Austrian Military History

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The article Austrian Military History is intended to give an overview of the development and status of the armed forces, military installations and the armaments industry in the various eras.

History

Austrian Heritage and the Imperial Army

Even the beginning of the Habsburg rule in the then Duchy of Austria is linked to war. The Babenberg Duke Friedrich the Streitbare had fallen in 1246 in the fight against the invading Hungarians, without leaving a male heir. Ottokar II Přemysl, King of Bohemia, had subjugated Austria to this, without observing the provisions of imperial law. In 1276 he was expelled from Austria by the German King Rudolf I of Habsburg. He then lent his sons to the duchy. In 1278, the unruly Ottokar was defeated at the Battle of Dürnkrut and Jederspeigen in present-day Lower Austria. Ottokar fell in battle. In Franz Grillparzer’s drama King Ottokar’s Luck and End, this battle of two armies of knights is described.

Like all other dynasties, the House of Habsburg achieved its increase in power mainly through wars and dynastic marriages. The Austrian House of Habsburg achieved a special significance by attaining the Roman emperorship in the Holy Roman Empire in 1438. Henceforth the fortunes of the hereditary lands were closely connected with those of the empire. The Imperial Army, which emerged in the 15th century, was always recruited from the entire empire, but also from other territories of Europe. The tasks were universally European according to the imperial claim, but always connected with the defense of Austrian territory against the Ottoman Empire and later against France. In 1529 the first Turkish siege of Vienna took place. In 1556, the first independent military administration authority of the Emperor was founded in Vienna with the Court War Council. He survived the Holy Roman Empire and was renamed War Ministry in the Austrian Empire in 1848.

A standing imperial army developed only in the early modern period. Previously, generals and officers had to be appointed and serfs recruited or mercenaries recruited. Under these circumstances, the Imperials fought in the Thirty Years' War from 1618 to 1648. Their most famous general was Wallenstein, who was later murdered on behalf of the emperor.

After the war, a standing troop was formed, which continued into the 19th century. Not predominantly from Austria, but from the spiritual principalities and the imperial cities. The Reichskreise also formed fixed advertising areas.

In 1677 the Imperial Armoury was built, which served the casting of cannons. In 1683, the Second Siege of the Turks in Vienna could only be fought off with the help of Poland-Lithuania and the Reich. As a result, Prince Eugene of Savoy reorganized the Imperial Army