title: History of Austria

text: Once again, there were initial successes against the disorganized armies of the French Republic in 1793, and the Netherlands were recovered. But in 1794 the tide turned once more, and Austrian forces were driven out of the Netherlands again—this time for good. Meanwhile, the Polish Crisis again became critical, resulting in a Third Partition (1795), in which Austria managed to secure important gains. The war in the west continued to go badly, as most of the coalition made peace, leaving Austria with only Britain and Piedmont-Sardinia as allies. In 1796, the French Directory planned a two-pronged campaign in Germany to force the Austrians to make peace, with a secondary thrust planned into Italy. French forces entered Bavaria and the edge of the Tyrol, before encountering Austrian forces under Archduke Charles, the Emperor's brother, at Amberg (24 August 1796) who was successful in driving the French back in Germany. Meanwhile, the French Army of Italy, under the command of the young Corsican General Napoleon Bonaparte, was brilliantly successful, forcing Piedmont out of the war, driving the Austrians out of Lombardy and besieging Mantua. Following the capture of Mantua in early 1797, Bonaparte advanced north through the Alps against Vienna, while new French armies moved again into Germany. Austria sued for peace. By the terms of the Treaty of Campo Formio of 1797, Austria renounced its claims to the Netherlands and Lombardy, in exchange for which it was granted the territories of the Republic of Venice with the French. The Austrians also provisionally recognized the French annexation of the Left Bank of the Rhine, and agreed in principle that the German princes of the region should be compensated with ecclesiastical lands on the other side of the Rhine.


title: History of Austria

text: The peace did not last for long. Soon, differences emerged between the Austrians and French over the reorganization of Germany, and Austria joined Russia, Britain, and Naples in the War of the Second Coalition in 1799. Although Austro-Russian forces were initially successful in driving the French from Italy, the tide soon turned—the Russians withdrew from the war after a defeat at Zürich (1799) which they blamed on Austrian recklessness, and the Austrians were defeated by Bonaparte who was now the First Consul, at Marengo, which forced them to withdraw from Italy, and then in Germany at Hohenlinden. These defeats forced Thugut's resignation, and Austria, now led by Ludwig Cobenzl, to make peace at Lunéville in early 1801. The terms were mild—the terms of Campo Formio were largely reinstated, but now the way was clear for a reorganization of the Empire on French lines. By the Imperial Deputation Report of 1803, the Holy Roman Empire was entirely reorganized, with nearly all of the ecclesiastical territories and free cities, traditionally the parts of the Empire most friendly to the House of Austria, eliminated.


title: History of Austria

text: With Bonaparte's assumption of the title of Emperor of the First French Empire on 18 May 1804, Francis II, seeing the writing on the wall for the old Empire, and arbitrarily took the new title of "Emperor of Austria" as Francis I, in addition to his title of Holy Roman Emperor. This earned him the title of Double Emperor ("Doppelkaiser") (Francis II of the Holy Roman Empire, Francis I of Austria). The arrival of a new, French, emperor on the scene and the restructuring of the old presented a larger threat to the Habsburgs than their territorial losses to date, for there was no longer any certainty that they would continue to be elected. Francis had himself made emperor of the new Austrian Empire on 11 August not long after Napoleon. The new empire referred to not a new state but to the lands ruled by Austria, that is the Habsburgs, which was effectively many states.


title: History of Austria

text: Soon, Napoleon's continuing machinations in Italy, including the annexation of Genoa and Parma, led once again to war in 1805—the War of the Third Coalition, in which Austria, Britain, Russia, and Sweden took on Napoleon. The Austrian forces began the war by invading Bavaria, a key French ally in Germany, but were soon outmaneuvered and forced to surrender by Napoleon at Ulm, before the main Austro-Russian force was defeated at Austerlitz on 2 December. Napoleon entered Vienna itself, as much a celebrity as conqueror. By the Treaty of Pressburg, Austria was forced to give up large amounts of territory—Dalmatia to France, Venetia to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, the Tyrol to Bavaria, and Austria's various Swabian territories to Baden and Württemberg, although Salzburg, formerly held by Francis's younger brother, the previous Grand Duke of Tuscany, was annexed by Austria as compensation.


title: History of Austria

text: The defeat meant the end of the old Holy Roman Empire. Napoleon's satellite states in southern and Western Germany seceded from the Empire in the summer of 1806, forming the Confederation of the Rhine, and a few days later Francis proclaimed the Empire dissolved, and renounced the old imperial crown on 6 August 1806.


title: History of Austria

text: Over the next three years Austria, whose foreign policy was now directed by Philipp Stadion, attempted to maintain peace with France, avoiding the War of the Fourth Coalition (1806–1807) but obliged to do France's bidding. The overthrow of the Spanish Bourbons in 1808 was deeply disturbing to the Habsburgs, who rather desperately went to war once again in 1809, the War of the Fifth Coalition this time with no continental allies, but the United Kingdom. Stadion's attempts to generate popular uprisings in Germany were unsuccessful, and the Russians honoured their alliance with France, so Austria was once again defeated at the Battle of Wagram, although at greater cost than Napoleon, who had suffered his first battlefield defeat in this war, at Aspern-Essling, had expected. However Napoleon had already re-occupied Vienna. The terms of the subsequent Treaty of Schönbrunn were quite harsh. Austria lost Salzburg to Bavaria, some of its Polish lands to Russia, and its remaining territory on the Adriatic (including much of Carinthia and Styria) to Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces. Austria became a virtual subject state of France.


title: History of Austria

text: Klemens von Metternich, the new Austrian foreign minister, aimed to pursue a pro-French policy. Francis II's daughter Marie Louise, was married to Napoleon in 1810. Austria was effectively bankrupt by 1811 and the paper money ("Bancozettel") lost considerable value, but contributed an army to Napoleon's invasion of Russia in March 1812. With Napoleon's disastrous defeat in Russia at the end of the year, and Prussia's defection to the Russian side in March 1813, Metternich began slowly to shift his policy. Initially he aimed to mediate a peace between France and its continental enemies, but when it became apparent that Napoleon was not interested in compromise, Austria joined the allies and declared war on France in August 1813 in the War of the Sixth Coalition (1812–1814). The Austrian intervention was decisive. Napoleon was defeated at Leipzig in October, and forced to withdraw into France itself. As 1814 began, the Allied forces invaded France. Initially, Metternich remained unsure as to whether he wanted Napoleon to remain on the throne, a Marie Louise regency for Napoleon's young son, or a Bourbon restoration, but he was eventually brought around by British Foreign Secretary Lord Castlereagh to the last position. Napoleon abdicated on 3 April 1814, and Louis XVIII was restored, soon negotiating a peace treaty with the victorious allies at Paris in June, while Napoleon was exiled to Elba.


title: History of Austria

text: Napoleon escaped in February 1815, Louis fled and thus the final phase of the war, the War of the Seventh Coalition, ensued—the so-called Hundred Days of Napoleon's attempt at restoration. This culminated with the decisive Battle of Waterloo in June. The Napoleonic wars ended with the second Treaty of Paris that year, and Napoleon's final exile to St Helena.


title: History of Austria

text: With the completion of the long running French wars a new order was required in Europe and the heads of the European states gathered in Vienna for a prolonged discussion of Europe's future, although the Congress was actually convened in September 1814 prior to Napoleon's attempted return, and completed on 9 June 1815, nine days before the Battle of Waterloo. At the completion of the Napoleonic wars, Austria found itself on the winning side as a new European leader, largely due to Metternich's diplomatic skills. It was as much a grand social event of the representatives of the great powers as a true Congress and was chaired by Metternich. Its purpose was to restore a new European order to emerge from the chaos of the Napoleonic wars. While Austria was the diplomatic leader, the military victory was largely that of Russia and Prussia, aided by Britain and Spain, and Austria had little to add to the final defeat of Napoleon on 18 June 1815 at Waterloo. Metternich's intent was to create a balance of power in Europe, under a new entity, the German Confederation with Austrian leadership, out of the ashes of the Holy Roman Empire.


title: History of Austria

text: The resulting order was referred to as the Concert of Europe, which would now meet regularly to resolve outstanding differences. In addition to redrawing the political map, it established spheres of influence. Achieving the presidency of this new entity was Austria's greatest gain from the Congress. What the Congress could not do was to recover the old order or "ancien régime" on which Austrian and Habsburg authority had rested. In the new order, a Holy Alliance was created between Austria, Russia and Prussia. This was subsequently enlarged to include most Europea nations. Notable exceptions were Great Britain, wary of Metternich's strategy of repressive interventionism, and the Ottoman Empire. In the redrawing of the European map, Austrian gains were modest compared to Russia and Prussia, reflecting its relatively weak negotiating position. Austria regained most of the territory it had lost to Napoleon in the western part of the nation (Tyrol, Salzburg and Voralberg). In Italy it gained the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, Tuscany, Modena, Parma and Piacenza. These latter political entities were ruled by various branches of the Habsburgs. It did not, however, regain Belgium and the Austrian Netherlands, but the trading of territories restored a contiguous territory, as envisaged by Joseph II, and gave Austria control over Italy. The Emperor Francis was unwilling to adapt to this new order, requiring diplomacy on Metternich's part, depicting it as conservative Romanticism, religion and order versus the revolutionary spirit of 1789. Thus, the Holy Alliance became a mechanism for countering any moves against legitimate order. Metternich has therefore been portrayed Europe's fireman, extinguishing any signs of revolutionary spirit. The resultant onset of peace provided the opportunity for both reforms and prosperity in Austria, but its backward looking policies within a Europe characterised by rapid change set the scene for evewntual failure.


title: History of Austria

text: Napoleonic Vienna was the Vienna of Beethoven, whose single opera Fidelio was premiered there in 1805, attended by the French military. It was also the era of the third (Eroica) (1805) with its ambivalent relation to Napoleon, and the fifth (Schicksals-) and the sixth (Pastorale) symphonies (1808).


title: History of Austria

text: The period following the Congress of Vienna was one of relative political stability and is better known for its culture (Biedermeier). Other names for the years 1815-1848 include "Vormärz" ("before March") referring to period before the revolution of March 1848 and "The Age of Metternich" referring to his dominant position in European politics. Under the control of Metternich (who became Chancellor in 1821), the Austrian Empire entered a period of censorship and a police state, with surveillance spying and imprisonment of the opposition, while others emigrated. For Europe it was a period characterised by increasing industrialisation, the social consequences of economic cycles, population mobility and nationalism. All of these were regarded warily by governments intent on preserving the existing order.


title: History of Austria

text: Metternich kept a firm hand on government resisting the constitutional freedoms demanded by the liberals. Government was by custom and by imperial decree ("Hofkanzleidekrete"). He was both an oppressive reactionary opportunist but also a true conservative politician. His role in directing European affairs gave the Habsburgs a disproportionate influence relative to their actual powers.


title: History of Austria

text: In 1823, the Emperor of Austria made the five Rothschild brothers barons. Nathan Mayer Rothschild in London chose not to take up the title. The family became famous as bankers in the major countries of Europe.


title: History of Austria

text: The Congress of Vienna was followed by a series of other congresses, referred to as the Congress System, including the Congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818), Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821) and Verona (1822). These largely served to further suppress change, though a notable exception was the reintegration of France at the first of these, resulting in the Quintuple Alliance of the five great powers (Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia and then France). Within the Quintuple Alliance, the more conservative Holy Alliance of Russia, Austria and Prussia tended top dominate the discourse. The Congress System of dispute resolution did not survive the 1820s, and in particular the intervention in the War of Greek Independence (1821-1832) over Metternich's objections, revealed the limits of his power. Further cracks in the old order appeared as South America broke away from Spain and Portugal, a liberal regime appeared in Portugal, and French Revolution and the independence of Belgium in 1830. Throughout there had been a division within the Quintuple Alliance between the more liberal western nations of Britain and France and the more conservative Holy Alliance in the east. The London conference of 1830 to decide on Belgian indepence from the Netherlands effectively led to Britain's withdrawal from the Alliance. 1840 saw a number of related events that reflected on the unity of the Great Powers. Austria relied on Russia over the Eastern Question, and the Oriental crisis of that year split those powers, at least temporarily. While in the west, the Rhine crisis between France and the German Confederation, further fuelled the nascent German nationalism movement, typified by "Die Wacht am Rhein"


title: History of Austria

text: Closer to home, Metternich exerted his influence in suppressing German nationalism. The Wartburg Festival of 1817 with its calls for German unity and condemnation of conservatism created alarm. Metternich prevented Austrian universities participating and further activism in 1819 with the assassination of August von Kotzebue in 1819 resulted in the Carlsbad Decrees of that year, suppressing free speech, and the Vienna Final Act of 1820 empowering the German Confederation to act against member states. Neither fully succeeded in delaying the nationalist movement for long.


title: History of Austria

text: Early efforts among the Italians to create a unified nation, including the Carbonari in Lombardy-Venetia were put ddown by Metternich with military intervention, similarly in Poland. Meanwhile the minority populations within the empire, such as the Slavs and Poles were seeking national identities, distinct from Austria. Metternich sought to deflect these movements into cultural identity. Similarly in Germany, a Prussian led German Customs Union ("Zollverein") of the German states was formed in 1833, but Austria did not join, identifying within it German nationalism. One of the few administrative reforms was the granting of a diet to Galicia.


title: History of Austria

text: State intervention in fiscal matters was relatively restrained, although the National Bank of Austria was establisheed in 1816 to restore the nation's credit status. Taxatiob was largely left to the provinces and uneven within the emire, Hungary paying disproportionally less. The aristocract were also undertaxed. One of the results was that the military budget was relatively small, and thus unable to give much force to Metternich's foreign policies. Industrialisation in Austria began around 1830, primarily in Vienna and Voralberg. 1838 saw the first railway, connecting Vienna and Deutsch-Wagram, a distance of about 15km, and construction on the Austrian Southern Railway ("Österreichische Südbahn") started the following year. In shipping, the Danube Steam Navigation Company was established in 1829, while Austrian Lloyd became the largest shipping company in the Mediterranean. These economic developments came at a cost as large numbers of farm workers migrated to the growing urban industries to form an expanding proleteriat.


title: History of Austria

text: Francis firmly resisted Metternich’s proposals for overhauling the Monarchy. When Francis died in 1835, his son Ferdinand I (1835-1848) "Ferdinand the Benign" succeeded him, but proved unfit to govern due to illness, with much of the decision making falling to his uncle Archduke Louis of Austria and Metternich. Consequently Austria entered a period of political stagnation with Francis being unwilling to make reforms and Ferdinand being incapable of so doing, and Metternich committed to preserving the status quo.


title: History of Austria

text: During this period both liberalism and nationalism were on the rise, which resulted in the Revolutions of 1848. Metternich and the mentally handicapped Emperor Ferdinand I were forced to resign to be replaced by the emperor's young nephew Franz Joseph.


title: History of Austria

text: Separatist tendencies (especially in Lombardy and Hungary) were suppressed by military force. A constitution was enacted in March 1848, but it had little practical impact, although elections were held in June. The 1850s saw a return to neoabsolutism and abrogation of constitutionalism. However, one of the concessions to revolutionaries with a lasting impact was the freeing of peasants in Austria. This facilitated industrialization, as many flocked to the newly industrializing cities of the Austrian domain (in the industrial centers of Bohemia, Lower Austria, Vienna, and Upper Styria). Social upheaval led to increased strife in ethnically mixed cities, leading to mass nationalist movements.


title: History of Austria

text: On the foreign policy front, Austria with its non-German constituencies, was faced with a dilemma in 1848 when Germany's Constituent National Assembly ("Deutsche Konstituierende Nationalversammlung"), of which Austria was a member, stated that members could not have a state connection with non-German states, leaving Austria to decide between Germany or its Empire and Hungarian union. However these plans came to nothing for the time being, but the concept of a smaller Germany that excluded Austria ("Kleindeutschland") was to re-emerge as the solution in 1866. Austria's neutrality during the Crimean War (1853–1856), while the emperor was preoccupied with his wedding, antagonized both sides and left Austria dangerously isolated, as subsequent events proved.


title: History of Austria

text: While Austria and the Habsburgs held hegemony over northern Italy, the south was the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, with the Papal States intervening. Italy had been in a turmoil since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, with insurrections starting in 1820 ("Carbonari"). King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, an absolutist monarch, sought to strengthen his position by a further dynastic alliance with Austria. He already had a connection through his second wife, Maria Theresa, granddaughter of the emperor Leopold II This he achieved by marrying his son, Francis II, to Duchess Maria Sophie of Bavaria in February 1859. Marie was a younger sister of the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, making Francis brother in law to the Emperor. Ferdinand died a few months later in May, and Francis and Maria Sophie ascended the throne.


title: History of Austria

text: In the meantime Austria had fallen into a trap set by the Italian "risorgimento". Piedmont, jointly ruled with Sardinia had been the site of earlier insurrections. This time they formed a secret alliance with France ("Patto di Plombières"), whose emperor, Napoleon III was a previous "Carbonari". Piedmont then proceeded to provoke Vienna with a series of military manoeuvres, successfully triggering an ultimatum to Turin on 23 April. Its rejection was followed by an Austrian invasion, and precipitated war with France (Second Italian War of Independence 1859). Austria mistakenly expected support and received none, and the country was ill-prepared for war, which went badly. The Habsburg rulers in Tuscany and Modena were forced to flee to Vienna.


title: History of Austria

text: In May 1859 Austria suffered a military defeat at the Battle of Varese and in June at Magenta against the combined forces of France and Sardinia. The emperor refused to acknowledge the seriousness of the situation which was causing great hardship at home, and took over direct command of the army, though not a professional soldier. Later that month a further defeat at Solférino sealed Austria's fate, and the emperor found himself having to accept Napoleon's terms at Villafranca. Austria agreed to cede Lombardy, and the rulers of the central Italian states were to be restored. However the latter never happened, and the following year in plebiscites, all joined the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont. By April 1860 Garibaldi had invaded and quickly subdued Sicily, and by February 1861 the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ceased to exist, Francis and Maria fled to Austria.


title: History of Austria

text: These events severely weakened the emperor's position. The government's absolutist policies were unpopular and these setbacks led to domestic unrest, Hungarian secessionism, criticism of Austria's governance and allegations of corruption. The first casualties were the emperor's ministers. The Finance Minister, Karl Ludwig von Bruck killed himself. Other casualties were Count Karl Ferdinand von Buol (Foreign Minister), Interior Minister Baron Alexander von Bach, Police Minister Johann Freiherr von Kempen von Fichtenstamm, Adjutant General Karl Ludwig von Grünne, together with army generals.


title: History of Austria

text: The result was a reluctant undertaking by the emperor and his chief advisor Goluchowski to return to constitutional government, culminating in the October Diploma (October 1860) establishing constitutional monarchy through a legislative assembly and provincial autonomy. This was never completely implemented due to Hungarian resistance, demanding the full autonomy lost in 1849. Consequently, the October Diploma ("Oktoberdiplom") was replaced by the February Patent ("Februarpatent"), in 1861 establishing a bicameral legislative body, the "Reichsrat". The upper house ("Herrenhaus") consisted of appointed and hereditary positions, while the lower house, the House of Deputies ("Abgeordnetenhaus") was appointed by the provincial diets. The "Reichsrat" would meet with or without the Hungarians, depending on the issues being considered. This was a first step towards the establishment of a separate Cisleithanian legislature, on the other hand the more limited role of the diets in the February Patent, compared to the October Diploma, angered the champions of regionalism. The "Reichsrat" was dominated by liberals, who were to be the dominant political force for the next two decades.


title: History of Austria

text: Prussia and Denmark had already fought one war in 1848–51 over the territories that lined their common border, Schleswig-Holstein which resulted in Denmark retaining them. By 1864 Austria was at war again, this time allying itself with Prussia against Denmark in the Second Schleswig War, which although successful this time, turned out to be Austria's last military victory. The war concluded with the Treaty of Vienna by which Denmark ceded the territories. The following year the Gastein Convention resolved the control of the new territories, Holstein being allocated to Austria, after initial conflicts between the allies. However this did little to ease the Austria–Prussia rivalry over the German question. The ongoing efforts by Otto von Bismarck, the Prussian Minister President, to revoke the agreement and wrest control of the territories would soon lead to all out conflict between the two powers and achieve the desired weakening of Austria's position in central Europe.


title: History of Austria

text: From the 1848 revolution, in which much of the Hungarian aristocracy had participated, Hungary remained restless, restoration of the constitution and de-throne the House of Habsburg, opposing the centralist trials of Vienna and refusing to pay taxes. Hungary had little support in the court at Vienna which was strongly Bohemian and considered the Hungarians as revolutionaries. From the loss of the Italian territories in 1859, the Hungarian question became more prominent. Hungary was negotiating with foreign powers to support it, and most significantly with Prussia. Therefore, Hungary represented a threat to Austria in any opposition to Prussia within the German Confederation over the German Question. Therefore, cautious discussions over concessions, referred to as "Conciliation" by the Hungarians, started to take place. Emperor Franz Joseph traveled to Budapest in June 1865 and made a few concessions, such as abolishing the military jurisdiction, and granting an amnesty to the press. However these fell far short of the demands of the Hungarian liberals whose minimal demands were restoration of the constitution and the emperor's separate coronation as King of Hungary. Chief among these were Gyula Andrássy and Ferenc Deák, who endeavoured to improve their influence at the court in Vienna. In January 1866 a delegation of the Hungarian parliament traveled to Vienna to invite the imperial family to make an official visit to Hungary, which they did, at some length from January to March.


title: History of Austria

text: While Andrássy was making frequent visits to Vienna from Budapest during early 1866, relations with Prussia were deteriorating. There was talk of war. Prussia had signed a secret treaty with the relatively new Kingdom of Italy on 8 April, while Austria concluded one with France on 12 June, in exchange for Venetia.


title: History of Austria

text: While the motives for the war, Prussian masterplan or opportunism, are disputed, the outcome was a radical re-alignment of power in Central Europe. Austria brought the continuing dispute over Holstein before the German diet and also decided to convene the Holstein diet. Prussia, declaring that the Gastein Convention had thereby been nullified, invaded Holstein. When the German diet responded by voting for a partial mobilization against Prussia, Bismarck declared that the German Confederation was ended. Thus this may be considered a Third Schleswig War.


title: History of Austria

text: Hostilities broke out on 14 June as the Austro-Prussian War (June–August 1866), in which Prussia and the north German states faced not only Austria but much of the rest of Germany, especially the southern states. Three days later Italy declared war on Austria in the Third Italian War of Independence, Italy now being Prussia's ally. Thus Austria had to fight on two fronts. Their first engagement resulted in a minor victory against the Italians at Custoza near Verona on 24 June. However, on the northern front Austria suffered a major military defeat at the Battle of Königgrätz in Bohemia on 3 July. Although Austria had a further victory against the Italians in a naval battle at Lissa on 20 July, it was clear by then that the war was over for Austria, Prussian armies threatening Vienna itself, forcing the evacuation of the court to Budapest. Napoleon III intervened resulting in an armistice at Nikolsburg on 21 July, and a peace treaty in Prague on 23 August. In the meantime the Italians who had had a series of successes throughout July, and signed an armistice at Cormons on 12 August rather than face the remaining Austrian army freed from its northern front.


title: History of Austria

text: As a result of these wars Austria had now lost all its Italian territory and was now excluded from further German affairs, that were now reorganised under Prussian dominance in the new North German Confederation. The "Kleindeutschland" concept had prevailed. For the Austrians in Italy, the war had been tragically pointless, since Venetia had already been ceded.


title: History of Austria

text: While Austria was reeling from the effects of war, the Hungarians increased the pressure for their demands. Andrássy was regularly in Vienna, as was Ferenc Deák and the Hungarian position was backed by constitutionalists and liberals. While anti-Hungarian sentiments ran high at the court, the Emperor's position was becoming increasingly untenable, with the Prussian army now at Pressburg (now Bratislava), and Vienna crammed with exiles, while hope for French intervention proved to be fruitless. The Hungarians recruited Empress Elisabeth who became a strong advocate for their cause. György Klapka had organised a legion fighting for the Prussians, which Bismarck had supported, that entered Hungary and agitated for Hungarian independence.However the needs of the other provinces had to be considered before entering into any form of Hungarian dualism which would give Hungary special privileges, and started to fan the flames of Czech nationalism, since Slavic interests were likely to be submerged. People started to talk about the events of 1848 again. By February 1867 Count Belcredi resigned as Minister President over his concerns about Slavic interests, and was succeeded by foreign minister Ferdinand Beust, who promptly pursued the Hungarian option which had become a reality by the end of the month.


title: History of Austria

text: Austria-Hungary was created through the mechanism of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 ("Ausgleich"). Thus the Hungarians finally achieved much of their aims. The western half of the realm known as (Cisleithania) and the eastern Hungarian (Transleithania), that is the realms lying on each side of the Leitha tributary of the Danube river, now became two realms with different interior policy - there was no common citizenship and dual-citizenship was banned either -, but with a common ruler and a common foreign and military policy. The empire now had two capitals, two cabinets and two parliaments. Only three cabinet positions served both halves of the monarchy, war, foreign affairs and finance (when both sectors were involved). Costs were assigned 70:30 to Cisleithania, however the Hungarians represented a single nationality while Cisleithania included all the other kingdoms and provinces. Andrássy was appointed as the first Minister President of the new Hungary on 17 February. Feelings ran high in the provinces, and the Diets in Moravia and Bohemia were shut down in March.


title: History of Austria

text: Emperor Franz Joseph made a speech from the throne in May to the "Reichsrat" (Imperial Council) asking for retroactive ratification and promising further constitutional reforms and increased autonomy to the provinces. This was a major retreat from absolutism. On 8 June, the Emperor and Empress were crowned King and Queen of Hungary in a ceremony whose pomp and splendour seemed out of keeping with Austria's recent military and political humiliation and the extent of financial reparations. As part of the celebrations the emperor announced further concessions that aggravated relationships between Hungary and the rest of the monarchy. An amnesty was declared for all political offences since 1848 (including Klapka and Kossuth) and reversal of the confiscation of estates. In addition the coronation Gift was directed to the families and veterans of the revolutionary "Honvéd"s, which was revived as the Royal Hungarian Honvéd.


title: History of Austria

text: In return for the Liberals support of the "Ausgleich", concessions were made to parliamentary prerogatives in the new constitutional law. The law of 21 December 1867, although frequently amended, was the foundation of Austrian governance for the remaining 50 years of the empire, and was largely based on the February Patent, the Imperial Council and included a bill of rights. Ultimately the political balance of the dual monarchy represented a compromise between authoritarianism ("Obrigkeitsstaat") and parliamentarianism "(Rechtsstaat)" (Hacohen 2002). Like most compromises it was rejected by extremists on both sides, including Kossuth.


title: History of Austria

text: 1873 marked the Silver Jubilee of Franz Joseph, and provided not only an occasion for celebration but also one of reflection on the progress of the monarchy since 1848. Vienna had grown from a population of 500,000 to over a million, the walls and fortifications had been demolished and the "Ringstrasse" constructed with many magnificent new buildings along it. The Danube was being regulated to reduce the risk of flooding, a new aqueduct constructed to bring fresh water into the city, and many new bridges, schools, hospitals, churches and a new university built.


title: History of Austria

text: What was supposed to be a temporary emergency measure was to last for half a century. Austria succeeded in staying neutral during the Franco Prussian War of 1870–1 despite those who saw an opportunity for revenge on Prussia for the events of 1866. However Austria's allies among the South German States were now allied with Prussia, and it was unlikely that Austria's military capacity had significantly improved in the meantime. Any residual doubts were rapidly dispelled by the speed of the Prussian advance and the subsequent overthrow of the Second Empire.


title: History of Austria

text: In November 1871 Austria made a radical change in foreign policy. Ferdinand Beust, the First Prime Minister (to 1867), Chancellor and Foreign Minister (1866–1871) of the Dual Monarchy, was dismissed. Beust was an advocate of "revanche" against Prussia, but was succeeded by the Hungarian Prime Minister, the liberal Gyula Andrássy as Foreign Minister (1871–1879), although both opposed the federalist policies of Prime Minister Karl Hohenwart (1871) while Prince Adolf of Auersperg became the new Prime Minister (1871–1879). Andrássy 's appointment caused concern among the conservative Court Party ("Kamarilla"), but he worked hard to restore relationships between Berlin and Vienna, culminating in the Dual Alliance ("Zweibund") of 1879.


title: History of Austria

text: In 1878, Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had been cut off from the rest of the Ottoman Empire by the creation of new states in the Balkans following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 and the resulting Congress of Berlin (June–July 1878). The territory was ceded to Austria-Hungary, and Andrássy prepared to occupy it. This led to a further deterioration of relations with Russia and was to lead to tragic consequences in the next century. Austrian troops encountered stiff resistance and suffered significant casualties. The occupation created controversy both within and without the empire and led to Andrássy's resignation in 1879. This territory was finally annexed in 1908 and put under joint rule by the governments of both Austria and Hungary.


title: History of Austria

text: The departure of the Liberal Government and of Andrássy from the Foreign Office ("k. u. k. Ministerium des Äußern") marked a sharp shift in Austria-Hungary's foreign policy, particularly in relation to Russia, Count Gustav Kálnoky (1881–1895) Andrássy's Conservative replacement pursuing a new rapprochement.


title: History of Austria

text: The second half of the 19th century saw a lot of construction, expansion of cities and railway lines, and development of industry. During the earlier part of this period, known as "Gründerzeit", Austria became an industrialized country, even though the Alpine regions remained characterized by agriculture. Austria was able to celebrate its newfound grandeur in the Vienna World Exhibition ("Weltausstellung") of 1873, attended by all the crowned heads of Europe, and beyond. This period of relative prosperity was followed by the 1873 Stock market crash.


title: History of Austria

text: Political parties became legitimate entities in Austria from 1848, apart from a brief lapse in the 1850s. However the structure of the legislative body created by the 1861 February Patent provided little scope for party organisation. Initial political organisation resembled the cleavages in Austrian culture. Since the time of the Counter-Reformation the Catholic Church had assumed a major role in the political life of the empire, in conjunction with the aristocracy and conservative rural elements. Allied against these forces were a more secular urban middle class, reflecting the Enlightenment and the French Revolution with its anti-clericism "(Kulturkampf)". Other elements on the left were German nationalism, defending Greater German interests against the Slavs, and found support among urban intelligentsia. However party structure was far from cohesive and both groupings contained factions which either supported or opposed the government of the day. These parties reflected the traditional right/left split of political vision. The left, or Liberal ("Deutschliberale Partei") factions were known as the Constitutional Party ("Verfassungspartei"), but both left and right were fragmented into factions ("Klubs"). Without direct elections there was no place for constituency organisation, and affinities were intellectual not organisational. Nor, without ministerial responsibility, was there a need for such organisation. The affinities were driven by respective visions of the representative institutions. The left derived its name from its support in principle of the 1861–7 constitution and were the driving elements of the 1848 revolution, the right supported historic rights. The left drew its support from the propertied bourgeoisie ("Besitzbürgertum"), affluent professionals and the civil service. These were longstanding ideological differences (Pulzer 1969). The 1867 elections saw the Liberals take control of the lower house under Karl Auersperg (1867–1868) and were instrumental in the adoption of the 1867 constitution and in abrogating the 1855 Concordat (1870).


title: History of Austria

text: Suffrage progressively improved during the period 1860–1882. The selection of deputies to the "Reichsrat" by provincial legislatures proved unworkable particularly once the Bohemian diet effectively boycotted the Reichsrat in an attempt to acquire equal status with the Hungarians in a tripartite monarchy. As a result, suffrage was changed to direct election to the "Reichsrat" in 1873.


title: History of Austria

text: Even then by 1873 only six percent of the adult male population were franchised (Hacohen 2002). The initial divisions into Catholic, liberal, national, radical and agrarian parties differed across ethnic grounds further fragmenting the political culture. However, there was now emerging the presence of extra-parliamentary parties whereas previously parties were purely intra-parliamentary. This provided an opportunity for the disenfranchised to find a voice. These changes were taking place against a rapidly changing backdrop of an Austrian economy that was modernising and industrialising and economic crises such as that of 1873 and its resultant depression (1873–1879), and the traditional parties were slow to respond to the demands of the populace. By the election of 1901, the last election under the defined classes of franchisement ("Curia") extraparliamentary parties won 76 of the 118 seats.


title: History of Austria

text: This era saw anti-liberal sentiments and declining fortunes of the Liberal party which had held power since 1867 apart from a brief spell of conservative government in 1870–1. In 1870 Liberal support for Prussia in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War displeased the Emperor and he turned to the Conservatives to form a government under Count Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart (1871). Hohenwart was the conservative leader in parliament, and the Emperor believed his more sympathetic views to Slavic aspirations and federalism would weaken the Austro-German Liberals. Hohenwart appointed Albert Schäffle as his commerce minister and drew up a policy known as the Fundamental Articles of 1871 ("Fundamentalartikel"). The policy failed, the Emperor withdrew his support and the Liberals regained power.


title: History of Austria

text: The Liberal party became progressively unliberal and more nationalistic, and against whose social conservatism the progressive intellectuals would rebel (Hacohen 2002). During their 1870–1 opposition they blocked attempts to extend the dual monarchy to a tripartite monarchy including the Czechs, and promoted the concept of "Deutschtum" (the granting of all rights of citizenship to those who displayed the characteristics of the solid German "Bürger"). They also opposed the extension of suffrage because restricted suffrage favoured their electoral base (Hacohen 2002). In 1873 the party fragmented, with a radical faction of the Constitutional Party forming the Progressive Club ("Fortschrittsklub"), while a right-wing faction formed the conservative Constitutionalist Landlordism ("Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz") leaving a rump of 'Old Liberals' ("Altliberale"). The result was a proliferation of German Liberal ("Deutschfreiheitlichkeit") and German National ("Deutschnationalismus") groups.


title: History of Austria

text: While Liberal achievements had included economic modernisation, expanding secular education and rebuilding the fabric and culture of Vienna, while collaborating with the Administration "(Verwaltung)", after 1873 a progressive series of schisms and mergers continued to weaken the party which effectively disappeared by 1911.


title: History of Austria

text: The Liberal cabinet of Adolf Auersperg (1871–1879) was dismissed in 1879 over its opposition to Foreign Minister Gyula Andrássy's (1871–1879) Balkan policy and the occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which added more Slavs and further diluted German nationalism and identity ("Staatsnation"). In the ensuing elections the Liberals lost control of parliament and went into opposition, the incoming government under Count Edward Taaffe (1879–1893) basically consisting of a group of factions (farmers, clergy and Czechs), the "Iron Ring" ("Der eiserne Ring"), united in a determination to keep the Liberals out of power.


title: History of Austria

text: Andrássy, who had nothing in common with Taaffe, tended his resignation on the grounds of poor health and to his surprise it was accepted. His name was raised again when the new Foreign minister, Haymerle died in office in 1881, but Taaffe and his coalition had no time for a Liberal foreign minister (let alone a Hungarian and Freemason), and he was passed over in favour of Count Gustav Kálnoky (1881–1895).


title: History of Austria

text: However the Liberal opposition filibustered leading the government to seek electoral reform as a strategy to weaken their position, which was enacted in 1882. Despite this, the coalition, nominally conservative and committed to anti-socialism passed a series of social reforms over the decade 1880–1890, following the examples of Germany and Switzerland. These were reforms which the Liberals had been unable to get past a government strongly tied to the concept of individual's rights to self-determination free from government interference (Grandner 1997). Such measures had the support of both the Liberals, now the United Left ("Vereinigte Linke" 1881) and the German National Party ("Deutsche Nationalpartei" 1891), an offshoot of the German National Movement ("Deutschnationale Bewegung"). The electoral reforms of 1882 were the most influential in that it enfranchised proportionally more Germans.


title: History of Austria

text: Social reform now moved to become a platform of conservative Catholics like Prince Aloys de Paula Maria of Liechtenstein, Baron Karl von Vogelsang, and Count Egbert Belcredi (Boyer 1995). The era of electoral reform saw the emergence of Georg von Schonerer's Pan-German League ("Alldeutsche Vereinigung") (1882), appealing to an anti-clerical middle class, and Catholic social reformers such as L. Psenner and A. Latschka created the Christian Social Association ("Christlich-Sozialer Verein") (1887). Around the same time F. Piffl, F. Stauracz, Ae. Schoepfer, A. Opitz, Karl Lueger and Prince Aloys Liechtenstein formed the United Christians ("Vereinigten Christen") to advocate Christian social reform. These two organisations merged in 1891 under Karl Lueger to form the Christian Social Party ("Christlichsoziale Partei", CS).


title: History of Austria

text: However the Taaffe government's policy of ethnic inclusiveness fuelled nationalism among the German-speaking population. The Liberals had maintained the strong centralism of the absolutist era (with the exception of Galicia in 1867) while the Conservatives attempted a more federalist state that ultimately led to the fall of the Taaffe government in 1893, including a second attempt at Bohemian "Ausgleich" (Tripartite monarchy) in 1890 (Grandner 1997).


title: History of Austria

text: On the left the spread of anarchical ideas and oppressive government saw the emergence of a Marxist Social Democratic Party ("Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs", SDAPÖ) in 1889 which succeeded in winning seats in the 1897 elections which followed further extension of suffrage in 1896 to include peasants and the working classes, establishing universal male suffrage, though not equal.


title: History of Austria

text: The universal male suffrage introduced in 1907 by Minister-President Freiherr von Beck changed the balance of power, formally tilted towards German Austrians, and revealed that they were now a minority in a predominantly Slavic empire. In the 1900 census, Germans were 36% of the Cisleithanian population but the largest single group, but never acted as a cohesive group (nor did any other national group), although they were the dominant group in the political life of the monarchy. Germans were followed by Czechs and Slovaks (23%), Poles (17), Ruthenians (13), Slovenes (5), Serbo-Croats (3), Italians (3) and Romanians 1%. However these national groups, especially the Germans were often scattered geographically. The Germans also dominated economically, and in level of education.The post reform 1907 parliament ("Reichsrat") was elected along national lines, with only the Christian-Social and Social Democrat parties predominantly German. However Austria was governed by the Emperor who appointed the Imperial Council of Ministers ("Ministerrat"), who in turn answered to him, parliament being left free to criticise government policy. Technically it had the power to legislate from 1907, but in practice the Imperial government generated its own legislation, and the Emperor could veto his own minister's bills. The major parties were divided geographically and socially, with the social democrats base being the towns, predominantly Vienna, and having a very different perspective to the devout but illiterate peasantry in the countryside. The latter were joined by the aristocracy and bourgeoisie in supporting the "status quo" of the monarchy.


title: History of Austria

text: The 1911 elections elected a parliament that would carry Austria through the war and the end of the empire in 1918.


title: History of Austria

text: However, the effectiveness of parliamentarism was hampered by conflicts between parties representing different ethnic groups, and meetings of the parliament ceased altogether during World War I.


title: History of Austria

text: The initial years of the 19th century following the Congress of Vienna, up until the revolution of 1848 was characterised by the Biedermeier period of design and architecture, partly fueled by the repressive domestic scene that diverted attention to domesticity and the arts.


title: History of Austria

text: With the reign of Franz Joseph (1848–1916) came a new era of grandeur, typified by the Belle Époque style, with extensive building and the construction of the Ringstrasse in Vienna with its monumental buildings (officially opened 1 May 1865, after seven years). Architects of the period included Heinrich Ferstel (Votivkirche, Museum für angewandte Kunst Wien), Friedrich von Schmidt (Rathaus), Theophil Hansen (Parliament), Gottfried Semper (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Burgtheater), Eduard van der Nüll (Opera) and August Sicardsburg (Opera).


title: History of Austria

text: 1897 saw the resignation of a group of artists from the Association of Austrian Artists ("Gesellschaft bildender Künstler Österreichs"), headed by Gustav Klimt who became the first president of this group which became known as the Vienna Secession or Wiener Secession ("Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs"). The movement was a protest against the historicism and conservatism of the former organisation, following similar movements in Berlin and Munich. Partly this was a revolt against the perceived excesses of the earlier "Ringstrasse" era, and a yearning to return to the relative simplicity of Biedermaier. From this group Josef Hoffman and Koloman Moser formed the Vienna Arts and Crafts Workshop ("Wiener Werkstätte") in 1903 to promote the development of applied arts. The Secession became associated with a specific building, the Secession Building ("Wiener Secessionsgebäude") built in 1897 and which housed their exhibitions, starting in 1898. The Secession as originally conceived splintered in 1905 when Klimt and others left over irreconcilable differences. The group however lasted until 1939 and the outbreak of the Second World War.


title: History of Austria

text: Architecturally this was the era of Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) and the contrasting work of men like Otto Wagner (Kirche am Steinhof) known for embellishment and Adolf Loos, who represented restraint. Art Nouveau and the modern style came relatively late to Austria, around 1900, and was distinguishable from the earlier movement in other European capitals.


title: History of Austria

text: One of the prominent literary figures was Karl Kraus, the essayist and satirist, known for his newspaper "The Torch" ("Die Fackel"), founded in 1899.


title: History of Austria

text: On the musical scene, Johan Strauss and his family dominated the Viennese scene over the entire period, which also produced Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Bruckner, Johannes Brahms, Arnold Schoenberg, Franz Lehár and Gustav Mahler among others.


title: History of Austria

text: By the opening years of the 20th century (Fin de siècle) the avant garde were beginning to challenge traditional values, often shocking Viennese society, such as Arthur Schnitzler's play "Reigen", the paintings of Klimt, and the music of Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg and the Second Viennese School ("Zweite Wiener Schule").


title: History of Austria

text: Nationalist strife increased during the decades until 1914. The assassination in Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist group of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to Franz Joseph as Emperor, helped to trigger World War I. In November 1916 the Emperor died, leaving the relatively inexperienced Charles (Karl) in command. The defeat of the Central Powers in 1918 resulted in the disintegration of Austria-Hungary, and the Emperor went into exile.


title: History of Austria

text: The First World War effectively ended for Austria on 3 November 1918, when the defeated army signed the Armistice of Villa Giusti at Padua following the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. (Technically this applied to Austria-Hungary, but Hungary had withdrawn from the conflict on 31 October 1918. Austria was forced to cede all territory occupied since 1914, plus accept the formation of new nations across most of the Empire's pre-war territory, and the allies were given access to Austria. The empire was thus dissolved.


title: History of Austria

text: The Provisional National Assembly ("Provisorische Nationalversammlung für Deutschösterreich") met in Vienna from 21 October 1918 to 19 February 1919, as the first parliament of the new Austria, in the Lower Austria parliamentary buildings ("Niederösterreichische Landhaus"). It consisted of those members of the "Reichsrat" (Imperial Council) elected in 1911 from German speaking territories with three presidents, Franz Dinghofer (German National Movement, GDVP), Jodok Fink (Christian Social Party, CS) and Karl Seitz (Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, SDAPÖ). The National Assembly continued its work till 16 February 1919 when elections were held. On 30 October it adopted a provisional constitution and on 12 November it adopted German Austria ("Deutschösterreich") as the name of the new state. Since the Emperor, Charles I (Karl I) had stated on 11 November that he no longer had ""auf jeden Anteil an den Staatsgeschäften"" (any share in the affairs of state), although he always said that he never abdicated. Austria was now a republic.


title: History of Austria

text: However the provisional constitution stated that it was to be part of the new German Republic proclaimed three days earlier. Article 2 stated: "Deutschösterreich ist ein Bestandteil der Deutschen Republik" (German Austria is part of the German Republic).


title: History of Austria

text: Karl Renner was proclaimed Chancellor of Austria, succeeding Heinrich Lammasch and led the first three cabinets (12 November 1918 – 7 July 1920) as a grand coalition of the SDAPÖ, CS, and GDVP. The latter was composed of a large number of splinter groups of the German National and German Liberal movements, and were numerically the largest group in the assembly.


title: History of Austria

text: On 22 November Austria laid claim to the German speaking territories of the former Habsburg Empire in Czechoslovakia (German Bohemia and parts of Moravia), Poland (Austrian Silesia) and the South Tyrol, annexed by Italy. However Austria was in no position to enforce these claims against either the victorious allies or the new nation states that emerged from the dissolution of the Empire and all the lands in question remained separated from the new Austria.


title: History of Austria

text: In the words of the then French premier Georges Clemenceau "ce qui reste, c'est l'Autriche" ("Austria is what's left"). An empire of over 50 million had been reduced to a state of 6.5 million.


title: History of Austria

text: On 19 February elections were held for what was now called the Constituent National Assembly ("Konstituierende Nationalversammlung"). Although the Social Democrats won the most seats (41%) they did not have an absolute majority and formed a grand coalition with the second-largest party, the Christian Socialists. On 12 March the National Assembly declared "German Austria" to the part of the "German Republic".


title: History of Austria

text: Large sections of the population and most representatives of political parties were of the opinion that this "residual" or "rump state" – without Hungary's agriculture sector and Bohemia's industry it would not be economically viable. The journalist Hellmut Andics (1922–1998) expressed this sentiment in his book entitled "Der Staat, den keiner wollte" (The state that nobody wanted) in 1962.


title: History of Austria

text: Austria's exact future remained uncertain until formal treaties were signed and ratified. This process began with the opening of the Peace Conference in Paris on 18 January 1919 and culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Saint Germain on 10 September that year, although the National Assembly initially rejected the draft treaty on 7 June.


title: History of Austria

text: The fledgling Republic of German-Austria was to prove short lived. The proposed merger with the German Empire (Weimar Republic) was vetoed by the Allied victors in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (10 September 1919) under Article 88 which prohibited economic or political union. The allies were fearful of the long-held "Mitteleuropa" dream—a union of all German-speaking populations. The treaty was ratified by parliament on 21 October 1919. Austria was to remain independent, and was obliged to be so for at least 20 years.


title: History of Austria

text: The treaty also obliged the country to change its name from the "Republic of German Austria" to the "Republic of Austria" ("Republik Österreich"), i.e., the First Republic, a name that persists to this day. The German-speaking bordering areas of Bohemia and Moravia (later called the "Sudetenland") were allocated to the newly founded Czechoslovakia. Many Austrians and Germans regarded this as hypocrisy since U.S. president Woodrow Wilson had proclaimed in his famous "Fourteen Points" the "right of self-determination" for all nations. In Germany, the constitution of the Weimar Republic explicitly stated this in article 61: "Deutschösterreich erhält nach seinem Anschluß an das Deutsche Reich das Recht der Teilnahme am Reichsrat mit der seiner Bevölkerung entsprechenden Stimmenzahl. Bis dahin haben die Vertreter Deutschösterreichs beratende Stimme."—"German Austria has the right to participate in the German Reichsrat (the constitutional representation of the federal German states) with a consulting role according to its number of inhabitants until unification with Germany." In Austria itself, almost all political parties together with the majority of public opinion continued to cling to the concept of unification laid out in Article 2 of the 1918 constitution.


title: History of Austria

text: Although Austria-Hungary had been one of the Central Powers, the allied victors were much more lenient with a defeated Austria than with either Germany or Hungary. Representatives of the new Republic of Austria convinced the allies that it was unfair to penalize Austria for the actions of a now dissolved Empire, especially as other areas of the Empire were now perceived to be on the "victor" side, simply because they had renounced the Empire at the end of the war. Austria never did have to pay reparations because allied commissions determined that the country could not afford to pay.


title: History of Austria

text: However, the Treaty of Saint Germain also confirmed Austria's loss of significant German-speaking territories, in particular the southern part of the County of Tyrol (now South Tyrol) to Italy and the German-speaking areas within Bohemia and Moravia to Czechoslovakia. In compensation (as it were) it was to be awarded most of the German-speaking part of Hungary in the Treaty of Trianon concluded between the Allies and that country; this was constituted the new federal state of Burgenland.


title: History of Austria

text: The grand coalition was dissolved on 10 June 1920, being replaced by a CS- SDAPÖ coalition under Michael Mayr as Chancellor (7 July 1920 – 21 June 1921), necessitating new elections which were held on 17 October, for what now became the National Council ("Nationalrat"), under the new constitution of 1 October. This resulted in the Christian Social party now emerging as the strongest party, with 42% of the votes and subsequently forming Mayr's second government on 22 October as a CS minority government (with the support of the GDVP) without the Social Democrats. The CS were to continue in power until the end of the first republic, in various combinations of coalitions with the GDVP and Landbund (founded 1919).


title: History of Austria

text: The borders continued to be somewhat uncertain because of plebiscites in the tradition of Woodrow Wilson. Plebiscites in the regions of Tyrol and Salzburg between 1919 and 1921 (Tyrol 24 April 1921, Salzburg 29 May 1921) yielded majorities of 98% and 99% in favour of unification with Germany, fearing that "rump" Austria was not economically viable. However such mergers were not possible under the treaty.


title: History of Austria

text: On 20 October 1920, a plebiscite in part of the Austrian state of Carinthia was held in which the population chose to remain a part of Austria, rejecting the territorial claims of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to the state. Mostly German-speaking parts of western Hungary was awarded to Austria as the new state of Burgenland in 1921, with the exception of the city of Sopron and adjacent territories, whose population decided in a referendum (which is sometimes considered by Austrians to have been rigged) to remain with Hungary. The area had been discussed as the site of a Slavic corridor uniting Czechoslovakia to Yugoslavia. This made Austria the only defeated country to acquire additional territory as part of border adjustments.


title: History of Austria

text: Despite the absence of reparations, Austria under the coalition suffered hyperinflation similar to that of Germany, destroying some of the financial assets of the middle and upper classes, and disrupting the economy. Adam Ferguson attributes hyperinflation to the existence of far too many people on the government payroll, failure to tax the working class, and numerous money losing government enterprises. The fascists blamed the left for the hyperinflation; Ferguson blames policies associated with the left. Massive riots ensued in Vienna in which the rioters demanded higher taxes on the rich and reduced subsidies to the poor. In response to the riots, the government increased taxes but failed to reduce subsidies.


title: History of Austria

text: The terms of the Treaty of Saint Germain were further underlined by the Geneva Protocols of the League of Nations (which Austria joined on 16 December 1920) on 4 October 1922 between Austria and the Allies. Austria was given a guarantee of sovereignty provided it did not unite with Germany over the following 20 years. Austria also received a loan of 650 million Goldkronen which was successful in halting hyperinflation, but required major restructuring of the Austrian economy. The Goldkrone was replaced by the more stable Schilling, but resulted in unemployment and new taxes, loss of social benefits and major attrition of the public service.


title: History of Austria

text: Emerging from the war, Austria had two main political parties on the right and one on the left. The right was split between clericalism and nationalism. The Christian Social Party, ("Christlichsoziale Partei", CS), had been founded in 1891 and achieved plurality from 1907–1911 before losing it to the socialists. Their influence had been waning in the capital, even before 1914, but became the dominant party of the First Republic, and the party of government from 1920 onwards. The CS had close ties to the Roman Catholic Church and was headed by a Catholic priest named Ignaz Seipel (1876–1932), who served twice as Chancellor (1922–1924 and 1926–1929). While in power, Seipel was working for an alliance between wealthy industrialists and the Roman Catholic Church. The CS drew its political support from conservative rural Catholics. In 1920 the Greater German People's Party ("Großdeutsche Volkspartei", GDVP) was founded from the bulk of liberal and national groups and became the junior partner of the CS.


title: History of Austria

text: On the left the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria ("Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs", SDAPÖ) founded in 1898, which pursued a fairly left-wing course known as Austromarxism at that time, could count on a secure majority in "Red Vienna" (as the capital was known from 1918 to 1934), while right-wing parties controlled all other states. The SDAPÖ were the strongest voting bloc from 1911 to 1918.


title: History of Austria

text: Between 1918 and 1920, there was a grand coalition government including both left and right-wing parties, the CS and the Social Democratic Workers' Party ("Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs", SDAPÖ). This gave the Social Democrats their first opportunity to influence Austrian politics. The coalition enacted progressive socio-economic and labour legislation such as the vote for women on 27 November 1918, but collapsed on 22 October 1920. In 1920, the modern Constitution of Austria was enacted, but from 1920 onwards Austrian politics were characterized by intense and sometimes violent conflict between left and right. The bourgeois parties maintained their dominance but formed unstable governments while socialists remained the largest elected party numerically.


title: History of Austria

text: Both right-wing and left-wing paramilitary forces were created during the 20s. The "Heimwehr" (Home Resistance) first appeared on 12 May 1920 and became progressively organised over the next three years and the "Republikanischer Schutzbund" was formed in response to this on 19 February 1923. From 2 April 1923 to 30 September there were violent clashes between Socialists and Nazis in Vienna. That on 2 April, referred to as "Schlacht auf dem Exelberg" (Battle of Exelberg), involved 300 Nazis against 90 Socialists (Steininger 2008). Further episodes occurred on 4 May and 30 September 1923. A clash between those groups in Schattendorf, Burgenland, on 30 January 1927 led to the death of a man and a child. Right-wing veterans were indicted at a court in Vienna, but acquitted in a jury trial. This led to massive protests and a fire at the "Justizpalast" in Vienna. In the July Revolt of 1927, 89 protesters were killed by the Austrian police forces.


title: History of Austria

text: Political conflict escalated until the early 1930s. The elections of 1930 which returned the Social Democrats as the largest bloc turned out to be the last till after World War II. On 20 May 1932, Engelbert Dollfuß, Christian Social Party Agriculture Minister became Chancellor, with a majority of one.


title: History of Austria

text: Dollfuss and the Christian Social Party, moved Austria rapidly towards centralized power in the Fascist model. He was concerned that German National Socialist leader Adolf Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933, after his party had become the largest group in the parliament and was quickly assuming absolute power. Similarly the Austrian National Socialists (DNSAP) could easily become a significant minority in future Austrian elections. Fascism scholar Stanley G. Payne, estimated that if elections had been held in 1933, the DNSAP could have secured about 25% of the votes. "Time" magazine suggested an even higher level of support of 50%, with a 75% approval rate in the Tyrol region bordering Nazi Germany. The events in Austria during March 1933 echoed those of Germany, where Hitler also effectively installed himself as dictator in the same month.


title: History of Austria

text: On 4 March 1933, there occurred an irregularity in the parliamentary voting procedures. Karl Renner (Social Democratic Party of Austria, "Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs" SPÖ), president of the National Council ("Nationalrat": lower house of parliament) resigned in order to be able to cast a vote on a controversial proposal to deal with the railroad strike that was likely to pass by a very small margin, which he was not able to do while holding that office. Consequently, the two vice-presidents representing the other parties, Rudolf Ramek (Christian Social Party) and Sepp Straffner (Greater German People's Party) also resigned for the same reason. In the absence of the President the session could not be concluded.


title: History of Austria

text: Although there were procedural rules which could have been followed in this unprecedented and unforeseen event, the Dollfuss cabinet seized the opportunity to declare the parliament unable to function. While Dollfuss described this event as "self-elimination of Parliament" ("Selbstausschaltung des Parliaments") it was actually the beginning of a coup d'etat that would establish the "Ständestaat" (Austrofascism, "Austrofaschismus") lasting to 1938.


title: History of Austria

text: Using an emergency provision enacted during the First World War, the Economic War Powers Act ("Kriegswirtschaftliches Ermächtigungsgesetz", KWEG 24. Juli 1917 RGBl. Nr. 307) the executive assumed legislative power on 7 March and advised President Wilhelm Miklas to issue a decree adjourning it indefinitely. The First Republic and democratic government therefore effectively ended in Austria, leaving Dollfuss to govern as a dictator with absolute powers. Immediate measures included removing the right of public assembly and freedom of the press. The opposition accused him of violating the constitution.


title: History of Austria

text: An attempt by the Greater German People's Party and the Social Democrats to reconvene the council on 15 March was prevented by barring the entrance with police and advising President Wilhelm Miklas to adjourn it indefinitely. Dollfuss would have been aware that Nazi troops had seized power in neighbouring Bavaria on 9 March. Finally, on 31 March, the Republikanischer Schutzbund (paramilitary arm of the Social Democratic Party) was dissolved (but continued illegally).


title: History of Austria

text: Dollfuss then met with Benito Mussolini for the first time in Rome on 13 April. On 23 April, the National Socialists (DNSAP) gained 40 per cent of the vote in the Innsbruck communal elections, becoming the largest voting bloc, so in May all state and communal elections were banned.


title: History of Austria

text: On 20 May 1933, Dollfuss replaced the "Democratic Republic" with a new entity, merging his Christian Social Party with elements of other nationalist and conservative groups, including the Heimwehr, which encompassed many workers who were unhappy with the radical leadership of the socialist party, to form the "Patriotic Front" ("Vaterländische Front"), though the Heimwehr continued to exist as an independent organization until 1936, when Dollfuss' successor Kurt von Schuschnigg forcibly merged it into the Front, instead creating the unabidingly loyal "Frontmiliz" as a paramilitary task force. The new entity was allegedly bipartisan and represented those who were "loyal to the government".


title: History of Austria

text: The DNSAP was banned in June 1933. Dollfuss was also aware of the Soviet Union's increasing influence in Europe throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, and also banned the communists, establishing a one-party Austrofascist dictatorship largely modeled after Italian fascism, tied to Catholic corporatism and anti-secularism. He dropped all pretence of Austrian reunification with Germany so long as the Nazi Party remained in power there.


title: History of Austria

text: Although all Austrian parties, including the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDAPÖ) were banned, Social Democrats continued to exist as an independent organization, including its paramilitary "Republikaner Schutzbund", which could muster tens of thousands against Dollfuss' government.


title: History of Austria

text: In August 1933, Mussolini's government issued a guarantee of Austrian independence ("if necessary, Italy would defend Austria's independence by force of arms"). Dollfuss also exchanged 'Secret Letters' with Benito Mussolini about ways to guarantee Austrian independence. Mussolini was interested in Austria forming a buffer zone against Nazi Germany. Dollfuss always stressed the similarity of the regimes of Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union, and was convinced that Austrofascism and Italian fascism could counter totalitarian national socialism and communism in Europe.


title: History of Austria

text: Dollfuss escaped an assassination attempt in October 1933 by Rudolf Dertill, a 22-year-old who had been ejected from the military for his national socialist views.


title: History of Austria

text: Despite the putsch, the SPÖ continued to seek a peaceful resolution but the new Austrofascist regime ordered the headquarters of the party to be searched on 12 February 1934, provoking the Austrian Civil War, in which the weakened party and its supporters were quickly defeated and the party and its various ancillary organisations were banned.


title: History of Austria

text: On 1 May 1934, the Dollfuss cabinet approved a new constitution that abolished freedom of the press, established one party system and created a total state monopoly on employer-employee relations. This system remained in force until Austria became part of Nazi Germany in 1938. The Patriotic Front government frustrated the ambitions of pro-Hitlerite sympathizers in Austria who wished both political influence and unification with Germany, leading to the assassination of Dollfuss on 25 July 1934.


title: History of Austria

text: His successor Kurt Schuschnigg maintained the ban on pro-Hitlerite activities in Austria, but was forced to resign on 11 March 1938 following a demand by Adolf Hitler for power-sharing with pro-German circles. Following Schuschnigg's resignation, German troops occupied Austria with no resistance.


title: History of Austria

text: Although the Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of St. Germain had explicitly forbidden the unification of Austria and Germany, the native Austrian Hitler was vastly striving to annex Austria during the late 1930s, which was fiercely resisted by the Austrian Schuschnigg dictatorship. When the conflict was escalating in early 1938, Chancellor Schuschnigg announced a plebiscite on the issue on 9 March, which was to take place on 13 March. On 12 March, German troops entered Austria, who met celebrating crowds, in order to install Nazi puppet Arthur Seyss-Inquart as Chancellor. With a Nazi administration already in place the country was now integrated into Nazi Germany renamed as "Ostmark" until 1942, when it was renamed again as "Alpen-und Donau-Reichsgaue" ("Alpine and Danubian Gaue"). A rigged referendum on 10 April was used to demonstrate the alleged approval of the annexation with a majority of 99.73% for the annexation.


title: History of Austria

text: As a result, Austria ceased to exist as an independent country. This annexation was enforced by military invasion but large parts of the Austrian population were in favour of the Nazi regime, and many Austrians participated in its crimes. The Jews, Communists, Socialist and hostile politicians were sent to concentration camps, murdered or forced into exile.


title: History of Austria

text: Just before the end of the war, on 28 March 1945, American troops set foot on Austrian soil and the Soviet Union's Red Army crossed the eastern border two days later, taking Vienna on 13 April. American and British forces occupied the western and southern regions, preventing Soviet forces from completely overrunning and controlling the country.


title: History of Austria

text: According to the plans by Winston Churchill, a south German state would be formed including Austria and Bavaria.However, in April 1945 Karl Renner, an Austrian elder statesman, declared Austria separate from the other German-speaking lands and set up a government which included socialists, conservatives and communists. A significant number of these were returning from exile or Nazi detention, having thus played no role in the Nazi government. This contributed to the Allies' treating Austria more as a liberated, rather than defeated, country, and the government was recognized by the Allies later that year. The country was occupied by the Allies from 9 May 1945, and under the Allied Commission for Austria established by an agreement on 4 July 1945, it was divided into Zones occupied respectively by American, British, French and Soviet Army personnel, with Vienna being also divided similarly into four sectors, with an International Zone at its heart.


title: History of Austria

text: Though under occupation, this Austrian government was officially permitted to conduct foreign relations with the approval of the Four Occupying Powers under the agreement of 28 June 1946. As part of this trend, Austria was one of the founding members of the Danube Commission, which was formed on 18 August 1948. Austria would benefit from the Marshall Plan, but economic recovery was slow.


title: History of Austria

text: Unlike the First Republic, which had been characterized by sometimes violent conflict between the different political groups, the Second Republic became a stable democracy. The two largest leading parties, the Christian-democratic Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), remained in a coalition led by the ÖVP until 1966. The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), who had hardly any support in the Austrian electorate, remained in the coalition until 1950 and in parliament until the 1959 election. For much of the Second Republic, the only opposition party was the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which included German nationalist and liberal political currents. It was founded in 1955 as a successor organisation to the short-lived Federation of Independents (VdU).


title: History of Austria

text: The United States countered starvation in 1945–46 with emergency supplies of food delivered by the US Army, by the United Nations Relief and Recovery Administration, (UNRRA), and by the privately organized Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (CARE). Starting in 1947, it funded the Austrian trade deficit. Large-scale Marshall Plan aid began in 1948 and operated in close cooperation with the Austrian government. However, tensions arose when Austria—which never joined NATO—was ineligible for the American shift toward rearmament in military spending. The US was also successful in helping Austrian popular culture adopt American models. In journalism, for example, it sent in hundreds of experts (and controlled the newsprint), closed down the old party-line newspapers, introduced advertising and wire services, and trained reporters and editors, as well as production workers. It founded the "Wiener Kurier," which became popular, as well as many magazines such as "Medical News from the United States," which informed doctors on new treatments and drugs. The Americans also thoroughly revamped the radio stations, in part with the goal of countering the Soviet-controlled stations. On an even larger scale the education system was modernized and democratized by American experts.


title: History of Austria

text: The two major parties strove towards ending allied occupation and restoring a fully independent Austria. The Austrian State Treaty was signed on 15 May 1955. Upon the termination of allied occupation, Austria was proclaimed a neutral country, and everlasting neutrality was incorporated into the Constitution on 26 October 1955.


title: History of Austria

text: The political system of the Second Republic came to be characterized by the system of "Proporz", meaning that posts of some political importance were split evenly between members of the SPÖ and ÖVP. Interest group representations with mandatory membership (e.g., for workers, businesspeople, farmers etc.) grew to considerable importance and were usually consulted in the legislative process, so that hardly any legislation was passed that did not reflect widespread consensus. The Proporz and consensus systems largely held even during the years between 1966 and 1983, when there were non-coalition governments.


title: History of Austria

text: The ÖVP-SPÖ coalition ended in 1966, when the ÖVP gained a majority in parliament. However, it lost it in 1970, when SPÖ leader Bruno Kreisky formed a minority government tolerated by the FPÖ. In the elections of 1971, 1975 and 1979 he obtained an absolute majority. The 70s were then seen as a time of liberal reforms in social policy. Today, the economic policies of the Kreisky era are often criticized, as the accumulation of a large national debt began, and non-profitable nationalized industries were strongly subsidized.


title: History of Austria

text: Following severe losses in the 1983 elections, the SPÖ entered into a coalition with the FPÖ under the leadership of Fred Sinowatz. In Spring 1986, Kurt Waldheim was elected president amid considerable national and international protest because of his possible involvement with the Nazis and war crimes during World War II. Fred Sinowatz resigned, and Franz Vranitzky became chancellor.


title: History of Austria

text: In September 1986, in a confrontation between the German-national and liberal wings, Jörg Haider became leader of the FPÖ. Chancellor Vranitzky rescinded the coalition pact between FPÖ and SPÖ, and after new elections, entered into a coalition with the ÖVP, which was then led by Alois Mock. Jörg Haider's populism and criticism of the Proporz system allowed him to gradually expand his party's support in elections, rising from 4% in 1983 to 27% in 1999. The Green Party managed to establish itself in parliament from 1986 onwards.


title: History of Austria

text: The SPÖ–ÖVP coalition persisted until 1999. Austria joined the European Union in 1995 (Video of the signing in 1994), and Austria was set on the track towards joining the Eurozone, when it was established in 1999.


title: History of Austria

text: In 1993, the Liberal Forum was founded by dissidents from the FPÖ. It managed to remain in parliament until 1999.


title: History of Austria

text: In 1999, the ÖVP fell back to third place behind the FPÖ in the elections. Even though ÖVP chairman and Vice Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel had announced that his party would go into opposition in that case, he entered into a coalition with the FPÖ—with himself as chancellor—in early 2000 under considerable national and international outcry. Jörg Haider resigned as FPÖ chairman, but retained his post as governor of Carinthia and kept substantial influence within the FPÖ.


title: History of Austria

text: In 2002, disputes within the FPÖ resulting from losses in state elections caused the resignation of several FPÖ government members and a collapse of the government. Wolfgang Schüssel's ÖVP emerged as the winner of the subsequent election, ending up in first place for the first time since 1966. The FPÖ lost more than half of its voters, but reentered the coalition with the ÖVP. Despite the new coalition, the voter support for the FPÖ continued to dwindle in all most all local and state elections. Disputes between "nationalist" and "liberals" wings of the party resulted in a split, with the founding of a new liberal party called the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) and led by Jörg Haider. Since all FPÖ government members and most FPÖ members of parliament decided to join the new party, the Schüssel coalition remained in office (now in the constellation ÖVP–BZÖ, with the remaining FPÖ in opposition) until the next elections. On 1 October 2006 the SPÖ won a head on head elections and negotiated a grand coalition with the ÖVP. This coalition started its term on 11 January 2007 with Alfred Gusenbauer as Chancellor of Austria. For the first time, the Green Party of Austria became the third-largest party in a nationwide election, overtaking the FPÖ by a narrow margin of only a few hundred votes.


title: History of Austria

text: The grand coalition headed by Alfred Gusenbauer collapsed in the early summer of 2008 over disagreements about the country's EU policy. The early elections held on 28 September resulted in extensive losses for the two ruling parties and corresponding gains for Heinz-Christian Strache's FPÖ and Jörg Haider's BZÖ (the Green Party was relegated to the 5th position). Nevertheless, SPÖ and ÖVP renewed their coalition under the leadership of the new SPÖ party chairman Werner Faymann. In 2008 Jörg Haider died in a controversial car accident and was succeeded as BZÖ party chairman by Herbert Scheibner and as governor of Carinthia by Gerhard Dörfler.


title: History of Austria

text: In the legislative elections of 2013, SPÖ received 27% of the vote and 52 seats; ÖVP 24% and 47 seats, thus controlling together the majority of the seats. FPÖ received 40 seats and 21% of the votes, while the Greens received 12% and 24 seats. Two new parties, Stronach and the NEOS, received less than 10% of the vote, and 11 and nine seats respectively.


title: History of Austria

text: On 17 May 2016, Christian Kern from SPÖ was sworn in as new chancellor. He continued governing in a "grand coalition" with ÖVP. He took the office after former chancellor, also from SPÖ, Werner Faymann's resignation.


title: History of Austria

text: On 26 January 2017, Alexander Van der Bellen was sworn into as the mostly ceremonial - but symbolically significant - role of Austrian president.


title: History of Austria

text: After the Grand Coalition broke in Spring 2017 a snap election was proclaimed for October 2017. ÖVP with its new young leader Sebastian Kurz emerged as the largest party in the National Council, winning 31.5% of votes and 62 of the 183 seats. SPÖ finished second with 52 seats and 26.9% votes, slightly ahead of FPÖ, which received 51 seats and 26%. NEOS finished fourth with 10 seats (5.3 percent of votes), and PILZ (which split from the Green Party at the start of the campaign) entered parliament for the first time and came in fifth place with 8 seats and 4.4% The Green Party failed with 3.8% to cross the 4% threshold and was ejected from parliament, losing all of its 24 seats. The ÖVP decided to form a coalition with the FPÖ. The new government between the centre-right wing and the right-wing populist party under the new chancellor Sebastian Kurz was sworn in on 18 December 2017, but the coalition government later collapsed in the wake of the “Ibiza” corruption scandal and new elections were called for 29 September 2019. The elections lead to another landslide victory (37.5%) of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) who formed a coalition-government with the reinvigorated (13.9%) Greens, which was sworn in with Kurz as chancellor on January 7, 2020.


title: History of Austria

text: On 11 October 2021, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigned, after pressure triggered by a corruption scandal. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg of ÖVP succeeded him as chancellor. Following a corruption scandal involving the ruling ÖVP, Austria got its third conservative chancellor in two months after Karl Nehammer was sworn into office on 6 December 2021. His predecessor Alexander Schallenberg had left the office after less than two months. ÖVP and the Greens continued to govern together.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: Terry McLaurin (born September 15, 1995) is an American football wide receiver for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Ohio State and was drafted by Washington in the third round of the 2019 NFL Draft. McLaurin was named to the 2019 PFWA All-Rookie Team after recording over 900 receiving yards with seven touchdowns.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: Terry McLaurin was born on September 15, 1995, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He won Indiana's Mr. Football Award in 2013 while playing football for Cathedral High School. McLaurin was regarded as a four-star recruit in the class of 2014 according to the 247Sports Composite.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: McLaurin redshirted his freshman season in 2014. As a redshirt freshman for the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2015, McLaurin appeared in six games and recorded seven tackles and a fumble recovery. As a sophomore in 2016, he recorded 11 receptions for 114 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns in 13 games. As a junior in 2017, he recorded 29 receptions for 436 receiving yards and six receiving touchdowns in 13 games. As a senior in 2018, he recorded 35 receptions for 701 receiving yards and 11 receiving touchdowns.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: Leaving Ohio State as a redshirt senior, McLaurin was regarded as a special teamer and NFL backup, with potential to develop into a starter. NFL.com projected him to be a third round selection and compared him to Justin Hardee. After a draft process with impressive NFL Scouting Combine and Pro Day showings, some such as the IndyStar began to regard him as a potential draft steal.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: McLaurin was drafted by the Washington Redskins in the third round (76th overall) of the 2019 NFL Draft. With their first round pick in the same draft, the Redskins also drafted McLaurin's college QB, Dwayne Haskins. He signed his four-year rookie contract on June 6, 2019.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: Due to a strong training camp performance, McLaurin was named a Week 1 starter. McLaurin made his NFL debut in the opening game of the 2019 season against the Philadelphia Eagles. There, he recorded five receptions for 125 yards, including a 69-yard touchdown. He added to that by catching at least five passes and a touchdown over the next two games, making him the first player in league history to achieve such a feat in their first three career appearances.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: In Week 6 against the Miami Dolphins, McLaurin caught four receptions for 100 yards and two touchdowns as the Redskins won their first game of the season. During Week 15 against the Eagles, McLaurin finished with five receptions for 130 receiving yards, including a 75-yard touchdown. He finished the season with 58 receptions for 919 yards and seven touchdowns and was named to the PFWA All-Rookie Team.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: In Week 2, McLaurin recorded seven receptions for 125 receiving yards and his first touchdown of the season during a loss to the Arizona Cardinals. In a Week 4 loss against the Baltimore Ravens, McLaurin recorded 10 receptions for 118 yards. Following an season ending injury to team captain Landon Collins in October 2020, McLaurin was unanimously voted by his teammates to replace him. In a Week 9 loss against the New York Giants, he had seven receptions for 115 receiving yards and a touchdown. He suffered a high ankle sprain against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 15 and missed the following game against the Carolina Panthers as a result. Despite the team's unstable quarterback situation, he would finish the season with 1,118 yards and four touchdowns. The team won the NFC East division, securing a home playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Washington Football Team lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champions 31-23. McLaurin recorded six catches for 75 yards in his first playoff game.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: In March 2021, Curtis Samuel signed a 3 year contract with the Washington Football Team, reuniting McLaurin with his college roommate and fellow receiver. In a Week 2 game against the New York Giants on Thursday Night Football, McLaurin caught 11 receptions for 107 yards and a touchdown in a 30-29 victory. McLaurin recorded 123 yards off of six receptions and two touchdowns in the Week 4 win over the Atlanta Falcons. He recorded 103 yards off of three receptions and a touchdown in the 27-21 Week 11 win over the Carolina Panthers, this would be his fourth 100-plus yard game in the season. McLaurin left in the third quarter of the Week 14 game against the Dallas Cowboys due to a concussion.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: An impending free agent after the season, McLaurin decided against participating in on-field offseason workouts. On July 5, 2022, McLaurin signed a three-year contract extension worth $71 million with a $28 million signing bonus. In the 2022 season opening win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, he recorded 58 receiving yards off two receptions as well as a 49-yard touchdown reception. The Week 8 game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium was the first time in McLaurin's professional career that he played in his hometown of Indianapolis. With the Commanders losing and 40 seconds remaining in the game, McLaurin made a critical 33-yard contested catch which set up the Commanders to score a one-yard rushing touchdown on the next play and winning the game with a final score of 17-16. He finished the game with 113 yards off six receptions against the Colts.


title: Terry McLaurin

text: McLaurin has been called by several nicknames during his NFL career, such as "Scary Terry", "F1", "The Captain", and "Moneybag McLaurin".


title: Sambar deer

text: The sambar (Rusa unicolor) is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that is listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2008. Populations have declined substantially due to severe hunting, local insurgency, and industrial exploitation of habitat.


title: Sambar deer

text: The name "sambar" is also sometimes used to refer to the Philippine deer called the "Philippine sambar", and the Javan rusa called the "Sunda sambar".


title: Sambar deer

text: The appearance and the size of the sambar vary widely across its range, which has led to considerable taxonomic confusion in the past; over 40 different scientific synonyms have been used for the species. In general, they attain a height of at the shoulder and may weigh as much as , though more typically . Head and body length varies from , with a tail. Individuals belonging to western subspecies tend to be larger than those from the east, and females are smaller than males. Among all living cervid species, only the moose and the elk can attain larger sizes.


title: Sambar deer

text: The large, rugged antlers are typically rusine, the brow tines being simple and the beams forked at the tip, so they have only three tines. The antlers are typically up to long in fully adult individuals. As with most deer, only the males have antlers.


title: Sambar deer

text: The shaggy coat can be from yellowish brown to dark grey in colour, and while it is usually uniform in colour, some subspecies have chestnut marks on the rump and underparts. Sambar also have a small but dense mane, which tends to be more prominent in males. The tail is relatively long for deer, and is generally black above with a whitish underside.


title: Sambar deer

text: Adult males and pregnant or lactating females possess an unusual hairless, blood-red spot located about halfway down the underside of their throats. This sometimes oozes a white liquid, and is apparently glandular in nature.


title: Sambar deer

text: The sambar is distributed in much of South Asia as far north as the south-facing slopes of the Himalayas in Nepal, Bhutan and India, in mainland Southeast Asia including Burma, Thailand, Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia (Sumatra and Borneo), Taiwan, and South China, including Hainan. In the Himalayan foothills, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and eastern Taiwan, it ranges up to . It inhabits tropical dry forests, tropical seasonal forests, subtropical mixed forests with stands of conifers and montane grasslands, broadleaved deciduous and broadleaved evergreen trees, to tropical rainforests, and seldom moves far from water sources.


title: Sambar deer

text: The sambar prefers the dense cover of deciduous shrubs and grasses, although the exact nature of this varies enormously with the environment because of its wide Asian range. Home range sizes are probably equally variable, but have been recorded as for males and for females in India.


title: Sambar deer

text: Sambar are nocturnal or crepuscular. The males live alone for much of the year, and the females live in small herds of up to 16 individuals. Indeed, in some areas, the average herd consists of only three or four individuals, typically consisting of an adult female, her most recent young, and perhaps a subordinate, immature female. This is an unusual pattern for deer, which more commonly live in larger groups. They often congregate near water, and are good swimmers. Like most deer, sambar are generally quiet, although all adults can scream or make short, high-pitched sounds when alarmed. However, they more commonly communicate by scent marking and foot stamping.


title: Sambar deer

text: Sambar feed on a wide variety of vegetation, including grasses, foliage, browse, fruit, and water plants, depending on the local habitat. They also consume a great variety of shrubs and trees.


title: Sambar deer

text: Sambar have been seen congregating in large herds in protected areas such as national parks and reserves in India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. In Taiwan, sambar along with sika deer, have been raised on farms for their antlers, which they drop annually in April to May and are highly prized for use as knife handles and as grips for handguns.


title: Sambar deer

text: Stags wallow and dig their antlers in urine-soaked soil, and then rub against tree trunks. Sambar are capable of remarkable bipedalism for a deer species, and stags stand and mark tree branches above them with their antlers. A stag also marks himself by spraying urine on his own face with a highly mobile penis. Despite their lack of antlers, female sambar readily defend their young from most predators, which is relatively unusual among deer. When confronted by pack-hunting dholes or feral domestic dogs, a sambar lowers its head with an erect mane and lashes at the dogs. Sambar prefer to attack predators in shallow water. Several sambar may form a defensive formation, touching rumps and vocalising loudly at the dogs. When sensing danger, a sambar stamps its feet and makes a ringing call known as "pooking" or "belling".


title: Sambar deer

text: They are the favourite prey of tigers and Asiatic lions. In India, the sambar can comprise up to nearly 60% of the prey selected by the Bengal tiger. Anecdotally, the tiger is said to even mimic the call of the sambar to deceive it while hunting. They also can be taken by crocodiles, mostly the sympatric mugger crocodiles and saltwater crocodiles. Leopards and dholes largely prey on only young or sickly deer, though they can attack healthy adults as well.


title: Sambar deer

text: Though they mate and reproduce year-round, sambar calving peaks seasonally. Oestrus lasts around 18 days. The male establishes a territory from which he attracts nearby females, but he does not establish a harem. The male stomps the ground, creating a bare patch, and often wallows in the mud, perhaps to accentuate the colour of his hair, which is typically darker than that of females. While they have been heard to make a loud, coarse bellow, rutting stags are generally not vocal. Large, dominant stags defend nonexclusive territories surrounded by several smaller males, with which they have bonded and formed alliances through sparring. When sparring with rival males, sambar lock antlers and push, like other deer, but uniquely, they also sometimes stand on their hind legs and clash downward into each other in a manner similar to species of goat-antelope. Females also fight on their hind legs and use their fore legs to hit each other in the head.