What do you know about... Austria?

[u/MarktpLatz]

This is the fourteenth part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Todays country:

Austria

Austria is a country in central Europe. Ever since world war two, Austria has maintained military neutrality, they have not been and still are not part of NATO. Austria also has the only green party head of state in Europe.

So, what do you know about Austria?

[u/Deriak27]

The name Austria means Eastern Realm, probably because it was military borderlands during the Frankish Empire as well as East Francia.

The dialect of German they speak is overwhelmingly Bavarian, with some small Allemanic dialects near the narrow border with Switzerland in Vorarlberg. In general they just call it Austrian German and follow a standard written/spoken form like Standard German.

Speaking of languages, the historical lands of contemporary Austria were mostly inhabited by Slavs since the Romans, particularly the state Carantania, who are the ancestors of modern Slovenes as well as one of the first Slavic states in Europe. Carinthian Slovenes have been a minority in Austria for more many centuries as a result.

Proper Austria was founded 1156 as a Duchy in the Holy Roman Empire. Over time it would expand into non-imperial territory, particularly through unions featuring their most prolific family, the Habsburgs. This would pave the way for the modern Habsburg and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

[u/m164 → u/Deriak27]

the state Carantania

Really makes you think about how amazing Samo must have been. He had risen from a merchant to a king of one of the biggest contemporary empires which he had formed himself, strong enough to defy the might of the Frankish Empire and to defeat them in the field of battle, while simultaneously defeating Avars in the east.

[u/Deriak27 → u/m164]

From what I read on the link, it appears he was simply a businessman involved in the war industry (supplying weapons for the Slavs) until he found an opportunity to join a revolt and show off his military abilities. In more modern terms he'd probably be the equivalent of a miltary dictator. His state also crumbled upon his death, which really shows how frail the authority was, even in comparison to other tribal states who had somewhat stable successions.

[u/m164 → u/Deriak27]

I am not about to idealize him and think he ruled with bread and butter, but he couldn't have been too bad, considering he was chosen by the tribes and considering how frequent and easily started rebellions were if some tribe grew unhappy with the current situation. The lack of succession is not that surprising, considering it was still a tribal organization. In that time you had to show real strength to be respected and followed and bloodlines didn't matter. The fact that Samo was an outsider, a foreigner from a different and hostile realm and even of a different ethnicity and yet he was chosen to rule them and lead them in battles against his home country speak by itself. All we know from the old documents is that he was a traitor to his realm and labeled as a "Slavic lover," which he perhaps became because while in Frankish Empire he was a mere merchant, even if not exactly poor, in tribes he got respect, a lot of women and maybe event the tribal organization had impressed him by itself or the chance to prove himself in battle.

Somehow feudal organization started appearing in this region in Moravia or Great Moravia respectively, which appeared after the dissolution of Samo's Empire, when Moravian ruler conquered Nitra Principality, temporarily installed hereditary rule and a later ruler converted the realm to Christianity, established alphabet and expanded beyond Samo's borders, but still only after a few following rulers it reverted back to the gavelkind and the empire had fallen apart and was shortly after picked apart by bigger rivals who took advantage of this weakness.

Bohemia and Moravia had finally fallen into the Frankish sphere of influence and Nitra with Spiš and Balaton got fused into the new-coming Hungarian organization, but even they didn't succeed to install a lasting hereditary rule until year 1000, over 3 decades after the death of Samo.