Early Growth Under the Hapsburgs

In 1156 Austria was made a duchy within the Holy Roman Empire. It held sovereignty over Upper Austria and Styria by the time the Babenberg line died out in 1246. Austria fell briefly under the rule of Bohemia, but in 1278 it was seized by Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg to be the property of his family. From that time Austria was the center of the expanding Hapsburg domains. Soon Carinthia, Carniola, Tyrol, part of Istria, and Trieste were annexed to it.

The throne of Germany and the Holy Roman emperorship became hereditary in the Hapsburg family in 1438, and in 1453 Austria, as the seat of the Hapsburgs, was made an archduchy. The Hungarians conquered a large portion of Austria in 1485–87, but Archduke (later Emperor) Maximilian drove them out in 1490. He increased both the power of the monarchy and the territorial extent of his domain. The empire was divided by his grandson Charles V. He gave Austria co his brother Ferdinand; his son, Philip, received Spain and the Netherlands. Ferdinand in 1526 established sovereignty over Bohemia and western Hungary, after the king of those countries had been killed in battle against the invading Turks.