Austria was originally occupied by the Celts and then the Romans, but it was conquered by the Barbarians after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Vandals, Goths, Huns, and Alemans swept into this mountainous region from the east in a series of fierce invasions after the 3rd century. In the 9th century, the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne named Austria the Ostmark, which meant eastern border region, in order to stem the tide of the determined Hungarian and Slavic armies who wanted to annex Austrian territories into their own empires. In 955, Otto I the Great decisively defeated the Hungarian invasions and Austria, a word meaning Kingdom of the East, became a Bavarian protectorate.

Austria was ruled by the Babenberger dynasty until 1278, when the House of Hapsburg rose to power and began a vast program of territorial expansion. Through politically advantageous marriages with various influential houses, the Hapsburgs acquired Tyrol, the Krain region, Styria, Trieste, and the Alemanian Voralberg. They also gained the Netherlands from the dukes of Burgundy in 1482, married into the Spanish royal family, and then split into the Austrian and Spanish lines of descent. Charles V left his Austrian territories to his brother Ferdinand I, who acquired Hungary and Bohemia in 1526.

After the Spanish and Austrian lines of the Hapsburg dynasty died out in 1700 and 1740, respectively, Maria Theresa became the only woman to be Empress on a German throne. Ruling a twin monarchy, Maria Teresa became the Hungarian monarch, and the Hapsburgs became the royal family of Hungary. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was extremely powerful throughout the 19th century and until it was dissolved after the First World War.