Misplaced Pages

#132867

108-392: This Austrian history article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Polish history –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article relating to the law of Europe or of a European country is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . History of Austria Timeline The history of Austria covers

216-541: A comes or dux as appointed by the emperor. These terms are usually translated as count or duke, but these terms conveyed very different meanings in the Early Middle Ages , so to avoid misunderstanding historians usually employ the Latin versions when discussing the titles and their holders. In Lombardic speaking countries, the title was eventually regularized to margrave (German: markgraf ) i.e. "count of

324-786: A Germanic people who had been moving southwards in several steps, and had occupied the Rugian territory. During the 540s, the Lombards crossed the Danube into Roman Pannonia, in the west of present day Austria, bringing them into conflict with the Gepids . After defeating them with help from the Avars in 567 , the Lombards recruited many locals and moved into northern Italy, starting in 568. The Avars and their vassal Slavs subsequently began moving into

432-469: A king of Suevi , by crossing the frozen Danube from the east. These Suevi were at this time in a confederation with the Alemanni , in an Alpine region with streams that flowed loudly into the Danube, Baiuvarii (early Bavarians) on the east, Franks on the west, Burgundians on the south, and Thuringians on the north. This is one of the first mentions of the early Bavarians. They subsequently came to dominate

540-1378: A lesser extent in the Southern Hemisphere. They have different names, historically developed and depending on their geographic distributions: Fraser (in the Pacific Cordillera of North America), Pinedale (in the Central Rocky Mountains ), Wisconsinan or Wisconsin (in central North America), Devensian (in the British Isles), Midlandian (in Ireland), Würm (in the Alps ), Mérida (in Venezuela ), Weichselian or Vistulian (in Northern Europe and northern Central Europe), Valdai in Russia and Zyryanka in Siberia , Llanquihue in Chile , and Otira in New Zealand. The geochronological Late Pleistocene includes

648-438: A letter mentioning that many of the peoples from around the region east of Austria, even from within the empire, were occupying Gaul at that time: "Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and—alas! for the commonweal!—even Pannonians". There was a short period of stability around 431. In 427 the chronicle of Marcellinus Comes says that the provinces of Pannonia, "which had been held by

756-624: A major defeat to the Goths, Alans and Huns at the Battle of Adrianople , which was caused by a sudden movement of peoples coming from present-day Ukraine. The Romans recovered control, but the Romans were apparently forced to try new approaches to settling newcomers in large numbers. One of the armed groups responsible for the defeat, led by Alatheus and Saphrax , were settled into the Pannonian part of

864-527: A result of melting ice, the land has continued to rise yearly in Scandinavia, mostly in northern Sweden and Finland, where the land is rising at a rate of as much as 8–9 mm per year, or 1 m in 100 years. This is important for archaeologists, since a site that was coastal in the Nordic Stone Age now is inland and can be dated by its relative distance from the present shore. The term Würm

972-458: A single ice age given the continual presence of ice sheets near both poles. Glacials are somewhat better defined, as colder phases during which glaciers advance, separated by relatively warm interglacials . The end of the last glacial period, which was about 10,000 years ago, is often called the end of the ice age, although extensive year-round ice persists in Antarctica and Greenland . Over

1080-797: A still lesser extent, glaciers existed in Africa, for example in the High Atlas , the mountains of Morocco , the Mount Atakor massif in southern Algeria , and several mountains in Ethiopia . Just south of the equator, an ice cap of several hundred square kilometers was present on the east African mountains in the Kilimanjaro massif , Mount Kenya , and the Rwenzori Mountains , which still bear relic glaciers today. Glaciation of

1188-605: Is derived from a river in the Alpine foreland, roughly marking the maximum glacier advance of this particular glacial period. The Alps were where the first systematic scientific research on ice ages was conducted by Louis Agassiz at the beginning of the 19th century. Here, the Würm glaciation of the LGP was intensively studied. Pollen analysis , the statistical analyses of microfossilized plant pollens found in geological deposits, chronicled

SECTION 10

#1732764954133

1296-655: Is ongoing. The glaciation and the current Quaternary Period both began with the formation of the Arctic ice cap . The Antarctic ice sheet began to form earlier, at about 34 Mya, in the mid- Cenozoic ( Eocene–Oligocene extinction event ), and the term Late Cenozoic Ice Age is used to include this early phase with the current glaciation. The previous ice age within the Quaternary is the Penultimate Glacial Period , which ended about 128,000 years ago,

1404-699: Is represented by the Hallstatt culture , which succeeded the Urnfield culture, under influences from the Mediterranean civilizations and Steppe peoples. This gradually transitioned into the Celtic La Tène culture . This early Iron Age culture is named after Hallstatt the type site in Upper Austria . The culture is often described in two zones, Western and Eastern, through which flowed

1512-714: The Avar March , corresponding roughly to present day Lower Austria , bordered by the rivers Enns , Raab and Drava , while to the south lay the March of Carinthia . Both marches were collectively referred to as the Marcha orientalis (Eastern March), a prefecture of the Duchy of Bavaria. In 805, the Avars, with Charlemagne's permission, led by the Avar Khagan, settled south-eastward from Vienna . A new threat appeared in 862,

1620-652: The Bronze Age fortifications were appearing, protecting the commercial centers of the mining, processing, and trading of copper and tin . This flourishing culture is reflected in the grave artifacts, such as at Pitten, in Nußdorf ob der Traisen , Lower Austria. In the late Bronze Age appeared the Urnfield culture , in which salt mining commenced in the northern salt mines at Hallstatt . The Iron Age in Austria

1728-714: The Burgenland (e.g., Oberpullendorf ) high-quality iron ore was mined and processed, then exported to the Romans as ferrum noricum ( Noric iron ). This led to the creation of a Roman trading outpost on the Magdalensberg in the early 1st century b.c. , later replaced by the Roman town Virunum. Fortified hilltop settlements , e.g. Kulm (east Styria ), Idunum (mod. Villach ), Burg ( Schwarzenbach ), and Braunsberg ( Hainburg ), were centers of public life. Some cities, such as Linz , date back to this period also. During

1836-647: The Carnic Alps arriving at Virunum in Noricum, as had been agreed to by the Roman general Stilicho , following several skirmishes between the two. Alaric was voted a large amount of money to maintain peace, by the Roman Senate, at Stilicho 's instigation. From there he directed his operations against Italy, demanding Noricum among another territory, finally sacking Rome in 410 but dying on the route home that year. During this period, in 409, Saint Jerome wrote

1944-684: The Enns River . Bavaria became a Margraviate under Engeldeo (890–895) and was re-established as a Duchy under Arnulf the Bad (907–937) who united it with the Duchy of Carinthia , occupying most of the eastern alps. This proved short lived. His son Eberhard (937–938) found himself in conflict with the German King, Otto I (Otto the Great) who deposed him. The next Duke was Henry I (947–955), who

2052-752: The German Reich . Engelbert Dollfuss accepted that most Austrians were German and Austrian, but wanted Austria to remain independent from Germany. In 1938, Austrian-born Adolf Hitler annexed Austria to Germany , which was supported by a large majority of Austrians . After the German defeat in World War II, the German identity in Austria was weakened. Ten years after the Second World War Austria again became an independent republic as

2160-798: The House of Habsburg and House of Habsburg-Lorraine from 1273 to 1918. In 1806, when Emperor Francis II of Austria dissolved the Holy Roman Empire, Austria became the Austrian Empire , and was also part of the German Confederation until the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. In 1867, Austria formed a dual monarchy with Hungary: the Austro-Hungarian Empire . When this empire collapsed after

2268-801: The Hungarians , following the pattern of displacement from more eastern territories by superior forces. By 896 the Hungarians were present in large numbers on the Hungarian Plain from which they raided the Frankish domains. They defeated the Moravians and in 907 defeated the Bavarians at the Battle of Pressburg and by 909 had overrun the marches forcing the Franks and Bavarians back to

SECTION 20

#1732764954133

2376-735: The Ice Age , so human habitation dates no earlier than the Middle Paleolithic era, during the time of the Neanderthals . The oldest traces of human habitation in Austria, more than 250,000 years ago, were found in the Repolust Cave at Badl, near Peggau in the Graz-Umgebung district of Styria . These include stone tools, bone tools, and pottery fragments together with mammalian remains. Some 70,000-year-old evidence

2484-542: The Lake Constance area to the west occupied by the Alemanni ( Vorarlberg ). Pockets of the Celto-Romanic population persisted, such as around Salzburg , and Roman place names persisted, such as Juvavum (Salzburg). In addition this population was distinguished by Christianity and by their language, a Latin dialect ( Romansch ). Salzburg was already a bishopric (739), and by 798 an archbishopric. Although

2592-695: The Last glacial cycle , occurred from the end of the Last Interglacial to the beginning of the Holocene , c.  115,000  – c.  11,700 years ago, and thus corresponds to most of the timespan of the Late Pleistocene . The LGP is part of a larger sequence of glacial and interglacial periods known as the Quaternary glaciation which started around 2,588,000 years ago and

2700-607: The Lesotho Highlands and parts of the Drakensberg . The development of glaciers was likely aided in part due to shade provided by adjacent cliffs. Various moraines and former glacial niches have been identified in the eastern Lesotho Highlands a few kilometres west of the Great Escarpment , at altitudes greater than 3,000 m on south-facing slopes. Studies suggest that the annual average temperature in

2808-711: The Mauer neighborhood of the southern Vienna district of Liesing dates from this period. In the Lengyel culture , which followed Linear Pottery in Lower Austria, circular ditches were constructed. Traces of the Copper Age in Austria were identified in the Carpathian Basin hoard at Stollhof , Hohe Wand , Lower Austria. Hilltop settlements from this era are common in eastern Austria. During this time

2916-406: The Neolithic era, most of those areas of Austria that were amenable to agriculture and were sources of raw materials were settled. Remains include those of the Linear pottery culture , one of the first agrarian cultures in Europe. The first recorded rural settlement from this time was at Brunn am Gebirge in Mödling . Austria's first industrial monument, the chert mine at Mauer-Antonshöhe in

3024-462: The Owen Stanley Range , and the Saruwaged Range . Mount Giluwe in the Central Cordillera had a "more or less continuous ice cap covering about 188 km and extending down to 3200-3500 m". In Western New Guinea , remnants of these glaciers are still preserved atop Puncak Jaya and Ngga Pilimsit . Small glaciers developed in a few favorable places in Southern Africa during the last glacial period. These small glaciers would have been located in

3132-418: The Roman empire , the territory of present day Austria corresponded roughly with the Roman province of Noricum which was annexed by the empire around 15 BC, beginning 500 years of "Austria Romana" (as it became known in the 19th century). The western and eastern extremities of present day Austria were within the Roman provinces of Raetia , and Pannonia . During Emperor Claudius 's reign (41–54 AD), Noricum

3240-432: The Second Austrian Republic in 1955. Austria joined the European Union in 1995. Since the territory understood by the term 'Austria' underwent drastic changes over time, dealing with a History of Austria raises a number of questions, e.g., whether it is confined to the current or former Republic of Austria, or extends also to all lands formerly ruled by the rulers of Austria. Furthermore, should Austrian history include

3348-417: The Sierra Nevada in northern California . In northern Eurasia, the Scandinavian ice sheet once again reached the northern parts of the British Isles , Germany , Poland , and Russia, extending as far east as the Taymyr Peninsula in western Siberia. The maximum extent of western Siberian glaciation was reached by about 18,000 to 17,000 BP, later than in Europe (22,000–18,000 BP). Northeastern Siberia

West Galician Code - Misplaced Pages Continue

3456-469: The Upper Mississippi River , which in turn was formed during an earlier glacial period. In its retreat, the Wisconsin episode glaciation left terminal moraines that form Long Island , Block Island , Cape Cod , Nomans Land , Martha's Vineyard , Nantucket , Sable Island , and the Oak Ridges Moraine in south-central Ontario, Canada. In Wisconsin itself, it left the Kettle Moraine . The drumlins and eskers formed at its melting edge are landmarks of

3564-416: The Younger Dryas , began around 12,800 years ago and ended around 11,700 years ago, also marking the end of the LGP and the Pleistocene epoch. It was followed by the Holocene , the current geological epoch . The LGP is often colloquially referred to as the "last ice age", though the term ice age is not strictly defined, and on a longer geological perspective, the last few million years could be termed

3672-400: The grooves left by these glaciers can be easily observed. In southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta, a suture zone between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets formed the Cypress Hills , which is the northernmost point in North America that remained south of the continental ice sheets. The Great Lakes are the result of glacial scour and pooling of meltwater at the rim of

3780-475: The isostatically depressed area, a temporary marine incursion that geologists dub the Yoldia Sea . Then, as postglacial isostatic rebound lifted the region about 9500 BP, the deepest basin of the Baltic became a freshwater lake, in palaeological contexts referred to as Ancylus Lake , which is identifiable in the freshwater fauna found in sediment cores. The lake was filled by glacial runoff, but as worldwide sea level continued rising, saltwater again breached

3888-406: The 6th century, the Bavarii , a Germanic people, occupied these lands until it fell to the Frankish Empire established by the Germanic Franks in the 9th century. The name Ostarrîchi (Austria) has been in use since 996 AD when it was a margravate of the Duchy of Bavaria and from 1156 an independent duchy (later archduchy ) of the Holy Roman Empire (962–1806). Austria was dominated by

3996-410: The Alpine foreland . Local ice fields or small ice sheets could be found capping the highest massifs of the Pyrenees , the Carpathian Mountains , the Balkan Mountains , the Caucasus , and the mountains of Turkey and Iran . In the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau , there is evidence that glaciers advanced considerably, particularly between 47,000 and 27,000 BP, but the exact ages, as well as

4104-470: The Bavarians extended south to later-known South Tyrol , and east to the Enns . The administrative center was at Regensburg . Those groups mixed with the Rhaeto-Romanic population and pushed it up into the mountains along the Puster Valley . In the south of modern Austria, Slavs had settled in the valleys of the Drava, Mura and Save by 600. The westward Slavic migration stopped further Bavarian migration eastwards by 610. Their most westward expansion

4212-524: The Center for Arctic Gas Hydrate, Environment and Climate at the University of Tromsø , published a study in June 2017 describing over a hundred ocean sediment craters, some 3,000 m wide and up to 300 m deep, formed by explosive eruptions of methane from destabilized methane hydrates , following ice-sheet retreat during the LGP, around 12,000 years ago. These areas around the Barents Sea still seep methane today. The study hypothesized that existing bulges containing methane reservoirs could eventually have

4320-449: The Danube soon afterwards. The Laterculus Veronensis shows that Heruli and Rugii were already present somewhere in western Europe in about 314. Similar listings from later in the 4th century, the Cosmographia of Julius Honorius , and probably also the Liber Generationis , both listed the Heruli together with the Marcomanni and Quadi, in whose traditional region the Herule kingdom would later be found. In 380 AD, Roman forces suffered

4428-428: The Eastern Alps in the wake of the expansion of their Avar overlords during the 7th century, mixed with the Celto-Romanic population, and established the realm of Carantania (later Carinthia ), which covered much of eastern and central Austrian territory and was the first independent Slavic state in Europe, centered at Zollfeld . Together with the indigenous population they were able to resist further encroachment of

West Galician Code - Misplaced Pages Continue

4536-415: The Frankish west, such as Rupert and Virgil of the Hiberno-Scottish mission . After centuries of tension and war on the Danube border which ran through present day Austria, the power of the Marcomanni seems to have been broken by 300 AD. Many, perhaps most of them, had been moved within the empire. It seems that the Rugii and Heruli may have already moved into the Marcomanni's traditional region north of

4644-411: The Franks and Bavarians against the eastern Avars in 791, so that by 803 they had fallen back to the east of the Fischa and Leitha rivers. These conquests enabled the establishment of a system of defensive marches (military borderlands) from the Danube to the Adriatic. By around 800, Österreich, the "Kingdom of the East," had been joined to the Holy Roman Empire. Among these was an eastern march,

4752-453: The Germanic Bavarians steadily replaced Romansch as the main language, they adopted many Roman customs and became increasingly Christianized. Similarly in the east, German replaced the Slavic language. The March of Austria's neighbours were the Duchy of Bavaria to the west, the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland to the North, the Kingdom of Hungary to the east and the Duchy of Carinthia to the south. In this setting, Austria, still subject to Bavaria

4860-474: The Greenland climate was dry during the LGP, with precipitation reaching perhaps only 20% of today's value. The name Mérida glaciation is proposed to designate the alpine glaciation that affected the central Venezuelan Andes during the Late Pleistocene. Two main moraine levels have been recognized - one with an elevation of 2,600–2,700 m (8,500–8,900 ft), and another with an elevation of 3,000–3,500 m (9,800–11,500 ft). The snow line during

4968-426: The Huns for fifty years, were reclaimed by the Romans". However, in 433 Flavius Aëtius effectively ceded Pannonia to Attila . In 451 the Huns and their allies, now under the command of Attila must have poured through the area on their way to Gaul where they were defeated the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains that year. Attila died a few years later in 453, and this was followed by the Battle of Nedao in 454, when

5076-454: The Imperial family. Leopold then concentrated on pacifying the nobility. His monastic foundations, particularly Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz , led to his posthumous canonisation in 1458, and he became Austria's patron saint . Leopold III was succeeded by his son, Leopold IV 'The Generous' (1137–1141). Leopold further enhanced the status of Austria by also becoming Duke of Bavaria in 1139, as Leopold I. Bavaria itself had been in

5184-570: The LGP as the Devensian . Irish geologists, geographers, and archaeologists refer to the Midlandian glaciation, as its effects in Ireland are largely visible in the Irish Midlands . The name Devensian is derived from the Latin Dēvenses , people living by the Dee ( Dēva in Latin), a river on the Welsh border near which deposits from the period are particularly well represented. The effects of this glaciation can be seen in many geological features of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland . Its deposits have been found overlying material from

5292-505: The North American Laurentide ice sheet. At the height of glaciation, the Bering land bridge potentially permitted migration of mammals, including people, to North America from Siberia . It radically altered the geography of North America north of the Ohio River . At the height of the Wisconsin episode glaciation, ice covered most of Canada, the Upper Midwest , and New England , as well as parts of Montana and Washington . On Kelleys Island in Lake Erie or in New York's Central Park ,

5400-403: The Pannonian area, having previously established themselves from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans . After the Avars suffered setbacks in the east in 626, the Slavs rebelled, establishing their own territories. The Carantanians (Alpine Slavs) elected a Bavarian, Odilo, as their Count, and successfully resisted further Avar subjugation. The Carantanians migrated westward along the Drava into

5508-410: The Polish River Vistula or its German name Weichsel). Evidence suggests that the ice sheets were at their maximum size for only a short period, between 25,000 and 13,000 BP. Eight interstadials have been recognized in the Weichselian, including the Oerel, Glinde, Moershoofd, Hengelo, and Denekamp. Correlation with isotope stages is still in process. During the glacial maximum in Scandinavia, only

SECTION 50

#1732764954133

5616-556: The Roman empire, including the east of Austria, and expected to do military service for Rome. As the Roman Empire's control over these border regions crumbled, the ability of Raetia, Noricum, and Pannonia to defend themselves became increasingly problematic. The Gothic leader Radagaisus overran part of the country in 405. After several raids on Italy, the Visigoths arrived in Noricum in 408, under Alaric I . As described by Zosimus , Alaric set out from Emona (modern Ljubljana ) which lay between Pannonia Superior and Noricum over

5724-463: The Slavs maintained their language and identity until the early 20th century, when assimilation reduced them to a small minority. Bavarian relationship with the Franks varied, achieving temporary independence by 717, only to be subjugated by Charles Martel . Finally Charlemagne (Emperor 800–814) deposed the last Agilolfing duke, Tassilo III , assuming direct Carolingian control in 788, with non-hereditary Bavarian kings. Charlemagne subsequently led

5832-437: The Southern Hemisphere was less extensive. Ice sheets existed in the Andes ( Patagonian Ice Sheet ), where six glacier advances between 33,500 and 13,900 BP in the Chilean Andes have been reported. Antarctica was entirely glaciated, much like today, but unlike today the ice sheet left no uncovered area. In mainland Australia only a very small area in the vicinity of Mount Kosciuszko was glaciated, whereas in Tasmania glaciation

5940-452: The Wisconsin episode. It began about 30,000 years ago, reached its greatest advance 21,000 years ago, and ended about 10,000 years ago. In northwest Greenland, ice coverage attained a very early maximum in the LGP around 114,000. After this early maximum, ice coverage was similar to today until the end of the last glacial period. Towards the end, glaciers advanced once more before retreating to their present extent. According to ice core data,

6048-400: The dramatic changes in the European environment during the Würm glaciation. During the height of Würm glaciation, c.  24,000  – c.  10,000  BP, most of western and central Europe and Eurasia was open steppe-tundra, while the Alps presented solid ice fields and montane glaciers. Scandinavia and much of Britain were under ice. During the Würm, the Rhône Glacier covered

6156-464: The end of World War I in 1918, Austria was reduced to the main, mostly German-speaking areas of the empire (its current frontiers), and adopted the name, the Republic of German-Austria . However, union with Germany and the chosen country name were forbidden by the Allies at the Treaty of Versailles . This led to the creation of the First Austrian Republic (1919–1933). Following the First Republic, Austrofascism tried to keep Austria independent from

6264-466: The first-recorded local tribal ( Taurisci , Ambidravi , Ambisontes ) and place names. Out of this arose Noricum (2nd century to c . 15 b.c. ) – a confederation of Alpine Celtic tribes (traditionally twelve) under the leadership of the Norici . It was confined to present-day southern and eastern Austria and part of Slovenia . The West was settled by the Raeti . Dürrnberg and Hallein (Salzburg) were Celtic salt settlements. In eastern Styria and

6372-423: The formation of a single contiguous ice sheet on the Tibetan Plateau, is controversial. Other areas of the Northern Hemisphere did not bear extensive ice sheets, but local glaciers were widespread at high altitudes. Parts of Taiwan , for example, were repeatedly glaciated between 44,250 and 10,680 BP as well as the Japanese Alps . In both areas, maximum glacier advance occurred between 60,000 and 30,000 BP. To

6480-485: The hands of the Welf (Guelph) dynasty, who were pitted against the Hohenstaufen . The latter came to the imperial throne in 1138 in the person of Conrad III (1138–1152); the Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Proud , was himself a candidate for the imperial crown and disputed the election of Conrad, and was subsequently deprived of the Duchy, which was given to Leopold IV. When Leopold died, his lands were inherited by his brother Henry II (Heinrich Jasomirgott) (1141–1177). In

6588-402: The history of Austria and its predecessor states. In the late Iron Age Austria was occupied by people of the Hallstatt Celtic culture ( c. 800 BC), they first organized as a Celtic kingdom referred to by the Romans as Noricum , dating from c. 800 to 400 BC. At the end of the 1st century BC, the lands south of the Danube became part of the Roman Empire . In the Migration Period ,

SECTION 60

#1732764954133

6696-408: The inhabitants sought out and developed raw materials in the central Alpine areas. The most important find is considered to be the Iceman Ötzi , a well-preserved mummy of a man frozen in the Alps dating from approximately 3,300 BC, although these finds are now in Italy on the Austrian border. Another culture is the Mondsee group , represented by stilt houses in the Alpine lakes. By the beginning of

6804-447: The last glacial advance was lowered approximately 1,200 m (3,900 ft) below the present snow line, which is 3,700 m (12,100 ft). The glaciated area in the Cordillera de Mérida was about 600 km (230 sq mi); this included these high areas, from southwest to northeast: Páramo de Tamá, Páramo Batallón, Páramo Los Conejos, Páramo Piedras Blancas, and Teta de Niquitao. Around 200 km (77 sq mi) of

6912-444: The last glacial maximum, the Patagonian ice sheet extended over the Andes from about 35°S to Tierra del Fuego at 55°S. The western part appears to have been very active, with wet basal conditions, while the eastern part was cold-based. Cryogenic features such as ice wedges , patterned ground , pingos , rock glaciers , palsas , soil cryoturbation , and solifluction deposits developed in unglaciated extra-Andean Patagonia during

7020-442: The late glacial (Weichselian) and the immediately preceding penultimate interglacial ( Eemian ) period. Canada was almost completely covered by ice, as was the northern part of the United States , both blanketed by the huge Laurentide Ice Sheet . Alaska remained mostly ice free due to arid climate conditions. Local glaciations existed in the Rocky Mountains and the Cordilleran ice sheet and as ice fields and ice caps in

7128-401: The lower Connecticut River Valley . In the Sierra Nevada , three stages of glacial maxima, sometimes incorrectly called ice ages , were separated by warmer periods. These glacial maxima are called, from oldest to youngest, Tahoe, Tenaya, and Tioga. The Tahoe reached its maximum extent perhaps about 70,000 years ago. Little is known about the Tenaya. The Tioga was the least severe and last of

7236-448: The main Wisconsin glacial advance. The upper level probably represents the last glacial advance (Late Wisconsin). The Llanquihue glaciation takes its name from Llanquihue Lake in southern Chile , which is a fan-shaped piedmont glacial lake. On the lake's western shores, large moraine systems occur, of which the innermost belong to the LGP. Llanquihue Lake's varves are a node point in southern Chile's varve geochronology . During

7344-409: The mark". The first recorded instance of the name 'Austria' appeared in 996, in a document of King Otto III written as Ostarrîchi , referring to the territory of the Babenberg March. In addition, for a long time the form Osterlant was in use, the inhabitants being referred to as Ostermann or Osterfrau . The Latinized name Austria applied to this area appears in the 12th Century writings in

7452-430: The massive Missoula Floods . USGS geologists estimate that the cycle of flooding and reformation of the lake lasted an average of 55 years and that the floods occurred about 40 times over the 2,000-year period starting 15,000 years ago. Glacial lake outburst floods such as these are not uncommon today in Iceland and other places. The Wisconsin glacial episode was the last major advance of continental glaciers in

7560-425: The meantime, Conrad had been succeeded as emperor by his nephew Frederick I Barbarossa (1155–1190), who was descended from both the Welfs and Hohenstauffens and sought to end the conflicts within Germany. To this end he returned Bavaria to the Welfs in 1156, but as compensation elevated Austria to a duchy through an instrument known as the Privilegium Minus . Henry II thus became Duke of Austria in exchange for losing

7668-410: The modern Klagenfurt ), Teurnia (near Spittal ), and Lauriacum ( Enns ). Archaeological sites from the Roman period include Kleinklein (Styria) and Zollfeld ( Magdalensberg ). Christianity appeared in Austria in the 2nd century, prompting Church organization that can be traced back to the 4th century. After the arrival of the Bavarii , Austria became the object of new missionary efforts from

7776-502: The mountains of Southern Africa was about 6 °C colder than at present, in line with temperature drops estimated for Tasmania and southern Patagonia during the same time. This resulted in an environment of relatively arid periglaciation without permafrost , but with deep seasonal freezing on south-facing slopes. Periglaciation in the eastern Drakensberg and Lesotho Highlands produced solifluction deposits and blockfields ; including blockstreams and stone garlands. Scientists from

7884-591: The neighboring Franks and Avars in the southeastern Alps. Meanwhile, the Germanic tribe of the Bavarii ( Frankish vassals), had developed in the 5th and 6th century in the west of the country and in later-known Bavaria , while Alemans had settled in later-known Vorarlberg . In the northern alps the Bavarians were established as a stem dukedom by around 550, under Agilolfing rule until 788 as an eastern Frankish Empire outpost. Those lands that were occupied by

7992-655: The past few million years, the glacial-interglacial cycles have been "paced" by periodic variations in the Earth's orbit via Milankovitch cycles . The LGP has been intensively studied in North America, northern Eurasia, the Himalayas , and other formerly glaciated regions around the world. The glaciations that occurred during this glacial period covered many areas, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere and to

8100-478: The period 1938–1945, when it nominally did not exist? Of the lands now part of the second Republic of Austria, many were added over time – only two of the nine provinces (Lower and Upper Austria) are strictly 'Austria', while other parts of its former sovereign territory are now part of other countries e.g., Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and Czechia. Within Austria there are regionally and temporally varying affinities to adjacent countries. The Alps were inaccessible during

8208-745: The preceding Ipswichian stage and lying beneath those from the following Holocene , which is the current stage. This is sometimes called the Flandrian interglacial in Britain. The latter part of the Devensian includes pollen zones I–IV, the Allerød oscillation and Bølling oscillation , and the Oldest Dryas , Older Dryas , and Younger Dryas cold periods. Alternative names include Weichsel glaciation or Vistulian glaciation (referring to

8316-557: The proglacial rivers' shifting and redepositing gravels. Beneath the surface, they had profound and lasting influence on geothermal heat and the patterns of deep groundwater flow. The Pinedale (central Rocky Mountains) or Fraser (Cordilleran ice sheet) glaciation was the last of the major glaciations to appear in the Rocky Mountains in the United States. The Pinedale lasted from around 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, and

8424-606: The province of Raetia . Present day Burgenland in the east was in Pannonia. To the south was Region 10, Venetia et Histria . The Danubian limes , formed a defensive line separating Upper and Lower Austria from Germanic tribes , most importantly the Marcomanni . The Romans built many Austrian cities that survive today. They include Vindobona ( Vienna ), Juvavum ( Salzburg ), Valdidena ( Innsbruck ), and Brigantium ( Bregenz ). Other important towns were Virunum (north of

8532-529: The receding ice. When the enormous mass of the continental ice sheet retreated, the Great Lakes began gradually moving south due to isostatic rebound of the north shore. Niagara Falls is also a product of the glaciation, as is the course of the Ohio River, which largely supplanted the prior Teays River . With the assistance of several very broad glacial lakes, it released floods through the gorge of

8640-470: The rest. However they embarked on a programme of consolidating their power base. One such method was to employ indentures servants such as the Kuenringern family as Ministeriales and given considerable military and administrative duties. They survived as a dynasty through good fortune and skill at power politics, in that era dominated by the continual struggle between emperor and papacy . The path

8748-800: The rivers Enns , Ybbs and Inn . The West Hallstatt area was in contact with the Greek colonies on the Ligurian coast. In the Alps, contacts with the Etruscans and under Greek influence regions in Italy were maintained. The East had close links with the Steppe Peoples who had passed over the Carpathian Basin from the southern Russian steppes. The population of Hallstatt drew its wealth from

8856-554: The salt industry. Imports of luxury goods stretching from the North and Baltic seas to Africa have been discovered in the cemetery at Hallstatt. The oldest evidence of an Austrian wine industry was discovered in Zagersdorf , Burgenland in a grave mound. The Cult Wagon of Strettweg , Styria is evidence of contemporary religious life. In the later Iron Age , the Celtic La Tène culture spread to Austria. This culture gave rise to

8964-550: The same area, a double infant burial site was discovered at Krems-Wachtberg, dating from Gravettian culture (27,000 years old), the oldest burial ground found in Austria to date. Mesolithic remains include rock shelters (abris) from Lake Constance and the Alpine Rhine Valley , a funeral site at Elsbethen and a few other sites with microlithic artifacts which demonstrate the transition from living as hunter-gatherers and sedentary farmers and ranchers. During

9072-399: The same fate. During the last glacial period, Antarctica was blanketed by a massive ice sheet, much as it is today. The ice covered all land areas and extended into the ocean onto the middle and outer continental shelf. Counterintuitively though, according to ice modeling done in 2002, ice over central East Antarctica was generally thinner than it is today. British geologists refer to

9180-472: The sill about 8000 BP, forming a marine Littorina Sea , which was followed by another freshwater phase before the present brackish marine system was established. "At its present state of development, the marine life of the Baltic Sea is less than about 4000 years old", Drs. Thulin and Andrushaitis remarked when reviewing these sequences in 2003. Overlying ice had exerted pressure on the Earth's surface. As

9288-670: The sons of Attila and their Ostrogothic allies were defeated, The victors were able to consolidate independent kingdoms north of the Middle Danube. North of the Danube in present day Austria where the Marcomanni had been were the Rugii, and Heruli. In 468 the Ostrogoths won the Battle of Bolia , giving them hegemony over the Pannonian kingdoms. During the cold winter of 469/470, the Ostrogoths unexpectedly attacked Hunimund ,

9396-512: The status of Duchy in 1180. However the territory of the Duchy of Styria extended far beyond the current state of Styria , including parts of present-day Slovenia ( Lower Styria ), and also parts of Upper Austria (the Traungau, the area around Wels and Steyr ) and Lower Austria (the county of Pitten , today's districts of Wiener Neustadt and Neunkirchen ). Last Glacial Period The Last Glacial Period ( LGP ), also known as

9504-480: The surrounding ice sheets. According to the sediment composition retrieved from deep-sea cores , even times of seasonally open waters must have occurred. Outside the main ice sheets, widespread glaciation occurred on the highest mountains of the Alpide belt . In contrast to the earlier glacial stages, the Würm glaciation was composed of smaller ice caps and mostly confined to valley glaciers, sending glacial lobes into

9612-537: The territory eastward along the Danube valley, so that by 1002 it reached Vienna . The eastward expansion was finally halted by the newly Christianized Hungarians in 1030, when King Stephen (1001–1038) of Hungary defeated the Emperor, Conrad II (1024–1039) at Vienna. A 'core' territory had finally been established. The land contained the remnant of many prior civilisations, but the Bavarians predominated, except in

9720-582: The time of Leopold III (1095–1136). (compare Austrasia as the name for the north-eastern part of the Frankish Empire). The term Ostmark is not historically certain and appears to be a translation of marchia orientalis that came up only much later. The Babenbergs pursued a policy of settling the country, clearing forests and founding towns and monasteries. They ruled the March from Pöchlarn initially, and later from Melk , continually expanding

9828-506: The title of Duke of Bavaria. Austria was now an independent dominion within the Holy Roman Empire, and Henry moved his official residence to Vienna that year. In 1186 the Georgenberg Pact bequeathed Austria's southern neighbour, the Duchy of Styria to Austria upon the death of the childless Duke of Styria, Ottokar IV , which occurred in 1192. Styria had been carved out of the northern marches of Carinthia , and only raised to

9936-509: The total glaciated area was in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida , and of that amount, the largest concentration, 50 km (19 sq mi), was in the areas of Pico Bolívar , Pico Humboldt [4,942 m (16,214 ft)], and Pico Bonpland [4,983 m (16,348 ft)]. Radiocarbon dating indicates that the moraines are older than 10,000 BP, and probably older than 13,000 BP. The lower moraine level probably corresponds to

10044-464: The western alpine parts of present day western Austria. In 476 Odoacer became ruler of Italy with barbarian forces including Heruli and Rugii, and other peoples from the Danubian region. Remnants of the Roman organization survived south of the Danube in the form of fortified strongholds, but the barbarians raided frequently, as described in the biography Severinus of Noricum by Eugippius . Noricum

10152-604: The western parts of Jutland were ice-free, and a large part of what is today the North Sea was dry land connecting Jutland with Britain (see Doggerland ). The Baltic Sea , with its unique brackish water , is a result of meltwater from the Weichsel glaciation combining with saltwater from the North Sea when the straits between Sweden and Denmark opened. Initially, when the ice began melting about 10,300 BP, seawater filled

10260-728: The whole western Swiss plateau, reaching today's regions of Solothurn and Aargau. In the region of Bern, it merged with the Aar glacier. The Rhine Glacier is currently the subject of the most detailed studies. Glaciers of the Reuss and the Limmat advanced sometimes as far as the Jura. Montane and piedmont glaciers formed the land by grinding away virtually all traces of the older Günz and Mindel glaciation, by depositing base moraines and terminal moraines of different retraction phases and loess deposits, and by

10368-537: Was Otto's brother. In 955 Otto successfully forced back the Hungarians at the Battle of Lechfeld , beginning a slow reconquest of the eastern lands, including Istria and Carniola . During the reign of Henry's son, Henry II (the Quarrelsome) (955–976) Otto became the first Holy Roman Emperor (962) and Bavaria became a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire . Otto I re-established the eastern march, and

10476-523: Was a relatively small player. The Babenberg Margraves controlled very little of modern Austria. Salzburg, historically part of Bavaria became an ecclesiastical territory, while Styria was part of the Carinthian Duchy. The Babenbergs had relatively small holdings, with not only Salzburg but the lands of the Diocese of Passau lying in the hands of the church, and the nobility controlling much of

10584-521: Was at its greatest extent between 23,500 and 21,000 years ago. This glaciation was somewhat distinct from the main Wisconsin glaciation, as it was only loosely related to the giant ice sheets and was instead composed of mountain glaciers, merging into the Cordilleran ice sheet. The Cordilleran ice sheet produced features such as glacial Lake Missoula , which broke free from its ice dam, causing

10692-534: Was bounded on the east approximately by the Vienna Woods , the current eastern border of Styria , and parts of the Danube , Eisack , Drava rivers. Under Diocletian (284–305), Noricum was divided along the main Alpine ridge into a north ( Noricum ripense ) and a south ( Noricum Mediterraneum ). Across the Ziller in the west, corresponding approximately to the present provinces of Vorarlberg and Tyrol , lay

10800-628: Was eventually abandoned in 488, while Raetia was abandoned by the Romans to the Alamanni . In 493 Theoderic the Great , an Ostrogothic king, killed Odoacer and took control of Italy. By 500 the Herulian kingdom on the Danube, apparently by now under a king named Rodulph, had conquered their neighbours the Rugii, and become allies with Theoderic in Italy. In 508 Rodulph was killed by the Langobards ,

10908-646: Was found in the Gudenus Cave in northwestern Lower Austria. Upper Paleolithic remains are more numerous in Lower Austria. The best known are in the Wachau region, including the sites of the two oldest pieces of art in Austria. These are figurative representations of women, the Venus of Galgenberg found near Stratzing and thought to be 32,000 years old, and the nearby Venus of Willendorf (26,000 years old) found at Willendorf , near Krems an der Donau . In 2005 in

11016-474: Was later incorporated into the Carolingian empire , first as a tribal margravate under Slavic dukes and, after the failed rebellion of Ljudevit Posavski in the early 9th century, under Frankish-appointed noblemen. During the following centuries, Bavarian settlers went down the Danube and up the Alps, a process through which Austria was to become a mostly German-speaking country. Only in southern Carinthia,

11124-658: Was more severe than the Last Glacial Period in some areas such as Britain, but less severe in others. The last glacial period saw alternating episodes of glacier advance and retreat with the Last Glacial Maximum occurring between 26,000 and 20,000 years ago. While the general pattern of cooling and glacier advance around the globe was similar, local differences make it difficult to compare the details from continent to continent (see picture of ice core data below for differences). The most recent cooling,

11232-537: Was more widespread. An ice sheet formed in New Zealand, covering all of the Southern Alps, where at least three glacial advances can be distinguished. Local ice caps existed in the highest mountains of the island of New Guinea , where temperatures were 5 to 6 °C colder than at present. The main areas of Papua New Guinea where glaciers developed during the LGP were the Central Cordillera ,

11340-595: Was not always smooth. The fifth Margrave, Leopold II 'The Fair' (1075–1095) was temporarily deposed by the Emperor Henry IV (1084–1105) after finding himself on the wrong side of the Investiture Dispute . However Leopold's son, Leopold III 'The Good' (1095–1136) backed Henry's rebellious son, Henry V (1111–1125), contributed to his victory and was rewarded with the hand of Henry's sister Agnes von Waiblingen in 1106, thus allying himself with

11448-512: Was not covered by a continental-scale ice sheet. Instead, large, but restricted, icefield complexes covered mountain ranges within northeast Siberia, including the Kamchatka-Koryak Mountains. The Arctic Ocean between the huge ice sheets of America and Eurasia was not frozen throughout, but like today, probably was covered only by relatively shallow ice, subject to seasonal changes and riddled with icebergs calving from

11556-522: Was reached in 650 at the Puster Valley , but gradually fell back to the Enns by 780. The settlement boundary between Slavs and Bavarians roughly corresponds to a line from Freistadt through Linz , Salzburg ( Lungau ), to East Tyrol ( Lesachtal ), with Avars and Slavs occupying eastern Austria and modern Bohemia . Carantania, under pressure of the Avars, became a vassal to Bavaria in 745 and

11664-533: Was succeeded by Otto II in 967, and found himself in conflict with Henry who he deposed, allowing him to re-organise the duchies of his empire. Otto considerably reduced Bavaria, re-establishing Carinthia to the south. To the east, he established a new Bavarian Eastern March , subsequently known as Austria, under Leopold , count of Babenberg in 976. Leopold I, also known as Leopold the Illustrious ruled Austria from 976 to 994. The marches were overseen by

#132867