During the
reign of Charles the Great, Austria was excluded from the Bavarian
duchy. In the 13th century it fell under Habsburg rule. During the 16th
to 18th centuries, a number of populated regions were united. The
process was accompanied by a series of wars. Later several smaller
countries like Bohemia, Hungary, Styria and Kraina joined the state. A
new multilingual and multicultural state emerged, inhabited by Slavonic
and Germanic peoples. Austria took an active part in the Thirty Years'
War. 1741 was the year War of the Austrian Succession. Austria's
frontiers were with Spain, France and Sweden. Its allies were England
and the Netherlands; later Russia also joined the alliance. Countries
argued about parts of Austrian territory. Following the death of the
emperor Charles and due to the absence of an heir apparent, the throne
was gained by the emperor's daughter Theresia. As a result of the events
that followed, Austria lost a major part of Silesia and part of its
Italian territory.
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