How did Austria, and the Habsburgs, come into power?

>>3000735
They were an early land owning nobles family somewhere along the line Austria separated from the kingdom of Bavaria and eventually rose to dominance within the HRE always winning the elections for emperor alongside Bohemia and Brandenburg. Then they intermarried with the Spanish royal family and shoahd the Turks and got Eastern European lands.

>>3000735
Marriages for land and bribes to grease the wheels of the electors

>>3000735
Switzerland dodged the Habsburg bullet and it hit Austria instead.

File: upperandloweraustria_map.jpg (53KB, 420x218px) Image search: [Google]

53KB, 420x218px

>>3000735
Also, keep in mind that initially "Austria"(Österreich=eastern realm) only referred to the region on the banks of the Danube that included Vienna and Linz.

Tyrol, Styria, Karinthia were separate domains under Habsburg rule.
Only in the 19th century were these fully amalgamated into "Austria".