ABSTRACT
As Spain went into decline as an imperial power during the early seventeenth century, Austria became in Braudel's words the 'foremost rampart of Christendom'. The origins of this state, which from then on until the early twentieth century was to play so crucial a role in the affairs of Europe, lay in the eastern marchlands of the Holy Roman Empire. The historic core of the Austrian state is in the hills and mountains which lie between the upper and middle basins. The largest single non-German section of the population was Slav, and the Slav peoples felt their own strong sense of nationality, based on language, history and culture. It proved impossible for nationalism of this sort to coexist with the dynastic, multi-national and German-dominated structures of the Austrian Empire. During the second half of the seventeenth century, France moved into the role of leading power in the western part of Europe.
