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AUSTRIAN See also:ARMY
78. The See also:Landsknecht See also:infantry constituted the mainstay of the imperial armies in the 16th See also:century. See also:Maximilian I. and See also:Charles V. are recorded to have marched and carried the " See also:long See also:pike " in their ranks. Maximilian also formed a See also:corps of Kyrisser, who were the origin of the See also:modern See also:cuirassiers. It was not, however, until much later that the Austrian army came into existence as a permanent force. See also:Rudolph II. formed a small See also:standing force about 1600, but relied upon the " enlistment " See also:system, like other sovereigns of the See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time, for the bulk of his armies. The See also:Thirty Years' See also:War produced the permanence of service which led in all the states of See also:Europe to the rise of standing armies. In the See also:Empire it was See also:Wallenstein who first raised a distinctly imperial army of soldiers owing no See also:duty but to the See also:sovereign; and it was the suspicion that he intended to use this army, which was raised largely at his own expense, to further his own ends, that led to his assassination. From that time the regiments belonged no longer to their colonels, but to the See also:emperor; and the See also:oldest regiments in the See also:present Austrian army date from the Thirty Years' War, at the See also:close of which See also:Austria had 19 infantry, 6 cuirassier and 1 See also:dragoon regiments. The almost continuous See also:wars of Austria against See also:France and the See also:Turks (from 1495 to 1593 Austrian troops took See also:part in 7000 actions of all sorts) led to a continuous increase in her establishments. The wars of the time of See also:Montecucculi and of See also:Eugene were followed by that of the See also:Polish See also:Succession, the two See also:Turkish wars, and the three See also:great struggles against See also:Frederick the Great. Thus in 1763 the army had been almost continuously on active service for more than too years, in the course of which its organization had been modified in accordance with the lessons of each war. This, in See also:conjunction with the fact that Austria took part in other Turkish See also:campaigns subsequently, rendered this army the most formidable opponent of the forces of the See also:French Revolution (1792). But the See also:superior leading. organization and See also:numbers of the emperor's forces were totally inadequate to the magnitude of the task of suppressing the Revolutionary forces, and though such victories as See also:Neerwinden were sufficient See also:- PROOF (in M. Eng. preove, proeve, preve, &°c., from O. Fr . prueve, proeve, &c., mod. preuve, Late. Lat. proba, probate, to prove, to test the goodness of anything, probus, good)
proof of the efficiency and valour of the Austrians, they made no headway. In later campaigns, in which the enemy had acquired war experience, and the best of their See also:officers had come to the front, the See also:tide turned against the Imperialists even on the See also:- FIELD (a word common to many West German languages, cf. Ger. Feld, Dutch veld, possibly cognate with O.E. f olde, the earth, and ultimately with root of the Gr. irAaror, broad)
- FIELD, CYRUS WEST (1819-1892)
- FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY (18o5-1894)
- FIELD, EUGENE (1850-1895)
- FIELD, FREDERICK (18o1—1885)
- FIELD, HENRY MARTYN (1822-1907)
- FIELD, JOHN (1782—1837)
- FIELD, MARSHALL (183 1906)
- FIELD, NATHAN (1587—1633)
- FIELD, STEPHEN JOHNSON (1816-1899)
- FIELD, WILLIAM VENTRIS FIELD, BARON (1813-1907)
field of See also:battle. The See also:archduke Charles's victories of 1796 were more than counterbalanced by See also:Bonaparte's See also:Italian See also:campaign, and the temporary success of 1i99 ended at See also:Marengo and Hohenlinden.
79. The Austrians, during the See also:short See also:peace which preceded the war of 1805, suffered, in consequence of all this, from a feeling of distrust, not merely in their leaders, but also in the whole system upon which the army was raised, organized and trained. This was substantially the same as that of the Seven Years' War time. Enlistment being voluntary and for long service, the numbers necessary to See also:cope with the output of the French See also:conscription could not be raised, and the inner See also:history of the Austrian headquarters in the See also:Ulm campaign shows that the dissensions and mutual distrust of the See also:general officers had gone far towards the disintegration of an army which at that time had the most esprit de corps and the highest military qualities of any army in Europe. But the disasters of 1805 swept away See also:good and See also:bad alike in the abolition of the old system. Already the archduke Charles had designed a " nation in arms " after the French See also:model, and on this basis the reconstructionwas begun. The conscription was put in force and the necessary numbers thus obtained; the See also:administration was at the same time reformed and the organization and See also:supply services brought into See also:line with modern requirements. The war of 1809 surprised Austria in the midst of her reorganization, yet the new army fought with the greatest spirit. The invasion of See also:Bavaria was by no means so leisurely as it had been in 1805, and the archduke Charles obtained one See also:signal victory over See also:Napoleon in See also:person. Aspern and See also:Wagram were most desperately contested, and though the archduke ceased to take part in the administration after 1809 the See also:work went on steadily until, in 1813, the Austrian armies worthily represented the See also:combination of discipline with the " nation in arms " principle. Their intervention in the War of Liberation was decisive, and Austria, in spite of her territorial losses of the past years, put into the field well-drilled armies far exceeding in numbers those which had appeared in the wars of the Revolution. After the fall of Napoleon, Austria's hold on See also:Italy necessitated the See also:maintenance of a large army of occupation. This army, and in particular its See also:cavalry, was admittedly the best in Europe, and, having to be ready to See also:march at a few days' See also:notice, it was saved from the deadening See also:influence of undisturbed peace which affected every other service in Europe from 1815 to 1850.
80. The Austrian system has conserved much of the See also:peculiar See also:tone of the army of 1848, of which See also:English readers may obtain a good See also:idea from See also:George See also:Meredith's See also:Vittoria. It was, however, a natural result of this that the army lost to some considerable extent the spirit of the " nation in arms " of 1809 and 1813. It was employed in dynastic wars, and the conscription was of course modified by substitution; thus, when the war of 1859 resulted unfavourably to the Austrians, the army began to lose confidence, precisely as had been the See also:case in 1805. Once more, in 1866, an army animated by the purely professional spirit, which was itself weakened by distrust, met a " nation in arms," and in this case a nation well trained in peace and armed with a breechloader. Bad See also:staff work, and See also:tactics which can only be described as those of pique, precipitated the disaster, and in seven See also:weeks the victorious Prussians were almost at the See also:gates of See also:Vienna.
The result of the war, and of the constitutional changes about this time, was the re-See also:adoption of the principles of 1806-1813, the abolition of conscription and long service in favour of universal service for a short See also:term, and a thorough reform in the methods of command and staff work. It has been said of the Prussian army that " discipline is—the officers." This is more true of the " K.K." army' than of any other in Europe; the great See also:bond of See also:union between the heterogeneous levies of recruits of many races is the spirit of the corps of officers, which retains the See also:personal and professional characteristics of the old army of Italy.
End of Article: AUSTRIAN
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