ABSTRACT
During the sixteenth century, Danubian Europe was shaken by far worse upheavals than Western Europe. The era of independent states came to an end, the Austrian monarchy was formed and the region fell into two zones of influence divided between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman empire; the Turkish occupation of Hungary turned Central Europe from being the very heart of Europe into a frontier region. The Reformation affected the region no less than the rest of Latin Christendom and violent social conflict erupted as the agrarian economy was transformed and the so-called 'second serfdom' emerged. Despite this difficult combination of circumstances, for the Habsburgs the era marked the realization of the dream they had nurtured since the thirteenth century — an Austro-Bohemian monarchy stretching from Saxony to the Adriatic and the acquisition of Hungary. The year 1527 marked the final establishment of what is known as the Habsburg empire based around the central nucleus which at the present time constitutes Austria.
