Austria
HABSBURG MILITARY MEDIOCRITY – H-WAR
Why was the Habsburg army slower and less brilliant than its European rivals between 1649 and 1918? I am certainly no expert on this topic, having read only very generally on Austrian history, but in the interest of providing a basis of discussion, I’ll posit the following general ideas: 1) The Habsburgs were almost always broke due to shambolic…
Most Recent
Hochkirch, Saxony, 1758 Part II
The battle of Hochkirch, october 14,1758, during the Seven-Yars War between Austria and Prussia, between Empress Maria Theresia and King Friedrich II, over the possession of Silesia and Saxony. Canvas October 10, the Prussian convoy reached Bautzen, and the Prussians at once rose and moved towards the villages and hills…
Hochkirch, Saxony, 1758 Part III
In the meantime, the main column reached its destination—the jumping off point before the Prussian camp—without interference. Laudon, over by Wuischke, was also moving into attack position. Here the marshal’s men stood in three varying columns of troops, waiting for sound of the bell announcing 0500 hours. On his end…
WWI Austro-Hungarian Small Arms Part I
Roth-Steyr Models 1907 and 1912 Austria-Hungary finally moved to replace its aging Rast-Gasser revolvers with the Roth-Steyr 8mm Pistol Model 1907 and the 9mm Steyr Pistol Model 1912. Österreichische Waffenfabrik Gesellschaft (Steyr) manufactured some 60,000 Model 1907s; Fegyvergyr of Budapest produced another 30,000. The Model 1907, or Repetier Pistole M.…
WWI Austro-Hungarian Small Arms Part II
Machine Guns Maxim traveled Europe while demonstrating his weapon. He was accompanied by Albert Vickers, a steel producer from South Kensington who had become intensely interested in Maxim and his invention. In 1887, Maxim took one of his guns to Switzerland for a competition with the Gatling, the Gardner, and…
Habsburgs: Losing Place and Forging a Past
The fourteenth century should have belonged to the Habsburgs. Across Central Europe, the lines of kings and princes faltered. In 1301, the Hungarian Árpád line came to an end; five years later, the Bohemian Přemyslids expired, to whose house Ottokar II had belonged. Then, in 1320, the last of the…
JOSEPH I (HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE) (1678–1711; ruled 1705–1711)
Habsburg emperor. Joseph I’s reign was dominated by the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), which pitted Bourbon France and Spain against the ‘‘Grand Alliance’’ led by Austria and the Maritime Powers. Born to Emperor Leopold I and Eleonore of the Palatinate-Neuburg, Joseph’s upbringing was notable for the absence of…