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Reviewed by:
  • Austria’s Wars of Emergence: War, State, and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1683–1797
  • Gunther E. Rothenberg
Austria’s Wars of Emergence: War, State, and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1683–1797. By Michael Hochedlinger. New York and London: Longman, 2003. ISBN 0-582-29084-8. Tables. Maps. Bibliographical notes. Index. Pp. xviii, 466. $ 32.00.

This work falls squarely into the "New Military history" genre, which according to the author, Dr. Michael Hochedlinger of the Austrian State Archive, has been neglected, in fact is "practically nonexistent" (p. 2) in Austrian post-1945 historiography. In this outstanding book, the author seeks to reassess the "power-political factor" in the early modern history of the Habsburg monarchy. His time frame ranges from the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 to the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797, from modest beginnings in the second half of the seventeenth century to great power status by the end of the following century. While not neglecting foreign policy, domestic, and economic considerations, Hochedlinger quite properly regards the rise of a standing army and of military and political institutions as the central elements for entering the ranks of the great powers, and in the development of an enlightened absolutist Habsburg government, capable of resisting the challenge from the Ottomans and the Prussians, though eventually failing against the armies of the French Revolution.

Power-politics, of course, were based on a great number of other factors and the author attempts, and largely succeeds, to explain the fundamental course, objectives, and methods, diplomatic, military, institutional, fiscal and dynastic, of the Austrian Monarchy for over a century. Clearly, this rich coverage prevented the book from being based on archival sources, and it is a synthesis of the German and English literature with each section followed by an excellent, on occasion critical, bibliographic essay, which in turn directs scholars into areas that need further research [End Page 1240]

The volume contains twenty-one chapters divided into five major sections of varying length: "Modest Origins: The Habsburg Monarchy during the Second Half of the Seventeenth Century"; "Austria's Age of Heroes, 1683- 1733"; "The Crisis of a Great Power, 1733-48"; "Reform, Revenge, Aggression"; and finally "The Revolutionary Challenge, 1789-1797." Some of the chapters, especially those dealing with the military establishment, are quite detailed. For instance Chapter 4, "The Standing Army," has forty-six pages followed by five pages of bibliography and subjects covered include the origins and the high command, the officer corps, military administration, artillery and technical branches, weaponry, uniforms, quarters and provisions, soldiers' families, military justice, and briefly tactics and strategy. The most important sections are discussed in detail, others are dealt with briefly. The writing is clear and even complex subjects such as the Habsburgs' military standing within the Empire or the evolution and status of the Military Borders and their manpower contributions are clearly explained. Military reform and reorganization is again discussed at some length in chapter 13, "Army and Society." Here, the Monarchy, having survived the Prussian challenge, undertook administrative and military reforms leading to the evolution of a militarized state comparable to Prussia and Russia. If imperfect in comparison to Prussia, Hochedlinger writes, the "difference was one of degree rather than principle" (p. 296). Yet there remained restraints on the military posture of the Habsburg Monarchy, still a collection of lands ruled by separate titles. Relics of late medieval government and privileges remained to contend with the central authority as revealed when the introduction of selective conscription was successfully resisted in Hungary, which attempted to maintain a special military position to the end of the Habsburg Monarchy, but also in the Tyrol, and Anterior Austria.

The "New Military History" generally eschews analyses of strategy, campaigns, and battles though the reviewer would have liked it if the book could have been expanded to include more on this subject, but this is nitpicking. This is an outstanding book. The reviewer greatly enjoyed reading it, learned a lot, and considers it indispensable not only for historians of the Habsburg Monarchy, but indeed for understanding the process of state formation in early modern Europe.

Gunther E. Rothenberg
Australian Defence Force Academy
Canberra, ACT, Australia...

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