Maximilian II, the eldest, succeeded his father as emperor, obtaining Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia; Ferdinand, the second son, received Tyrol and Lower Austria; and Charles, the youngest, obtained Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Görz. Maximilian died in 1576, and was succeeded on the imperial throne by his eldest son Rudolph II, who had already been crowned King of Hungary in 1572, and King of Bohemia in 1575. Rudolph's reign was distinguished by the war against Turkey and Transylvania; the persecutions of the Protestants, who were driven from his dominions; the cession of Hungary in 1608; and in 1611 of Bohemia and his hereditary estates in Austria to his brother Matthias. Matthias, who succeeded Maximilian on the imperial throne, concluded a peace with the Turks, but was disturbed by the Protestant Bohemians, who took up arms in defence of their religious rights, thus commencing the Thirty Years' War. After his death in 1619 the Bohemians refused to acknowledge his successor, Ferdinand II, until after the battle of Prague in 1620, when Bohemia had to submit, and was deprived of the right of choosing her king. Lutheranism was strictly forbidden in all the Austrian dominions. Hungary, which revolted under Bethlem Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, was, after a long struggle, subdued. During the reign of Ferdinand III (1637-57), successor of Ferdinand II, Austria was continually the theatre of war; Lusatia was ceded to Saxony in 1635; and Alsace to France in 1648, when peace was restored in Germany by the Treaty of Westphalia.
The Emperor Leopold I, son and successor of Ferdinand III, was victorious through the talents of Prince Eugene in two wars with Turkey; and Vienna was delivered by Sobieski and the Germans from the attacks of Kara Mustapha in 1683. In 1687 he united Hungary to Transylvania, and in 1699 restored to Hungary the country lying between the Danube and the Theiss. It was the chief aim of Leopold to secure to Charles, his second son, the inheritance of the Spanish monarchy, and in 1701, upon the victory of French diplomacy in the appointment of the grandson of Louis XIV, the War of the Spanish Succession commenced. Leopold died in 1705, but Joseph I, his eldest son, continued the war. As he died without children in 1711, his brother Charles was elected emperor, but was obliged to accede in 1714 to the Peace of Utrecht, by which Austria received the Netherlands, Milan, Mantua, Naples, and Sardinia. In 1720 Sicily was given to Austria in exchange for Sardinia. This monarchy now embraced over 190,000 sq. miles; but its power was weakened by new wars with Spain and France. In the peace concluded at Vienna (1735 and 1738) Charles VI was forced to cede Naples and Sicily to Spain and part of Milan to the King of Sardinia; and in 1739, by the Peace of Belgrade, he was obliged to transfer to the Porte Belgrade, Serbia, &c., partly in order to secure the succession to his daughter, Maria Theresa, by the Pragmatic Sanction. He died in 1740.
On Maria Theresa's marriage to Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine (the dynasty henceforth being that of Habsburg-Lorraine), and her accession to the Austrian throne, the Empire was threatened with dismemberment. Frederick II of Prussia subdued Silesia; the Elector of Bavaria was crowned in Lintz and Prague, and in 1742 chosen emperor under the name of Charles VII; Hungary alone supported the heroic and beautiful queen. Charles, however, died in 1745, and the husband of Theresa was crowned Emperor of Germany as Francis I; but a treaty concluded in 1745 confirmed to Frederick the possession of Silesia, and by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748, Austria was obliged to cede the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to Philip, Infant of Spain, and several districts of Milan and Sardinia. To recover Silesia, Maria Theresa formed an alliance with France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden, and entered upon the Seven Years' War; but by the Peace of Hubertsberg, 1763, Silesia was recognized as Prussian territory. On the death of Francis I, in 1765, Joseph II, his eldest son, was appointed to assist his mother in the government and elected Emperor of Germany. The partition of Poland (1772) gave Galicia and Lodomeria to Austria, which also obtained Bukowina from the Porte in 1777. At the death of the Empress in 1780 Austria contained 235,000 sq. miles, with a pop. estimated at 24,000,000.
The liberal home administration of the Empress
was continued and extended by her successor, Joseph II, who did much to further the spread of religious tolerance, education, and the industrial arts. The Low Countries, however, revolted, and he was unsuccessful in the war of 1788 against the Porte. His death took place in 1790. He was succeeded by his eldest brother, Leopold II, under whom peace was restored in the Netherlands, and in Hungary, and also with the Porte. On the death of his sister and her husband Louis XVI of France he formed an alliance with Prussia, but died in 1792, before the French revolutionary war broke out.
His son, Francis II, succeeded, and was elected German Emperor, by which time France had declared war against him as King of Hungary and Bohemia. In 1795, in the third partition of Poland, West Galicia fell to Austria, and by the Peace of Campo-Formio (1797) she received the largest part of the Venetian territory as compensation for her loss of Lombardy and the Netherlands. In 1799 Francis, in alliance with Russia, renewed the war with France until 1801, when the Peace of Lunéville was concluded. In 1804 Francis declared himself hereditary Emperor of Austria as Francis I, and united all his States under the name of the Empire of Austria, immediately taking up arms once more with his allies Russia and Great Britain against France. The war of 1805 was terminated by the Peace of Pressburg (26th Dec.), by which Francis had to cede to France the remaining provinces of Italy, as well as to give up portions of territory to Bavaria, Würtemberg, and Baden, receiving in return Salzburg and Berchtesgaden. After the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine (12th July, 1806) Francis was forced to resign his dignity as Emperor of Germany, which had been in his family more than 500 years. A new war with France in 1809 cost the monarchy 42,380 sq. miles of territory and 3,500,000 subjects. Napoleon married Maria Louisa, daughter of the Emperor, and in 1812 concluded an alliance with him against Russia. But in 1813 Francis again declared war against France, and formed an alliance with Britain, Prussia, and Sweden against his son-in-law. By the Congress of Vienna (1815) Austria gained Lombardy and Venetia, and recovered, together with Dalmatia, the hereditary territories which it had been obliged to cede.
In the troubled period following the French revolution of 1830 insurrections took place in Modena, Parma, and the Papal States (1831-2), but were suppressed without much difficulty; and though professedly neutral during the Polish insurrections Austria clearly showed herself on the side of Russia, with whom her relations became more intimate as those between Great Britain and France grew more cordial. The death of Francis I (1835) and accession of his son, Ferdinand I, made little change in the Austrian system of government, and much discontent was the consequence. In 1846 the failure of the Polish insurrection led to the incorporation of Cracow with Austria. In Italy the declarations of Pio Nono in favour of reform increased the difficulties of Austria, and in Hungary the opposition under Kossuth and others assumed the form of a great constitutional movement. In 1848, when the expulsion of Louis Philippe shook all Europe, Metternich found it impossible any longer to guide the helm of the State, and the Government was compelled to admit a free press and the right of citizens to arms. Apart from the popular attitude in Italy and in Hungary, where the Diet declared itself permanent under the presidency of Kossuth, the insurrection made equal progress in Vienna itself, and the royal family, no longer in safety, removed to Innsbruck. After various ministerial changes the Emperor abdicated in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph; more vigorous measures were adopted; and Austria, aided by Russia, reduced Hungary to submission.
The year 1855 is memorable for the Concordat with the Pope, which put the educational and ecclesiastical affairs of the Empire entirely into the hands of the Papal see. In 1859 the hostile intentions of France and Sardinia against the possessions of Austria in Italy became so evident that she declared war by sending an army across the Ticino; but after disastrous defeats at Magenta and Solferino she was compelled to cede Milan and the north-west portion of Lombardy to Sardinia. In 1864 she joined with the German States in the war against Denmark, but a dispute about Schleswig-Holstein involved her in a war with her allies (1866), while at the same time Italy renewed her attempts for the recovery of Venice. The Italians were defeated at Custozza and driven back across the Mincio; but the Prussians, victorious at Königgrätz (or Sadowa), threatened Vienna. Peace was concluded with Prussia on 23rd Aug. and with Italy on 3rd Oct., the result of the war being the cession of Venetia through France to Italy and the withdrawal of Austria from all interference in the affairs of Germany.
For nearly half a century (from 1866 to 1914) the internal affairs of Austria-Hungary gave much occupation to statesmen of the dual monarchy. Hungarian demands for self-government were finally agreed to, and the Empire was divided into the two parts already mentioned—Austria and Hungary. This settlement was consummated by the coronation of the Emperor Francis Joseph I, at Budapest, as King of Hungary, on 8th June, 1867. In the same year the Concordat of 1855 came up for discussion,
and measures were passed for the re-establishment of civil marriage, the emancipation of schools from the domination of the Church, and the placing of different creeds on a footing of equality. The fact of the Austro-Hungarian dominions comprising so many different nationalities gave the central Government much trouble, both in regard to internal and to external affairs. In regard to the 'Eastern Question', for instance, the action of Austria was hampered by the sympathies shown by the Magyars for their blood relations, the Turks, while the Slavs were naturally more favourable to Russia. During the war between Russia and Turkey in 1877-8 Austria remained neutral; but at its close it was decided at the Congress of Berlin that Bosnia and Herzegovina should in future be administered by Austria instead of Turkey. In 1908, taking advantage of the condition of Turkey, Austria formally annexed these provinces. By the middle of Oct., 1918, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy began to break up into independent national States. Four States of some size laid claim to independence, viz. German-Austria, Czecho-Slovakia (recognized by the Allies), Hungary, and Yugo-Slavia. On 13th Oct., 1921, German Austria signed with Hungary the Burgenland pact, agreeing to a plebiscite in several districts. For recent history of Austria, see Francis Joseph; European War.—Cf. S. Whitman, Austria (in Story of the Nations Series); H. W. Steed, The Hapsburg Monarchy.