy, when they inherited Hungary-Coatia it was mostly conquered by the Turks, the Habsburgs reconquered it in the Great Turkish War
seeThe Austrians also fought in the countless endless wars of europe from the advent of gunpowder up until the napoleonic wars
Asher Jenkins
Well yeah, just like said...
Turks lost territories when they lost wars to Holy League (Great Turkish War)
What i meant was that Habsburgs did lose Upper Hungarian lands to turks, but it wasn't technically Austrian fault since Hungary was in eternal interagnum divided by different pretenders and under Zapolya vassalage.