Austria is a landlocked, mostly mountainous country of central Europe whose restricted size and role in world affairs today belie its historic significance. It is bordered to the west by Liechtenstein and Switzerland; to the north by Germany and Czechoslovakia; to the east by Hungary; and to the south by Italy and Yugoslavia. Its present boundaries and republican form of government, dating back to 1919, stem from defeat in World War I and the disintegration of the once-vast, multinational Austro-Hungarian empire. For centuries, Austria's command of vital east-west and north-south trade routes gave it both commercial and strategic importance. The \TDanube River\t links Western and Eastern Europe; north-south Alpine passes connect the country with the Mediterranean and the Balkans. Geographically and politically, Austria emerged in the 10th century as the eastern border state (the German name Osterreich means "eastern state") of the \THoly Roman Empire\t, which it served as a bulwark against invading Slavs and, later, against the Turks. From the late 13th century to the early 20th, Austria's fortunes were synonymous with those of the ruling \LHabsburg\ls, whose dynastic ambitions made it the fulcrum of Europe. The capital city \TVienna\t, the Danube Valley, and the Hungarian Plain were the focal points throughout much of Austria's long history. Conquered by Germany in 1938 and occupied by the Allies after World War II, Austria has been a neutral state since 1955. It became a founding member of the European Free Trade Association in 1959 and formally applied to join the European Community in 1990. LAND AND RESOURCES The Alps are the dominant physical feature, covering all the narrow western part of the country and much of central and southern Austria as well, or 60,000 sq km (24,000 sq mi). They can be divided into three ranges: the Northern Alps and the Southern Alps, composed of limestone, and the Central Alps, of crystalline rock. The highest peak, the Grossglockner (3,797 m/12,457 ft), stands in the Hohe Tauern range of the Central Alps. Average elevations decrease from west to east as these belts of mountains fan out. The major ranges are separated by river valleys and depressions, such as the Klagenfurt Basin in south central Austria between the Karawanken and Carnic mountains. Passes such as the \TBrenner\t, leading into Italy, and the Semmering, in eastern Austria, facilitate communications. To the north of the Alps lies the Danube Valley, which is narrow in the west and broadens at Vienna into the Hungarian Plain. Both these regions contain rich loess and alluvial soils, admirably suited to agriculture. Elevations in the valley vary from 365 m (1,200 ft) in the west to 185 m (600 ft) in the eastern plain. The Bohemian Plateau, north of the Danube Valley, is a hilly upland area composed of granite or covered by forest. Elevations here range from 350 to 900 m (1,150 to 2,950 ft). Climate The climate of western and central Austria varies according to altitude, wind, and certain other mountain conditions but, except for a higher incidence of rain, snow, or mist, is generally similar to the moderate Atlantic climates typical of Western Europe. The \Tfoehn\t, a warm, dry wind from the south, can set off avalanches when it thaws the snow too suddenly. Eastern Austria is subject to a harsher continental climate, with cold winters, short moderate summers, and only a modest amount of precipitation. Minimum winter temperatures in four major Austrian cities range between -3.3 deg and 2.2. deg C (26 deg and 28 deg F); summer maximums, between 17.8 deg and 20 deg C (64 deg and 68 deg F). These index locations receive between 635 and 990 mm (25 and 39 in) of precipitation annually. Drainage The Danube, the country's only navigable river, flows across northern Austria from west to east. Other major rivers of Austria include the \TInn\t, Enns, Mur, Murz, Salzach, and Drau (Drava). Picturesque finger lakes lie to the north and east of Salzburg and in the Klagenfurt Basin. Neusiedler Lake in Burgenland, on the Hungarian border, with an area of 350 sq km (135 sq mi), is Austria's largest. Lake Constance in the extreme west is shared with Switzerland. Vegetation and Animal Life The flora and fauna once native to Austria have been reduced in number over the centuries. Deciduous trees, including beech, birch, and oak, are much in evidence at lower altitudes; higher up, a mixed forest predominates. In Alpine areas, conifers extend from 1,370 to 1,980 m (4,500 to 6,500 ft). Bare rocks and grass slopes continue to the snow line at 2,745-3,048 m (9,000-10,000 ft). Endangered Alpine wild flowers such as the edelweiss grow at the highest altitudes. The boar, bear, wolf, and lynx have disappeared, but red deer, chamois, marmot, and grouse still flourish in protected Alpine reserves. In the grassy flats of the Neusiedlersee reserve can be found refugee populations of the gray goose, white-tailed and spotted eagles, and breeding colonies of spoonbill and purple and great white herons. In the village of Rust, white storks return annually to their chimney nests. Resources Austria's greatest natural resource is its abundant waterpower, which supplies two-thirds of its electrical energy. Much of the potential hydroelectric capacity, however, remains to be exploited. Timber is supplied by the forests that cover up to 40% of the country and are protected by strict conservation measures. The most important mineral resources are magnesite (16% of the world's production); graphite; iron ore; lignite, a low-grade brown coal; and oil and natural gas. Copper, zinc, lead, and salt are also mined. PEOPLE Austria is basically Germanic in language and ethnic affiliation. The minorities include about 40,000 Croats, principally in Burgenland; about 70,000 Slovenes, concentrated in southern Carinthia; and small groups of Hungarians (about 11,000) and Czechs (about 5,000). Within the German-speaking population, unmixed representatives are relatively rare, a result of the heterogeneous nature of the Holy Roman and Austro-Hungarian empires. Roman Catholicism is professed by 89% of the population. About 6%, centered in the lowlands and the capital, are Protestants. A Jewish community of less than 20,000 is concentrated in Vienna. The five largest cities in Austria--Vienna, \TGraz\t, \TLinz\t, \TSalzburg\t, and \TInnsbruck\t--are home to about a third of the population One in five lives in the capital itself. A marked population redistribution has occurred since World War II. The eastern provinces have either lost population or made only modest gains, whereas the three western provinces--Vorarlberg, Tyrol, and Salzburg--have shown dramatic increases. Urban areas continue to grow as the farm population leaves the upland valleys and as the tourist industry develops in the Alpine areas. Education and Health Austria's literacy rate of virtually 100% reflects a 200-year history of free and compulsory education. Children are required to attend school from age 6 through 15. The educational system provides the equivalent of eight years of elementary school education for all students. Outside of rural areas, students, after the first four years, proceed either to a vocational school to train for a trade or to a secondary school (mittelschule) to prepare over an 8-year period to enter a university. The number of students in the university system is modest but increasing: in 1980-81 there were 133,074 enrolled in the 17 universities or colleges supported by the state. Austria's standards for health care and its delivery systems are indicated by its low infant mortality rate and by a ratio of doctors to population of about 1 to 510, one of the highest in Europe. All citizens are covered by national health insurance. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Vienna was perhaps Europe's greatest medical center, known particularly for the development of modern psychiatry under Sigmund \TFreud\t. For the contributions made by Austrians to the arts, see \TAustrian art and architecture\t; \TAustrian literature\t; and \TGerman and Austrian music\t. ECONOMIC ACTIVITY Manufacturing and Industry Since the end of World War II, when the country's basic industries were nationalized, the Austrian economy has become increasingly industrialized. Heavy industry tends to concentrate in the Danube Valley, in the Mur-Muz corridor, and in the capital. Leading manufactured goods include pig iron and steel, automobiles, tractors, locomotives, heavy machinery, electrical parts, chemicals, plastics, paper and pulp, furniture, textiles, and processed foods. The traditional products of Austrian craftsmen include ceramics, glassware, wood carvings, leather products such as shoes, and optical and musical instruments. Tourism has become a major industry. It is based on ski and winter sports facilities, on the perennial popularity of medicinal spas, and on the scenic, recreational, and cultural amenities available from the Alps to Vienna. The number of foreigners visiting Austria annually has increased more than eightfold since 1955. Agriculture Two trends have characterized postwar Austrian agriculture: a sharp decline in the portion of the labor force engaged in farming and a decrease in small-scale farming, with farms of less than 5 ha (12 acres) either disappearing or being consolidated. Although average farm size remains small and only 20% of the land is arable, scientific methods enable farmers to meet most of Austria's food requirements. Leading crops include barley, wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, sugar beets, and corn. Meat production has risen sharply, and dairy farming is more than adequate to meet national needs. Forestry Conifers are the most important commercial wood. Austria produces wood-pulp, paper and paperboard, and sawtimber. Transportation Austria's transportation system, which is largely state-owned, is modern and efficient. All major points within the country are connected by air, rail, and road. A national airline flies domestic and international routes. About 6,500 km (4,040 mi) of railroads crisscross Austria, traversing all major valleys of the Alps. There are about 11,000 km (6,900 mi) of autobahns (expressways) and federal highways. Both passenger and freight service are available on river vessels on the Danube. Vienna has been the eastern terminus for most traffic since 1945. Trade Austria has had a negative balance of trade since 1945, despite large injections of foreign currency from tourism. Austria must import transport equipment and heavy machinery, fuels, foodstuffs, and raw materials. It exports lumber, paper and pulp, textiles, iron and steel, electric power, and machinery. Its primary trading partners belong to the \TEuropean Economic Community\t or to the \TEuropean Free Trade Association\t. GOVERNMENT Austria is a constitutional federal republic composed of nine provinces. A president, popularly elected for a 6-year term, is the head of state, but most governmental power rests with the chancellor and his cabinet, who function for as long as their policies enjoy the confidence of parliament. The chancellor, or prime minister, is usually the head of the political party with the largest number of seats in the lower house of parliament, the National Council (the Nationalrat). National Council members are elected for 4-year terms. Members of the largely advisory upper house, the Federal Council (Bundesrat), are elected by the provincial legislatures (Landtag), the number from each province being apportioned on the basis of population. Each of the nine provinces (\TStyria\t, \TTyrol\t, Vorarlberg, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Vienna, Burgenland, and Carinthia) has a governor chosen by its unicameral Landtag. HISTORY In ancient times, much of the territory later known collectively as "Austria" was called Rhaetia, Noricum, and \TPannonia\t. These were organized as Roman provinces in the 1st century AD. Then, and for the next 10 centuries, the area served the more civilized peoples of Europe--initially Roman, later Frankish and German--as a defensive outpost against barbarian invasions from the east. Roman control collapsed in the 4th century under wave after wave of Germanic and Hunnish invaders. In the 6th century, these tribes were joined by \TSlavs\t and \TAvars\t, over whom the \TFranks\t under \TCharlemagne\t established a brief ascendancy in the 8th century. Nomads from the east, among them \TMagyars\t, continued to overrun the Danubian area until \TOtto I\t, later Holy Roman emperor, defeated them in the mid-10th century and reorganized the eastern border region on a more permanent basis as a dependency of the dukes of Bavaria. Under the rule of the Babenberg margraves between 976 and 1246, Austria expanded eastward to the Hungarian border and southward into Styria and Carniola. Christianity was well entrenched by the early 12th century. The Babenberg lands were occupied (1246-78) by \TOttokar II\t of Bohemia. After his defeat by the Habsburg German king \TRudolf I\t, they passed to the Habsburg family, which provided all but one of the Holy Roman emperors from 1438 to 1806. The Habsburgs turned Austria into one of the most dynamic states of Europe. They steadily expanded their domains in the 14th and 15th centuries, first by acquiring the Tyrol and Vorarlberg near their hereditary holdings in Switzerland, then by the addition of \TIstria\t and \TTrieste\t to the south. By the marriage (1477) of the future \TMaximilian I\t to \TMary of Burgundy\t, they acquired \TBurgundy\t and the \TLow Countries\t. Then the accession (1516) of the future emperor \TCharles V\t to the Spanish throne brought Spain and its empire under Habsburg rule. On his abdication (1555-56), however, Charles divided his realm, leaving Spain and the Low Countries to his son Philip II and Austria and the empire to his brother \TFerdinand I\t. The Austrian line then oriented its expansion eastward. Ferdinand's successors proved unable after 1564 to rule coherently or fairly those parts of the empire that had embraced the Protestant \TReformation\t. This deficiency was instrumental in causing the \TThirty Years' War\t (1618-48). A weakened Austria was forced to recognize the legitimacy of the reformed sects within the empire, but, as the result of the success of the \TCounter-Reformation\t, Catholicism was fully restored in Bohemia and Austria itself. The efforts of Emperor \TLeopold I\t (r. 1657-1705) to undo the Reformation in Hungary led to renewed conflict with the Hungarians and their Turkish allies. In 1683 the Turks besieged Vienna, which was rescued only by the timely intervention of German and Polish forces. A series of imperial victories drove the Turks from Hungary, which Austria formally acquired by the Peace of Karlowitz (1699). The Austrian empire reached its greatest extent in the first half of the 18th century. Wars over the Spanish and Polish successions brought the addition of the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) and, in Italy, of Milan, Mantua, Parma, Piacenza, and Tuscany. The \TWar of the\t \TAustrian Succession\t (1740-48) grew out of the refusal of the powers to honor the \TPragmatic Sanction\t (issued 1713), the instrument by which Emperor \TCharles VI\t sought to ensure the indivisibility of his Habsburg possessions and the succession of his daughter \TMaria Theresa\t (r. 1740-80). Maria Theresa's most important contribution lay in measures designed to centralize the administration of an unwieldy empire. \TJoseph II\t (r. 1780-90) continued the centralizing efforts of his mother, but he added a humanistic emphasis. He emancipated the serfs, increased the rights of religious minorities, and subordinated the Catholic church to the state. But his reign witnessed losses to the Turks and a revolt in the Spanish Netherlands (1789). Under his brother \TLeopold II\t (r. 1790-92), the church and the regional governing bodies won back many of their old powers. Austria's position in Europe was temporarily shaken by the outbreak of the French Revolution and by the political and geographic changes enacted by \TNapoleon I\t. In 1806, \TFrancis II\t laid aside the old imperial title of Holy Roman emperor, thereafter to reign simply as Emperor Francis I of Austria until 1835. Briefly allied with France in the invasion of Russia, Austria subsequently joined with the other powers to defeat Napoleon in 1814. By the decisions of the Congress of Vienna (1815; see \TVienna, Congress of\t), brilliantly orchestrated by the Austrian foreign minister Prince Klemens von \TMetternich\t, Austria ceded Belgium to the Netherlands but was compensated by new gains in \TLombardy\t, Venetia, and \TDalmatia\t that made Austria predominant in Italy. Austria also took over leadership of the newly formed \TGerman Confederation\t. Under Metternich's aegis, conservatism reigned triumphant over much of the continent for more than 30 years. The repressive atmosphere prevailing in the empire, however, could not permanently dampen the liberal or nationalist sentiment that increasingly asserted itself in Hungary, Italy, and the Slavic lands. Dissatisfaction erupted during the \TRevolutions of\t 1848, forcing Metternich to resign and the emperor to agree to the election of a constituent assembly, and power was restored to the emperor, now \TFrancis Joseph\t (r. 1848-1916). Austria once more set its course in the direction of centralized, absolutist government, modernized and reformed just enough to make it palatable. Major setbacks followed. Austria was defeated (1859) in a war with Italy and France, leading to the loss of Lombardy to the newly unified kingdom of \TItaly\t. Next came defeat in the \TSeven Weeks' War\t (1866) against \TPrussia\t, which carried with it the loss of Venetia and a number of German territories. Prussia then unified all the German states except Austria into the German Empire in 1871. Austria responded to these events by reshaping its constitutional framework so as to make the Hungarians equal partners in the Austrian Empire. The Compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 created the Dual Monarchy of \TAustria-Hungary\t. Austria remained plagued by the conflicting interests of its multiple nationalities. Its occupation of the Turkish provinces of \TBosnia and Hercegovina\t in 1878 and rivalry with Russia for control over the \TBalkans\t in the wake of the Ottoman Empire's decline inevitably intensified the nationalism of the empire's large Slavic minorities. Six years after Austria's outright annexation of Bosnia-Hercegovina, a Serbian nationalist assassinated (June 28, 1914) Archduke \TFranz Ferdinand\t in Sarajevo. This event led to \TWorld War I\t, in which Austria was allied with Germany (see \TTriple Alliance\t). Austria emerged beaten and shorn of the territories that had contributed to its 1,000-year imperial history. The new Austrian republic was reduced to its essential Germanic core, a quarter of its former size. At the same time, the victorious Allies prohibited Austria from uniting with its potentially still powerful German neighbor, even by means of a customs union. Austria did not adjust well to its straightened postwar circumstances. Politically oriented private armies representing both socialists and conservatives increased the potential for internal strife. The failure of Austria's largest bank in 1931 plunged the nation into economic crisis. Encouraged by Benito \TMussolini\t, Austria's protector until 1936, Chancellor Engelbert \TDollfuss\t assumed dictatorial powers in 1933. He dissolved all rival parties in 1934. Socialist resistance to this measure led to the government's bombardment of Vienna's large socialist quarter in February 1934. Dollfuss, a proto-Fascist who was nevertheless determined to keep Austria independent of Germany, was murdered on July 25, 1934. But an attempted takeover by Austrian Nazis collapsed when Mussolini dispatched troops to the Austrian border as a warning to Adolf \THitler\t to keep hands off. Dollfuss was succeeded by Kurt von \TSchuschnigg\t, who was unable to stop the growth of Nazi Germany's influence in Austria. Following his resignation, German troops entered (Mar. 12, 1938) the country, and the union (Anschluss) of Austria and Germany was proclaimed. During World War II, Austria's fortunes were identified with those of Germany. Following its liberation by Allied troops in the spring of 1945, Austria was reestablished within its prewar boundaries under a provisional government. This soon gave way to a coalition government that included members of both the Socialist and People's parties. The country was divided into four administrative zones for occupation by U.S., Soviet, British, and French forces. The four powers stayed until 1955. Austria joined the United Nations later the same year. In the postwar era, Austria was governed by coalition governments up to 1966, when a People's party administration led by Joseph Klaus took power. It was succeeded in 1970 by a Socialist government under Bruno \TKreisky\t. In 1971 the Socialists won a majority of seats in parliament. During Kreisky's long chancellorship (1970-83), Vienna grew in stature as an international center, becoming, along with New York and Geneva, one of the world headquarters of the United Nations. When his party lost its majority in April 1983, Kreisky stepped down to make way for a coalition government under another Socialist, Fred Sinowatz (1983-86), followed by Franz Vranitzky (1986- ). Former UN secretary general Kurt \TWaldheim\t, who was elected to the presidency in 1986, became a subject of controversy when it was revealed that he had lied about the extent of his activities in the German army during World War II, and that Yugoslav sources had accused him of complicity in war crimes. A committee of historians declared the latter charge unproven in 1988, and Waldheim ignored calls for his resignation. Bruce L. Larose Bibliography: Dolan, Edwin, and Moss, Laurence S., eds., The Foundations of Modern Austrian Economics, new ed. (1976); Gordon, Harold J. and Nancy M., eds., The Austrian Empire (1974); Johnston, William M., The Austrian Mind (1976); Kann, Robert A., A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918 (1974); Rickett, Richard A., A Brief Survey of Austrian History (1977); Stadler, Karl R., Austria (1971); Steiner, Kurt, ed., Modern Austria (1981); Sully, Melanie, Political Parties and Elections in Austria (1981); Sweeney, J., Austria and Its Political and Social Issues (1987); Whelpton, Eric, The Austrians (1970).