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Austria History
Austria has a very intersting story.Early years, the land that became Austria was invaded by a succession of tribes and armies using the Danube Valley as a conduit Celts, Romans, Vandals, Visigoths, Huns, Avars, Slavs all came and went. By 1278 the Habsburgs had gained control and this mighty dynasty managed to rule Austria right up until WWI. In 1556, Charles abdicated as emperor and Ferdinand I was crowned in his place.In 1576, the new emperor, Rudolf II, embraced the Counter-Reformation and much of the country reverted, with a little coercion, to Catholicism. Peace was finally achieved in 1648 with the Treaty of Westphalia. Vienna nearly capitulated to a Turkish siege in 1683 but was rescued by a Christian force of German and Polish soldiers.In 1740, European conflict dragged on until the settlement at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15. Austria was left with control of the German Confederation but suffered upheaval during the 1848 revolutions and eventual defeat in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War. This led to the formation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867 under Emperor Franz Josef and exclusion from the new German empire unified by Bismarck.The Austrian people heartily endorsed their country's entry into the EU in a referendum in 1994 and formally joined the Union on 1 January 1995. Since then most Austrians have been rather ambivalent about the advantages of EU membership.
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