In the troubled times following the Babenbergs’ dynasty, when Austria was also under the Czech king Otakar the Second, the Habsburgs came into power, reigning for 640 years. The German Hapsburgs began to add more territories to the Duchy of Austria (Habsburg-Austrian hereditary lands), including many new provinces, such as Carinthia, Carinola and Tyrol. Afterwards, there were many highs and lows in Austrian history. During the rule of Rudolf IV, his sons Albert III and Leopold III divided between themselves the duchy with the Treaty of Neuberg in the second half of the 14th Century. Albert took what is known today as Austria and Leopold took the then-added territories. In the following generations, further splits took place, dividing the territory into smaller realms. Some of the lines of the monarchic family went extinct.

With marital mergers and losses by splitting, the Hapsburg’s hereditary lands became an enormous empire. The Hapsburg’s part in the 1593–1606 Thirteen Years’ War (Long War, Ottoman wars) stopped the expansion of the Turks to the mainland of Europe. When the Reformation came, Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and the other hereditary lands were affected. Lutheranism was tolerated, as whole provinces were converted. However, the Hapsburg kings remained Catholic. The Archduke Ferdinand, the ruler of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, who was also educated by Jesuits, began to oppress heresy in his provinces. Ferdinand II sought to re-Catholicise all the hereditary lands, but Hungary never completely converted.

The most significant battles in the war with the Turks took place in the reign of Leopold II during the second half of the 17th and beginning of the 18th Centuries, one of the longest reigns of a monarch. The empire was expanding to what is today Belgium, as well to the duchy of Milan, Naples, Sardinia, and later to Sicily. The reign of Charles VI relinquished some territories and expanded the Austrian monarchy, but it also led to unsuccessful wars which led to Austria losing not only Belgrade but also important border territories. Charles married Elisabeth, the oldest daughter of Louis Rudolph, the duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. When Charles died, his only surviving children were his daughters Maria Theresa and Maria Anna. The War of the Austrian Succession then followed, which involved almost all of Europe’s powers, mainly because the law prohibited Maria Theresa to succeed to the Habsburg throne, which required inheritance by a man. However, the 1713 Pragmatic Sanction ensured Maria Theresa’s succession as Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Archduchess of Austria. Charles VII was elected Holy Roman Emperor, but later Maria’s husband Francis I of Lorraine (Grand Duke of Tuscany) was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor, which continued the Habsburg reign.

The breaking of peace came in the First Silesian War (1740–1742) by King Frederick of Prussia, who attacked Silesia. Many others also began to exploit the weakness of the country, but Francis I managed to restore peace. Following the war, the Austrians were fatigued in the midst of a crisis in Europe, with many forces claiming different territories. However, relations between Austria and Russia began to improve. Joseph II and Leopold II were brothers but both had unsuccessful reigns (1780–1792) after the death of their mother Maria Theresa. Leopold, brother to the French queen Maria Antoinette, experienced the French Revolution and befriended Prussia and Poland to stop the Turks. He was survived by 16 children, of which the oldest of his eight sons was Emperor Francis II. Upon Leopold’s death, the French wasted no time in declaring war on the young emperor.