Though current Austrian borders were created at the end of World War I, the country has been around in one form or another for over a thousand years. In 976, it was an independent region with its own ruler that grew into the Austrian Empire in the early 1800s.

In 1866 it became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that controlled parts of Italy and Eastern Europe. The Austro-Hungarian Empire fought with Germany during World War I. The Empire collapsed after the defeat in the war and Austria and Hungary were separated. The land controlled by the Empire was used to form the new Eastern European nations.