The late Middle Ages saw some technical innovations which have had a lasting impact; today we cannot imagine life without ...

As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. This is particularly true when there are wars to be ...

In the early modern period trade was conducted at a number of different regional levels. There were local markets, some ...

From the late Middle Ages mining played an important role in the economy of the Habsburg lands, reaching its peak ...

Medicine in the early modern era faced numerous challenges as thousands fell victim to pandemics such as bubonic plague and ...

In the sixteenth century the medieval Church was rent by schism. The Reformation, Counter-Reformation and the emergence of various confessions ...

During the early modern era the House of Habsburg experienced a meteoric rise. Initially the leading role was taken by ...

"W ith classes three God filled the world As best as best can be; One class must teach, another feed, ...

Going on a journey in early modern times was an arduous undertaking as there were very few routes fit for ...

At the beginning of the seventeenth century developments in art were affected by the shortage of funds resulting from the ...

Schönbrunn Palace is presented to the millions of tourists from all over the world who visit it annually as the ...

From Italy a new art form arrived at the Habsburg court: the opera. With grandiose festivities and lavishly staged opera ...

The sixteenth century saw large parts of the nobility becoming Protestant. If the Habsburgs emphasized their own Catholicism, it was ...

The size and power of attraction of the imperial Court, together with the huge expenditure on the Court household, was ...

In the Habsburg Monarchy, as it had been evolving from 1526, the imperial Court developed into the definitive integration platform ...

Oriental chic. The courtly collection for autumn/winter 1743: harem pants, silk and lashings of fur! Courtiers dressed in the latest ...

Theatre booms during the eighteenth century, with a large number of new stages being built as a consequence. In Vienna ...

Maria Theresa, her ladies-in-waiting, her dressmaker and probably even the latter ’ s maidservant all had something in common: their ...

‘Habsburg, single, interested in marriage, seeks ...’ – these might be the opening words of a Habsburg personal advertisement. However, ...

As you make your bed, so you must lie on it: imperial interiors primarily served to provide an appropriately grand ...

It was not really a matter of pure philanthropy when Maria Theresia had some high customs tariffs abolished – more ...

Every age has its ideas about the economy: the Habsburgs liked the mercantilist theories because they promised power and affluence. ...

Workshops (or ‘manufactories’, as they were known) and cottage industry were promoted by Maria Theresa and opposed by craftsmen. In ...