A History Of The Habsburg Empire 1526 1918

A political, cultural, and socioeconomic history of the Habsburg empire, discussing the rise of Habsburg power, its subsequent status and action as a great power, and its dissolution.

The Peoples of the Eastern Habsburg Lands, 1526-1918

A history of the Habsburg monarchy from the end of the Holy Roman Empire to the monarchy's dissolution in 1918. The book offers an insight into the problems inherent in the attempt to give peace, stability and common loyalty to a hetergeneous population.

This book is a narrative history of the Austrian Monarchy from 1790 to its break-up in 1918. Its theme is the hundred year struggle between the venerable dynastic empire which ruled Central Europe, and the new national, political and social forces in conflict with it, an with one another. The author starts with the death of Emperor Joseph 11 in 1790, the event which he takes as marking the turn of the tide in the struggle between autocracy and centralisation on the one side, and the new forces on the other; but he prefixes his narrative with a brief account of Joseph's own reign, and with a comprehensive picture of the old monarchy on the threshold of the new age. C. A. Macartney takes his subject as comprising the monarchy as a whole, every people, class and province in it. He thus brings and makes intelligible the diversity within the unity, and the unity synthesising the diversity, which give the history of the Austrian Monarchy its special and unique character. The author was long acquainted with the countries and peoples that were once part of the Habsburg Empire and it was this experience, combined with linguistic accomplishments that enabled him to draw on an exceptionally wide range of sources. The result is a work of monumental scholarship written with unique insight and understanding.

This is the first part of a two-volume history of the Habsburg Empire from its medieval origins to its dismemberment in the First World War. The second part, on the Habsburg Empire from 1700 to 1918, is now in preparation. The present volume, which is self-contained, meets a long-felt need for a systematic survey in English of the Habsburgs and their lands in the late medieval and early modern period. While it is primarily concerned with the lands and peoples of central and northern Europe who had been brought under the personal rule of the Habsburg dynasty by the end of the Middle Ages - most notably the Austrians, Germans, Czechs and Hungarians - the history of the Spanish Habsburgs in Spain and the Netherlands is also covered in sufficient detail to show the reader how the fortunes of the Austrian and Spanish branches of the family were interlinked. The family history of the Habsburgs themselves is skillfully interwoven with the processes of state formation. Much biographical detail of the dominant personalities of the dynasty emerges from the narrative; and though the treatment is primarily political, there are extended discussions of economic developments, social change, and major cultural movements. Because the Habsburg Empire was, and remained, dynastic and diverse rather than national and centralised, it covered a huge range of different peoples, cultures, constitutions and separate histories. Few historians have had the breadth of knowledge - or the courage - to attempt a single systematic survey of its development and its fortunes. Yet the Habsburgs were the great superpower of Central Europe for five centuries until our own, and, in the period covered by the present volume, much more even than that - as rulers also of Spain and the Netherlands, and with the headship of the Holy Roman Empire itself as a de facto family possession. The size of the task is thus itself an indication of the size of the gap that Professor Berenger's first volume now fills. Clear, balanced, authoritative and accessible, it is a remarkable feat of synthesis and exposition.

"The Habsburg Monarchy (or Habsburg Empire) is an unofficial appellation amongst historians for the countries and provinces which were ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg (1278?1780), and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine (from 1780), between 1526 and 1804. The "Habsburg Monarchy / Habsburg Empire" term was born only posteriorly in the early 19th century, which referred to the Habsburg dominions between the 1526 - 1804 period. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague. From 1804 to 1867 the Habsburgs ruled the Austrian Empire and from 1867 to 1918 Austria-Hungary."--Wikipedia.