Austria-- Hungry for some Hungary!

In the 17th century, Austria and Prussia began to rise to prominence in Eastern Europe. Taylor already established the key differences between Western and Eastern Europe; yet, there were important variations on the absolutist theme in the East as well. The royal absolutism created in Prussia was stronger and more effective than that established in Austria. Why is this?.. you may ask. The Austrian empire experienced many additional problems that the Prussians did not have to deal with. These internal and external pressures placed on the Austrians gave Prussia an advantage in the struggle for power in east-central Europe. Although my main focus will be on the problematic factors in Austria, I must answer one lingering question....What is Prussia?! Before our class today, I'm not going to lie I had no idea what Prussia was (no shame). Hopefully some of you will admit that you were as unsure about Prussia as I was to save me from some embarrassment. 

According to my handy dandy Google friend:

Maybe this map will also help a little..

Now back to the problems in Austria.. 

After the defeat in central Europe due to the Thirty Years' War, the Habsburgs were forced to turn inward and eastward in an attempt to fuse their lands into a strong, unified state. Popular belief at this time was that different religions could not coexist within a certain territory, nor could they help in unifying the holding. Therefore, the Catholic Habsburgs had to "Czech" the power of the Bohemian nobility, that of which was largely Protestant. In the 1620 Battle of the White Mountain, victorious Habsburg king Ferdinand II drastically reduced the power of the Bohemians by installing many Catholic nobles into power. With the help of this new nobility, the Habsburgs established strong direct rule over reconquered Bohemia. 

In addition to Bohemia, the Ottoman Turks and Hungary also posed as significant problems for Austria. Followers of Islam, the Turks were old and determined enemies of the Catholic Habsburgs. Hungary had long been divided and fought over by both parties. During the last attack on the Habsburgs by the Turks at Vienna, the Habsburgs conquered almost all of Hungary and Transylvania.

Like the Bohemian nobility, the Hungarian nobility also resisted Habsburg rule because many of them were Protestant. Previously, the Ottomans preached and practiced religious tolerance; therefore, the Protestantism was accepted. The Hungarian nobility resented the fact that the victorious Habsburgs intended to re-Catholicize everyone. They never triumphed decisively, but neither were they ever crushed, as the Czech nobility had been in 1620. Charles VI restored many of the traditional privileges of the Hungarian aristocracy in return for Hungarian acceptance of hereditary Habsburg rule. Charles VI's appeasement of the Hungarians was not very absolutist if I do say so myself. 

The biggest problem for the Habsburgs in Austria, however, was "subject nationalities." They were not able to obtain an effective absolutist rule over their subjects because their lands were divided between the old "hereditary provinces" of Austria, the kingdom of Bohemia, and the kingdom of Hungary. Their common link was the one and only common monarch. They were not really in control of their subjects because of their divided attentions and distractions. For these reasons, Austria did not emerge as strong of an absolutist state as upcoming Prussia.