Who Was When

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The realm of the House of Habsburg in Central Europe, built around Austria, Bohemia and Hungary from 1526. It became the Austrian Empire in 1804 and Austria-Hungary in 1867, and broke up at the end of the First World War in 1918.

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Key events

  1. After Louis II dies at Mohács, Ferdinand of Austria is elected king of Bohemia and then of HungaryDisputed

    John Zápolya also claimed the Hungarian crown and had Ottoman backing, so Ferdinand's rule in Hungary was contested.

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  2. An Ottoman army under Suleiman besieges Vienna and withdraws in October

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  3. An Ottoman siege of Vienna, begun in July, ends when a relief army under John III Sobieski forces the Ottomans to retreat on 12 September

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  4. Maria Theresa inherits the Habsburg lands under the Pragmatic Sanction, and Prussia invades Silesia in December
  5. Joseph II issues an edict of toleration for Protestants and Orthodox subjects and a patent easing serfdom in Bohemia

    The serfdom patent ended the worst legal disabilities, not the peasants' labour and money obligations to their lords.

  6. Francis II takes the title Emperor of Austria, two years before the Holy Roman Empire ends
  7. – Delegates meet at the Congress of Vienna, with Metternich as chairman, to redraw Europe after Napoleon
  8. The Compromise of 1867 splits the realm into Austria and Hungary under one ruler, and Franz Joseph is crowned king of Hungary on 8 June
  9. On 11 November Emperor Charles I signs a declaration giving up any part in government, ending Habsburg ruleDisputed

    Charles signed the declaration for the Austrian half on 11 November 1918 and for the Hungarian half two days later. He did not formally abdicate, and he later withdrew his declarations in the Feldkirch Manifesto.