Austria (German Heritage)

The Archduchy of Austria (: Erzherzogtum Österreich), commonly known as Austria (: Österreich), is a nation comprised of located in Central Europe.

It is bordered by the and  to the north,  and  to the east,, the  and  to the south, and  and  to the west.

Austria played a central role in European History from the late 18th to the early 20th century. As an archduchy, it was a major component and administrative centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Following the Holy Roman Empire's dissolution, Austria founded its own empire in the 19th century, which became a great power and the leading force of the German Confederation. Subsequent to the Austro-Prussian War and the establishment of a union with Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was created. In 1919, the federalised was created, and would exist until the nationalist Hungarian movement declared independence, which spelt the end for the union. After Greater Austria collapsed, Austria fought against German expansionism and struggled to maintain their sphere-of-influence over Montenegro, Ukraine and Romania.

Today, Austria is consistently ranked as one of the richest countries in the world and has developed a high standard of living. It is also part of the, the and the.

History
Austria-Hungary barely pulled through as a victor in 1918. Originally, an annexation of swathes of Italian, Polish and Montenegrin land was planned, however, the near-revolutionary conditions in the Austrian interior led to Austria comprising and creating various “”. The, initially envisioned as a province of Austria-Hungary, became a independent kingdom under a Habsburg Archduke. was placed under the rule of, and the was reestablished. With the new order in Europe established, Emperor Karl’s focus moved onto the main problem effecting his rule - giving the Austro-Hungarian Empire some much-needed reform. In October 1918, passed the Federalisation Act in the Cisleithanian Parliament. The Federalisation Act created ethnicly-based states and autonomous areas in the Austrian portion of the Empire, much to the joy of Czech, Polish and Yugoslav nationalists such as and. In, however, the reforms were not met with the same enthusiasm. Hungarian Minister-President denied a similar reform of, which annoyed many of the ethnic minorities in Hungary such as the Slovaks and Romanians.

Minister-President von Heinlein convinced Emperor Karl to compromise and reform Cisleithania first, creating stability. Once this was accomplished, Karl could shift his resources into reforming the Hungarian Side. Despite this, Karl I pushed for the federalisation of the, then a component of the Hungarian Crown. Though the Hungarians initially denied, a series of Pan-Slavic riots in the major cities resulted in the Hungarians relenting.

All German lands (barring the German-inhabited Czech lands) were unified into the State of Austria, which also contained autonomous regions for Slovenes and Czechs. The Bohemian Crown Lands became the State of Bohemia, which was further made up of the Provinces of German Bohemia, German Moravia-Silesia, Czech Bohemia and Czech Moravia. Located within the Bohemian State was also autonomous regions for minorities. The was united with Croatia-Slavonia, and  became a state. The Polish-Ukrainian regions of the Empire became the states of East and West Galicia.

Though supported by the Social Democrats and many in the right, Anschluss was opposed by the Christian Social Party, Catholics and, more importantly, the Archduke Karl. Popular support was still supportive of Habsburg Austrian independence, though many in the province of Tyrol favoured joining the German Empire. A referendum was held in July 1936, which resulted in 58% of Austrians voting for an independent Austria. At the start of in 1941, Austria declared neutrality, though it created a volunteer battalion to fight alongside the German Empire. This changed when the invaded the Italian-majority area of Trentino in March 1942. Due to the mountainous geography of the area, the front soon turned into a statement similar to that of. The fight contained the most elite of the respective armies, the Italian forces, and the Austrian Kaiserjägers. After the Winter of 1943, a Free French-Canadian invasion of Sicily diverted key Italian troops from the front with Austria. The Fall of France had also paved a new battle route through the. In June, the Austrians broke through the North-East frontier led by in unison with the German advance through the North-West, which was led by Erwin Rommel.

As the began to divide the world after WWII, Karl and his government began looking towards a “third position” in the Cold War. Along with, the and , Austria became a founding member of the , which was built on the already existing. The PDA, as it came to be known, became the leading force in the, which unlike the opposing or , was neutral in world affairs. The PDA was also an economic union, though supported by the German and the American.

Politics
Austria has a multi-party system. Of the over 700 registered political parties, only few are known to the larger public. Since the 1980s, three parties have consistently received enough votes to get seats in the national parliament.
 * The  (: Christlichsoziale Partei, CS) is a  political party that was founded in 1891. The party is also affiliated with Austrian nationalism that seeks to keep Catholic Austria out of the state of Germany founded in 1871, which it views as Protestant Prussian-dominated. It is a member of the Pan-European Catholic Democratic Union (PECDU), which specially caters to catholic christian democrats.


 * The  (German: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ) is a social-democratic political party that is, along with the Christian Social Party, one of the country's two traditional major parties. It succeeded the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (German: Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ), and has close ties to the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) and the Austrian Chamber of Labour (AK). Though German Nationalist and republican from its inception, the SPÖ moderated its platform after, in which Austria faced considerable losses against the.


 * The  (: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party that was founded out of more secular and nationalist members of the Christian Social Party.


 * The German People’s Party of Austria (: Deutsche Volkspartei von Österreich, DVÖ) is a right-to-far-right-wing populist, and  political party that emerged from the Anschluss-supporting Nationalist undercurrent in Austria.