Further Austria

Further Austria (in German: Vorderösterreich or die Vorlande) was the collective name for the old possessions of the Habsburgs in south-western Germany (Swabia), the Alsace, and in Vorarlberg after the focus of the Habsburgs had moved to Austria.

Further Austria was comprised of the Sundgau (southern Alsace) and the Breisgau east of the Rhine (including Freiburg im Breisgau after 1386) and included some scattered territories throughout Swabia, the larget being the margravate Burgau in the area of Augsburg and Ulm. Some territories in Vorarlberg that belonged to the Habsburgs were also considered part of Further Austria. The original homelands of the Habsburgs, the Aargau and much of the other original Habsburg possessions south of the Rhine and Lake Constance were lost in the 14th century to the expanding Old Swiss Confederacy after the battles of Morgarten (1315) and Sempach (1386) and were never considered part of Further Austria, except the Fricktal , which remained a Habsburg property until 1797.

At the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the Sundgau became part of France, and in the 18th century, the Habsburgs acquired a few minor new territories in southern Germany such as Tettnang. In the Peace of Pressburg of 1805, Further Austria was dissolved and the formerly Habsburg territories were assigned to Bavaria, Baden, and Württemberg. The Fricktal had become a part of Switzerland in 1802.

Politically, Further Austria was ruled by the Duke of Austria until 1379. Since then, the regent of Further Austria was the Duke of Tyrol.