Separation and Symbiosis: The Habsburg Monarchy and the Empire in the Seventeenth Century

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the seventeenth century, because in this century the Habsburg Monarchy underwent a process of growing integration inside and of separation vis-a-vis the Empire 'outside'. The Monarchia Austriaca was consolidated as a territorial state and separated from the Empire in fields of high importance within the state building process, such as the development of central (court) authorities independently from the authorities of the Empire to manage warfare, finances, and the postal system. The 'modern' fiscal-military state on the soil of the Holy Roman Empire came into being at the level of the territories, not at that of the Empire. In the long run the political future belonged to the major territorial states such as Brandenburg-Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and, not least, the Habsburg Monarchy, and not to the 'pre-modern' and 'pre-state' political system of the Empire. Keywords:Habsburg monarchy; Holy Roman Empire; Monarchia Austriaca ; political system; Separation; Seventeenth Century