Remarkable part of Austria’s prominence may be attributed to its geographic role. It is on the centre of European traffic between east and west along the first rate Danubian trade direction and between north and south thru the remarkable Alpine passes, for that reason embedding the u . S . A . Inside a ramification of political and financial structures. In the decades following the fall apart in 1918 of Austria-Hungary, the multinational empire of which it had been the coronary heart, this small u . S . A . Experienced more than a quarter century of social and monetary turbulence and a Nazi dictatorship. Yet the established order of everlasting neutrality in 1955, associated with the withdrawal of the Allied troops that had occupied the usa because the stop of World War II, enabled Austria to grow to be a strong and socially modern nation with a flourishing cultural life reminiscent of its in advance days of international musical glory. Its social and monetary establishments too have been characterized by way of new paperwork and a spirit of cooperation, and, despite the fact that political and social troubles stay, they have not erupted with the depth evidenced in other international locations of the Continent. The capital of Austria is historical Vienna (Wien), the previous seat of the Holy Roman Empire and a metropolis renowned for its architecture.
Land
Austria is bordered to the north by the Czech Republic, to the northeast by way of Slovakia, to the east via Hungary, to the south by means of Slovenia, to the southwest by Italy, to the west through Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and to the northwest by Germany. It extends kind of 360 miles (580 km) from east to west.
Relief
Mountains and forests deliver the Austrian panorama its individual, despite the fact that within the northeastern part of the country the Danube River winds among the jap edge of the Alps and the hills of Bohemia and Moravia in its adventure towards the Alföld, or Hungarian Plain. Vienna lies in the area wherein the Danube emerges from between the mountains into the drier plains.
The Austrian Alps shape the bodily backbone of the u . S .. They can be subdivided into a northern and a southern limestone range, every of which consists of rugged mountains. These two stages are separated through a central range that is softer in shape and description and composed of crystalline rocks. The Alpine panorama offers a complicated geologic and topographical sample, with the best elevation—the Grossglockner (12,460 feet [3,798 metres])—growing in the direction of the west. The western Austrian Länder (states) of Vorarlberg, Tirol, and Salzburg are characterised by using the majestic mountains and mind-blowing surroundings of the excessive Alps. This high Alpine person also extends to the western part of the state of Kärnten (Carinthia), to the Salzkammergut region of primary Austria, and to the Alpine blocks of the country of Steiermark (Styria).
North of the large Alpine spur lies a hilly subalpine location, stretching between the northern Alps and the Danube and encompassing the northern part of the state of Oberösterreich (Upper Austria). To the north of the river is a richly wooded foothill place that includes a portion of the Bohemian Massif, which extends across the Czech border into the nation of Niederösterreich (Lower Austria). This a part of Austria is furrowed by using many valleys that for centuries served as passageways main to the east and southeast of Europe and even—in the case of medieval pilgrims and Crusaders—to the Holy Land. The lowland vicinity east of Vienna, together with the northern a part of the state of Burgenland, can be regarded as a western extension of the Little Alföld (Little Hungarian Plain).
Drainage
Austria is a land of lakes, many of them a legacy of the Pleistocene Epoch (i.E., approximately 2,600,000 to about eleven,seven hundred years ago), for the duration of which glacial erosion scooped out mountain lakes within the primary Alpine district, considerably across the Salzkammergut. The biggest lakes—mendacity partially inside the territory of neighbouring nations—are Lake Constance (Bodensee) inside the west and the marshy Neusiedler Lake (Neusiedlersee) in the east.
Nearly all Austrian territory drains into the Danube River machine. The predominant watershed between the Black Sea and the North Sea runs across northern Austria, in some locations lying most effective approximately 22 miles (35 km) from the Danube, even as to the west the watershed among the Danube and the river systems emptying into the Atlantic and the Mediterranean coincides with the western political boundary of Austria. In the south the Julian and Carnic (Karnische) Alps and, farther to the west, the main Alpine variety mark the watershed of the place draining into the Po River of northern Italy.
Climate
The wooded slopes of the Alps and the small portion of the plains of southeastern Europe are characterised with the aid of differing climatic zones. The triumphing wind is from the west, and, therefore, humidity is maximum in the west, diminishing towards the east. The wetter western areas of Austria have an Atlantic weather with a yearly rainfall of approximately forty inches (1,000 mm); the drier eastern areas, below the affect of the greater continental form of climate, have much less precipitation.
In the lowlands and the hilly jap regions, the median temperature degrees from about 30 °F (−1 °C) in January to approximately sixty eight °F (20 °C) in July. In those regions above 10,000 feet (3,000 metres), through comparison, the temperature variety is between approximately 12 °F (−11 °C) in January, with a snow cowl of approximately 10 feet (3 metres), and approximately 36 °F (2 °C) in July, with kind of 5 feet (1.Five metres) of snow cowl.
Plant and animal life
Two-thirds of the total vicinity of Austria is covered by woods and meadows. Forests occupy some -fifths of the usa, that's one of the most densely forested in relevant Europe. Spruce dominates the forests, with larch, beech, and very wellalso making a tremendous contribution. In the Alpine and foothill regions coniferous trees predominate, at the same time as extensive-leaved deciduous bushes are more frequent inside the hotter zones.
Wild animals, many covered with the aid of conservation legal guidelines, encompass the brown undergo, eagles, buzzards, falcons, owls, cranes, swans, and storks. Game hunting is constrained to positive durations of the yr, with deer and rabbits the maximum common quarry. Austrian rivers nurture river and rainbow trout, grayling, pike, perch, and carp.
People
Ethnic groups
Ethnic Austrians represent the large majority of the populace. Small but sizeable corporations of German-talking Swiss and ethnic Germans also are living within the united states of america. Serbs, Bosniaks (Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina; residing specially in the large towns), Turks (dwelling in the main in Vienna), Hungarians and Croats (residing mainly in Burgenland), and Slovenes (dwelling specially in Kärnten) represent the foremost ethnic minorities.
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