One of the many important consequences of the First World War was the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the last remnant of the once great Habsburg Empire. We cannot truly understand the history of Europe, indeed of much of the world, from the 15th until the 20th centuries without understanding this remarkable dynastic family.
In a concise, and highly readable history of the Habsburgs, Professor Martyn Rady traces their rise from the late 10th century, when they possessed a few villages in the Upper Rhine, to their becoming the dominant political family of much of western and central Europe, the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, and in the 16th and 17thcenturies, the rulers of the world’s first truly global empire. At its peak, the Austrian Habsburg lands included, not only Austria, but Hungary, Bohemia, Serbia, Bosnia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, Milan, Naples, Lombardy-Venetia, Sicily, and Dalmatia (Croatia). And the Spanish Habsburgs ruled Spain, Portugal, the East Indies, territories in Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia, Malta, Oran and much of South and North America (including Los Angeles, California).
Through our study of the Habsburgs, we will meet a fascinating cast of characters, and we will delve into many events that changed the course of history, such as the rise and fall of the Holy Roman Empire, the Thirty Years War, the Renaissance, the division of the empire between the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs, Europe’s struggle against the Ottoman Turks, the exploration of the Americas and Asia by explorers such as Magellan, Pizarro and Cortes, and even World War One.
Although the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 began the slow decline of Habsburg power, the Hapsburgs remained powerful through alliances, marriages, and reforms of governmental institutions within the empire. Our discussions will also include the Habsburg promotion of culture, science, and architecture. From the late-18th century, for example, Vienna, the heart of the Austrian Habsburg empire, was the capital of western music, the home of composers such as Mozart and Beethoven to Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Richard Strauss and, of course, Johann Strauss. We will even read about reports of vampirism within the empire, Habsburg in-breeding, and the infamous Habsburg jaw. Our journey through the extensive breadth and depth of this European dynasty promises to be both exciting and illuminating.
1. Introduction: An emperor's library
Ch. 1. Castle Habsburg and the 'Fortinbras effect'
2. The Holy Roman Empire and the golden king
2. 3. Losing place and forging a past
4. Frederick III: Saturn and Mars
5. Maximilian and the colour-coded kings
6. Charles V: Ruler of the world
3. 7. Hungary, Bohemia, and the Protestant challenge
8. Philip II: The new world, religious dissent, and royal incest
4. 9. Don John and the galleys of Lepanto
10. Rudolf II and the alchemists of Prague
11. The triumph of the heretics
5. 12 Ferdinand II, the holy house, and Bohemia
13. The thirty years 'world war'
14. The abnormal empire and the battle for Vienna
6. 15. Spain's invisible sovereigns and the death of the bewitched king
16 The theatre of the Baroque
17. Maria Theresa, automata, and bureaucrats
7. 18 Merchants, botanists, and Freemasons
19. Vampirism, enlightenment, and the revolution from above
20. Archduchesses and the Habsburg low countries
21 Censors, Jacobins, and The Magic Flute
8. 22. Metternich and the map of Europe
23. 1848: Von Neumann's diary and Radetzky's march
24. Franz Joseph's empire, Sisi, and Hungary
9. 25. Maximilian, Mexico, and royal deaths
26. The politics of discontent and the 1908 jubilee
27. Explorers, Jews, and the world's knowledge
10. 28. The hunter and the hunted: Franz Ferdinand and Bosnia
29. World war and dissolution
Conclusion
Core Book
Rady, Martyn, The Habsburgs : To Rule The World, Basic Books, Hachette Book Group, 2020.
Additional Bibliography
Judson, Pieter M., The Habsburg Empire: A New History, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016.
Kann, Robert A., A history of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918, University of California Press, 1980.
Mitchell, A. Wess, The Grand Strategy of the Hapsburg Empire, Princeton University Press, 2018.
The Habsburg Empire: A New History Paperback – October 1, 2018 by Pieter M. Judson (Author)
Siemann, Wolfram and Steuer, Daniel, Metternich: Strategist and Visionary, President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2019.