History of Carinthia, Austria

Today’s Carinthia was part of the 15 BC in Roman times. BC Noricum province conquered by the Romans. It remained connected to Westrom and his successors. At the beginning of the 7th century, the Slavic Carantans invaded Carinthia and settled the country. Their empire came under the sovereignty of the Bavarian dukes in the second half of the 8th century.

With the Christianization (from Salzburg) a German settlement began in the middle of the 9th century. In 976 Emperor Otto II separated.

According to homosociety, Carinthia is an independent duchy of Bavaria. In 1070 Carinthia received hereditary dukes in the Eppensteiners and 1122–1279 in the Rhineland-Franconian Sponheimers. In 1286 Carinthia came to the Counts of Tyrol and in 1335 to the Habsburgs. From the 11th century, various areas of Carantania outside the heartland began to be resolved; Carinthia was reduced to the borders that were valid until 1919. In the late Middle Ages and early modern times (1564–1619) Carinthia was part of Inner Austria. The convenient location of Carinthia in the late Middle Ages allowed the power of the cities, as well as that of the clerical and secular landlords, to grow to such an extent that it was not until 1747 that a sovereign central authority was established. Despite the Turkish invasions v. a. Trade with Italy and the Adriatic region developed in the 15th century and, along with mining, formed the basis of economic development. The power of the estates that had become Protestant in the 16th century was broken by the Counter Reformation and enlightened absolutism. From 1809–14 the Villach district belonged to the French Illyrian provinces, after which Carinthia was part of the Austrian kingdom of Illyria from 1816–49; From 1849 to 1918 it was an independent crown land.

Carinthia: administrative structure

After the collapse of the Danube Monarchy (1918), the newly established “Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes” (later Yugoslavia) claimed southern Carinthia. From January to May 1919 there was heavy fighting between Carinthian volunteer associations and Yugoslav troops (“Carinthian defensive battle”). The peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (September 10, 1919) established a referendum on the nationality of the disputed area and divided it into two zones. After the population of the southern zone, with a large proportion of Slovenes, decided to remain with Austria on October 10, 1920 with 59%, the vote in the northern zone (with a small Slovenian population) did not take place. Without a vote, the Miestal came to what would later become Yugoslavia, the Canal Valley to Italy. Yugoslavia’s claims, renewed in 1945, were rejected by the victorious powers of World War II in 1949. In 1972 the Local sign dispute about new tensions between Austria and Yugoslavia over the Slovenian minority in Carinthia, although the protection of minorities was anchored in the Austrian State Treaty in 1955. In addition to Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto, Styria and Upper Austria as well as Croatia and Slovenia, Carinthia co-founded the Arge Alpen-Adria in 1978. In 2001 the street sign dispute broke out again. Not all points of the protection of minorities established in 1955 have still been implemented.

After the Second World War, the SPÖ became the strongest political force in Carinthia and remained so until 1999; until 1989 she also provided the governor without interruption, among others. 1947–65 Ferdinand Wedenig (* 1896, † 1975), 1965–74 Hans Sima (* 1918, † 2006) and 1974–88 Leopold Wagner (* 1927, † 2008). For the first time in 1999 the FPÖ became the strongest party and J. Haider took over the highest government office after a first term in office from 1989-91.

In the meantime (1991-99) the smallest party (ÖVP) with Christof Zernatto (* 1949) had provided the governor. In March 2004 Haider was impressively confirmed in his office. In 1999–2004, the state government was formed from three representatives each from the FPÖ and SPÖ and one representative from the ÖVP. After the split of the Federal FPÖ in April 2005, the majority of the FPÖ regional association, which was turned towards the newly founded Alliance Future Austria(BZÖ), was constituted under the name »Die Freiheitlichen in Kärnten«. On February 28, 2006, the SPÖ left the government coalition in Carinthia. J. Haider came on October 11, 2008killed in a traffic accident; Gerhard Dörfler (* 1955; BZÖ) was elected as his successor as governor on October 23, 2008. In the state elections on March 1, 2009, the BZÖ emerged as the big winner under Dörfler with around 45.5% of the vote. The SPÖ achieved around 28.6%, the ÖVP 16.5%. As a result of internal party conflicts, significant parts of the BZÖ Carinthia split off from the federal party in December 2009, including the governor and the members of the provincial government under the name “The Freedom in Carinthia – Freedom Party of Carinthia (FPK)”. The FPK dissolved in June 2013 and has been part of the FPÖ again since then.

After the 2013 elections, Peter Kaiser (* 1958; SPÖ) became the new governor. The government was formed by the SPÖ, ÖVP and the Greens. In the state elections on March 4th, 2018, the SPÖ narrowly missed an absolute majority of the mandates and agreed with the ÖVP on a coalition government under Governor Kaiser.