Austro-Hungarian Empire History

The Holy Roman Empire was the major political entity in the heart of Europe between 1500 and 1806. Austrian Empire begin in 1814 and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or the Dual Monarchy, after 1867. The Empire lasted until the end of World War I in 1918.


 * abt 1,000 A.D.: Iron plow invented in Lower Rhine region. Resultant increase in food production leads to population growth and German emigration to the east - Bohemia and Hungary - and to the Crusades.
 * 1130s: Zipser and Transylvania Saxon colonies founded by Germans (Upper Hungary - Slovakia and Transylvania).
 * 1241: Mongol raid devastates Hungary, Slovakia.
 * 1335-1350: Black Death (Bubonic plague) begins in Constantinople, spreads to Mediterranean seaports, then to Central and Western Europe. 50-75 % of Europe's population is wiped out. Emigration to the east ceases for a long time.
 * 1526: Battle of Mohacs - The Turks defeat Hungary and the Hungarian King dies on the battlefield. The Turks are repulsed in Vienna and the Habsburg monarchy takes over rule of Hungary.
 * 1545-1547: Council of Trent - Reform of the Roman Catholic church, beginning of church registers of baptism, marriage, death.
 * 1620-1650: Thirty Years' War - Germany and Bohemia are devastated by warring factions - Many church registers lost.
 * 1683: Second siege of Vienna by Turks - Turks are turned back and gradually retreat from Hungary; 1686 Budapest liberated; 1688 Belgrade liberated.
 * 1700s and early 1800s: Re-settlement of Hungary in the wake of 150 years of Turkish rule. The Banat and Backa are two main areas of 'Danube Swabian' settlements. (New settlers are actually from Alsace-Lorraine, Swabia, Slovakia, Bohemia, Galicia, Sub-Carpathian Rus, etc.).
 * 1848: Nationalist revolutions in Western and Central Europe. Vestiges of serfdom finally abolished. Beginning of Hungarian independence from Austria; Czechs and other nationalities gain small measures of cultural independence.
 * 1867: The compromise which institutes a dual monarchy. Two independent states which shared a common ruler, as emperor in Austria, as king in Hungary.
 * 1914-1918: Austria-Hungary defeated in First World War, split into separate entities based on nationality: Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia created; Galicia goes to Poland; Transylvania goes to Romania.