Page "History of Austria" Paragraph 2

In the tenth century an eastern outpost of the Duchy of Bavaria, east of the River Enns and bordering Hungary, was established as the Marchia orientalis ( March of the East ) in 976, and ruled by the Margraves of Babenberg.

This ' Eastern March ' ( borderland ), in German was known as Ostarrîchi or ' Eastern Realm ', hence ' Austria '.

The first mention of Ostarrîchi occurs in a document of that name dated 996 CE.

From 1156 the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa created an independent duchy ( Privilegium Minus ) under the House of Babenberg until its extinction, corresponding to modern Lower Austria.

With the loss of the Babenbergs Austria continued within the Holy Roman Empire becoming progressively distinct from neighbouring Bavaria under the Hapsburg Dynasty to the dissolution of the empire in 1806 in the Napoleonic Wars.

Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Austria, which had emerged as the Austrian Empire became part of the German Confederation till the Austro-Prussian war of 1866, and then the Austro-Hungarian Empire which collapsed at the end of World War I. Austria was briefly independent ( First Republic ) till annexation by the German Third Reich, partitioned after the Second World War and then became the independent sovereign state ( Second Republic ) that has existed to the present day.