Table of Contents

Introduction: The belated great power; Part 1 Modest Origins – the Habsburg Monarchy During the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century; Chapter 1 The domestic foundations; Chapter 2 The primacy of power politics; Chapter 3 Home defence; Chapter 4 The standing army; Part 2 Austria’s ‘age of heroes’ 1683–1733; Chapter 5 The Turkish War 1683–1699; Chapter 6 The Nine Years War 1689–1697; Chapter 7 The War of the Spanish Succession 1701–1714; Chapter 8 Renewed expansion; Part 3 The crisis of a great power 1733–1748; Chapter 9 Diplomatic reverses and military defeats; Chapter 10 Squaring the circle or how to administer and defend a territorial giant; Chapter 11 The War of the Austrian Succession 1740–1748; Part 4 Reform – revenge – aggression; Chapter 12 The modernization of the Habsburg Monarchy in the age of Enlightened Absolutism 1740–1790; Chapter 13 Army and society; Chapter 14 The Seven Years War 1756–1763; Chapter 15 Peacetime expansion in the East 1764–1775; Chapter 16 Streamlining the Habsburg Monarchy; Chapter 17 The Russian maelstrom; Chapter 18 State crisis and recovery; Part 5 The revolutionary challenge 1789–1797; Chapter 19 From ‘military promenade’ to life-and-death struggle 1789–1794; Chapter 20 In search of compensations 1792–1795; Chapter 21 False Hopes 1796–1797 |Prospect;

About the Author

Formerly head of the early modern section at the Research Department of the Army Museum in Vienna (1995-1999), Michael Hochedlinger is now a senior archivist at the Austrian State Archives

Reviews

'This is a valuable book' Michael Sheehan, University of Aberdeen 'stimulating and original book' 'It is a most welcome addition to the rather limited literature available in English on Austrian history.' "British Journal of 18th Century Studies" " 'This is an outstanding book...' '...indispensable not only for historians of the Habsburg Monarchy, but indeed for understanding the process of state formation in early modern Europe.' "Journal of Military History 68.4 (2004) 1240-1241"